JAWAD & THE COYOS

On stage as well as in the street (in street band formation), Jawad & The Coyos bring a magnetic presence, carried by the soul of Gnawa tradition. Between rhythmic power, ancestral trance, and a therapeutic dimension, their music brings heritage and contemporary creation into dialogue, offering audiences an experience that is both spiritual and sensory. The group is led by Maâlem Jaouad El Garouge, originally from Essaouira, Morocco, and now based in France.

Maâlem, meaning Gnawa master, Jaouad El Garouge offers hypnotic music with his Coyos (dancers and backing singers). The master and his musicians deploy powerful chants in Ghaous (a patchwork of several West African languages) as well as in Arabic, carried by the guembri — a three-stringed lute-drum derived from the West African n’goni, the true backbone of the rhythm — the qraqeb (steel castanets), the tbel (large double-headed drum), and an electric guitar that opens the ensemble to new sonic colors. To this musical power is added dance, inseparable from Gnawa tradition. It accompanies the rhythms and chants, extends the trance, and fully participates in the ritual, spiritual, and spectacular dimension of each performance.

The group thus keeps alive with elegance a Gnawa culture rooted in Morocco since at least the 16th century, directly linked to the syncretic rituals of the descendants of populations deported and enslaved in North Africa. This tradition blends Sahelian animist rituals with Sufi references. The songs evoke the Mlouks (spirits), nature, religious invocations, but also the memory of slavery. As with American blues, one finds here the pentatonic scale and minor chords, essential ingredients of this ancestral music’s evocative power.

JAOUAD EL GAROUGE

Coming from a family of Gnawa musicians, Jaouad has carried this heritage within him since childhood. At a very young age he learned to sing, dance, and play several traditional instruments. His career truly took off at the first edition of the Gnaoua Festival in Essaouira, in 1997. Based in France since 1999, he has built a singular artistic identity, nourished as much by Gnawa tradition as by encounters with other musical worlds.

Over the years, he has co-founded several groups and multiplied his collaborations. First with Gnawa Experience, a traditional Gnawa formation with which he toured extensively. Among his most notable partnerships is the one with Senegalese musician Nuru Kane. Together, over the course of three projects, they blended Gnawa with mbalax, reggae, and funk. Their album Sigil (2002) was nominated for the BBC Awards.

In this same spirit of a tradition in motion, Jaouad founded Global Gnawa with Thierry Fournel and Mehdi Chaïb. The trio developed a sound where Gnawa is tinged with ethio-jazz and afrobeat. His other group, Kafila, explores the dialogue between Gnawa and jazz, an approach acclaimed notably at the Jazz à Vienne festival in 2008.

A sought-after artist, Jaouad also lends his charismatic voice and guembri playing to numerous projects. He can be heard alongside Salif Keïta on several tracks of Talé (2012), then on Acid Arab’s remarkable Musique de France (2016), notably on the track « Tamuzica. » True to his taste for hybrid forms, he is the lead singer of the group Al-Qasar on the EP Mirage (2020) and the album Who Are We (2022), where his soulful voice gives full depth to a fusion of psychedelic rock and North African music.

Always eager to explore new territory, Jaouad also composed the soundtrack for the film Les Tribulations d’une caissière (2012) with composer Emmanuel Rambaldi. His path has taken him well beyond traditional music: he has appeared in the world of circus arts with Jane Allan’s Trans Trapeze, presented notably at the Vieilles Charrues festival, as well as in the world of slam poetry with René Simo’s Lokkutara project. An artist in constant motion, who has never stopped enriching his musical language through encounters and experiences.

Group based in France.