Innov Gnawa

Innov Gnawa is a contemporary Moroccan Gnawa band from New York. The group was founded in 2014 by Gnawa master Mâallem Hassan Ben Jaâfer. This Grammy-nominated band is an American folk music favourite, with performances across the country from New York’s Lincoln Center to the jazz mecca of New Orleans. They were invited to the Bang on a Can festival but also shared the stage with jazz heroes such as Vijay Iyver and the hip hoppers of The Roots.

The group creates its own, typically New York version of Gnawa, drawing on the city’s melting pot of various ethnic communities. This has resulted in adding African and Latin percussion to the basic Gnawa form. 

They have collaborated with a wide variety of artists, but most famously with the triphop artist Bonobo, which won them a Grammy nomination.