Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou

The Jam Jar are proud to present a very special night of Moroccan Gnawa music.

Asmaa Hamzaoui is the foremost female ambassador of Gnawa and with her group Bnat Timbouktou, she delivers a contagious brand of evangelistic desert blues.

The Jam Jar Presents
Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou
+ more
Saturday 18th May
7pm-10pm
At The Jam Jar, Bristol

For more info, links and tickets, head to the Jam Jar Website: thejamjarbristol.com

Asmâa Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou (the daughters of Timbuktu) represent a new generation of young women Gnawa performers, breaking new ground in a traditionally patriarchal realm.

Asmâa Hamzaoui assimilated the Gnawa musical tradition from a young age through her father, renowned musician Rachid Hamzaoui, learning to play the guembri (three-string lute) from an early age and later accompanying him at celebrations. She formed Bnat Timbuktu in 2012, gradually winning over audiences, until their breakthrough invitation to the Gnaoua Festival of Essaouira in 2017.

Their taboo-busting performance, and jamming with Fatoumata Diawara, won them invitations to major festivals in Europe and the USA, even without a recording to their name. Asmâa still comes up against opposition from some Gnawa traditionalists but as she says: “They can talk, but here I am working and they’re just talking.”

In 2019 Asmaa released her first album Oulad Lghaba, together with Ajabu! Records. This release focuses on the part of the Gnawa tradition about spirituality. The music is about the spirit world, about life in Africa, about how we should live in harmony with nature and also about the consequences we face if we abuse nature.

This amazing group of female musicians can really deliver their contagious brand of evangelistic desert blues, sung in their native Gnawan language. They break new ground not only when it comes to music, but also with regard to how they speak up for equal rights and for the preservation of traditions and spiritual practices in modern-day Morocco and throughout the world.