Ma’alem Hassan Ben Jaafer

Born in Fez in 1962, Ma’alem Hassan Ben Jaafer was immersed in Gnawa music and culture from a young age. As the spiritual elder of the ensemble, he plays the three-stringed African bass, also known as a guembri.

The title ‘Ma’alem,’ meaning ‘master,’ denotes Ben Jaafer’s ancestral heritage of the musical tradition, which was passed down generationally within his family. Along with mastering the music, a true Ma’alem needs to master every facet of the tradition — that includes crafting a guembri from scratch, hammering karkabas from raw metal, sewing costumes, and learning regional repertoires, including the Moroccan-Jewish repertoire in dialects including Arabic and Bambara.

After settling into a bustling Moroccan community in Brooklyn in the late 1990s, Ben Jaafer balanced several jobs all while performing in clubs and restaurants, including his friend’s zawiya, a club for Gnawa musicians. He quickly garnered the attention of young Moroccan ex-pats Samir Langus, Amino Belyamani, Ahmed Jeriouda, Nawfal Atiq, Said Bourhana, and David Lizmi, who joined Ben Jaafer and formed Innov Gnawa. Other musicians include Brahim Fribgane, Ahmed Ait Lafqih, Karim Ababou, Abderrahim Hakmoun, Mohamed Tibizi, Abderrahim Chalah, and Fehd Benchemsi.