Hypnotic

Samir LanGus plays music with a rich history and vibrant present.

The sounds of LanGus’ music, called Gnawa, will be part of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival’s World Music Celebration on Thursday, April 18, at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

Gnawa is a hundreds-of-years-old tradition that came to Morocco with enslaved p eople who were brought there from West and North Africa to be taken to Europe and America, LanGus explained during a recent interview from his home in New York City.

The cultures that came together to build what became Gnawa form the roots of other music more familiar to audiences in the U.S.

“Blues are a descendant of Gnawa,” LanGus said. “People don’t know that the origin of all the American music is the blues.”

Gnawa, as it’s practiced in Morocco, is more than a form of entertainment: It’s medicine.

The music works out “bad energy” from the souls of people who need healing in ceremonies called lilas, LanGus said, employing harmonies, the beat of drums and singing to move the patient into a trance. The person might cry, jump, move their head or shake their body as the moqadma, a priestess who organizes the lila, guides the master, who conducts the ritual ceremony.

“He has to heal that person and do a surgery, but it’s not a physical surgery,” LanGus said. “That’s our psychiatry.”

The practice is studied by shadowing traditional Moroccan musicians from one community to another, LanGus said. There is no school that teaches it, and the sounds vary by region: What’s practiced in Casablanca is different from what would be heard in Marrakesh.

“It takes like a long time to study to become a master, a Gnawa teacher, a maestro,” he said.

He studies with a teacher in Morocco, Maalem Hamid El Kasri.

“There are some crazy techniques that you have to get, and that comes from time and practice,” he said. “I’m still learning from him.”

LanGus will join other world music artists during next Thursday’s concert, including Jovino Santos Neto, a pianist, flutist and composer from Rio de Janeiro. Combining Gnawa with other styles of music, LanGus said, isn’t new.

He recently played with Miamibloco, a samba percussion collective in South Florida, creating a blend of Moroccan and Brazilian sound he dubbed “Morocco bloco” — “and it was beautiful.”

“Brazilian, African — it’s all connected,” he said.

It’s important to learn the music’s history, its origins, LanGus said, and it’s also necessary to be “humble and not hard-headed or extremist” about its future.

“No one owns the music,” he said. “It’s a traditional music, so anyone can go and just play with it. To blend it and mix it is not going to kill it — it’s going to bring it back to life.”

He said he’s looking forward to more experimenting and melding  of sounds and cultures during the World Music Celebration in Moscow next week.

The audience should come prepared for a transcendent experience, he said, ready to “cry and smile and laugh and be transported to North Africa.”

“Just come with a clean heart and be willing to receive and be open, because it’s a really spiritual music,” he said. “We’re going to do it in a fusion way, but still — it touches the heart. I’m sure it’s going to be a beautiful thing.”

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.

Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival concert schedule

Tickets for all concerts are at uitickets.com.

Hamp’s Gala, free (see website for tickets).

7 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, Administration Auditorium, 851 Campus Drive.

With Lionel Hampton School of Music student ensembles.

World Music Celebration, $25-$60.

7 p.m. Thursday, April 18, Idaho Central Credit Union Arena, 900 Stadium Drive.

With Jovino Santos Neto, Brazilian pianist and composer; Samir LanGus, Moroccan gimbri player and singer; UI Jazz Band I; UI Jazz Choir I; World Music Ensemble.

Veronica Swift, $25-$60.

7 p.m. Friday, April 19, ICCU Arena.

With UI Chamber Jazz Choir, UI Jazz Band I and Hamp’s Jazz Ambassadors.

Lionel Hampton’s 116th Birthday Celebration, $25-$60.

7 p.m. Saturday, April 20, ICCU Arena.

With Kenny Garrett and Sounds From The Ancestors; Lionel Hampton Big Band, featuring Joe Doubleday; and Hamp’s Jazz Ambassadors.