Album Notes

Abdenbi El Fakir, alias El Meknassi Abdenbi Maalem was born in 1960 in Méknès (Morocco). Son of the deceased Maalem Laarbi, noble Gnawa from the 40's to the 60's, he is now married with three children.

Abdenbi grows up in an typically Gnawa social and family environment (grandmother, mother and father). He witnessed those rituals since his youth to his initiations with different Maalems (Maalem Boukhris, Maalem Mly Omar Maalem Kacem, Maalem
Zenfar ...).

Several reports on the Maalem Abdenbi El Meknassi beamed to RTM (Moroccan TV channel in 1998 / 2006) and FRANCE 24 (French Television in 2008).


He performed in Morocco and elsewhere at numerous concerts and festivals (Gnawa Festival and world music of Essaouira, "festival des Nuits Métis d'Auxerre"...). Maalem was a pioneer in teaching Gnawa art at Al Akhawyne's college in Ifrane in Morocco (2004/2005). He has received most of the musicians and apprentices wishing study the cultural and musical Gnawa's tradition.

In 2009, following a fruitful meeting, the album SWAKN sees the light of day, recorded in Méknès and mixed in the Mystikal Production studio (MKP) in Paris.