Majid Bekkas

Majid Bekkas (born 1957 in Salé, Morocco, as "Abdelmajid Bekkas") is a Moroccan musician on guembri, oud, guitar and vocals, who is internationally known for his contributions to World music and to Ethno jazz with North African roots.
Artistic career.
In his youth, Bekkas played banjo in Moroccan groups in the style of Nass El Ghiwane. From 1975, he studied classical guitar at the Conservatory for Music and Dance in Rabat. Later, he was initiated into the tradition of Gnawa music by "maâlem" (master musician) Ba Houmane and the guembri, a bass lute characteristic of this African spiritual music style, became his main instrument. 
In 1990, he founded his "Gnaoua Blues Band", playing his own fusion of Afro-American blues and Gnawa music. In the following years, he started to incorporate elements of jazz fusion into his own music and played with numerous international jazz musicians. (Among others, with Louis Sclavis, Archie Shepp, Randy Weston, Klaus Doldinger, Joachim Kühn, Peter Brötzmann or Hamid Drake). Since 1996, Bekkas has been artistic co-director of the festival Jazz au Chellah in Rabat.
Outside of Morocco, Bekkas performed at international festivals such as WOMEX Sevilla 2003, Africa Festival Würzburg 2015 or at the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany as soloist, in trio formations and in other world music projects. 
In 2002, Spanish percussionist Ramón López invited him to work on his tribute album for Roland Kirk. In 2006, Bekkas joined a jazz fusion trio with Joachim Kühn and Ramón López, which released its fifth album on ACT records in August 2013. With Klaus Doldinger and his jazz band "Passport", Bekkas first went on stage in Morocco in 2006, and was invited later to join this group for concerts in Germany.
Artistic recognition and awards.
Bekkas' song "Daymallah" is the opening track on the album "Desert Blues 2", which was voted the best compilation of 2002 by leading music journalists and producers for fRoots magazine. 
In 2004, he received the European jazz award Django d’Or for his album "Mogador". The album "Passport to Morocco" by German jazz musician Klaus Doldinger's band "Passport", in which he participated as guest musician and composer, received a German Jazz Award in 2009. In 2010, Bekkas was awarded the Al Farabi Prize by the "Comité National de la Musique" in Morocco for his contribution to Moroccan music. In 2015, he received the award of the Académie Charles-Cros in France for his album "Al Qantara", and in February 2020, his album "Magic Spirit Quartet" was selected by Downbeat magazine as Editor's Choice. 
Discography.
In 2013, German filmmaker Christoph Hübner made a documentary film about the trio Kühn/Bekkas/Lopez during the preparations and recording of one of their albums in Morocco.