Later career

Hakmoun made his U.S. debut in 1987 at Lincoln Center in New York City with Etian and Blanca Lee'’s Trio Gna & Nomadas dance group. He subsequently relocated to New York where he was received by artists such as composer and producer Richard Horowitz and Peter Gabriel. He became a fixture in New York’s rock, jazz and fusion scenes, spanning multiple genres.

In 1989 Hakmoun became part of the group Magmouat Hakmoun with his brother Said and relatives Mohammed Bechar and Abdel Hok Dahmad. Later that year, with help from Robert Browning and the World Music Institute, Hakmoun produced and released his debut album Fire Within. He recorded his second album, "Gift of the Gnawa" with Adam Rudolph and jazz trumpeter Don Cherry in 1991.

Hakmoun began to expand his musical range, adding American sounds to the Moroccan form. This led him to form the group Zahar, meaning ‘luck’, whose music fused elements of rock and jazz with African styles. With the ensemble, Hakmoun recorded his first album featuring electric instruments and continued to perform around New York City. One such instance occurred during a performance at the Knitting Factory, whose audience members included Miles Davis, and Daniel Lanois, who proceeded to introduce Hakmoun to an important future collaborator, pop musician Peter Gabriel.

In 1992 Hakmoun joined Gabriel’s WOMAD, founded in 1980. Hakmoun released another album, Trance, at Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, England. From Bath, Hakmoun toured Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. along with other WOMAD artists, including performing under the group's auspices at the Woodstock 94 festival in 1994.

His albums Fire Within, Gift of the Gnawa and Trance topped the charts for World Music Albums, World Music Charts Europe, New World and CMJ’s Radio Top 150 and were selected by Rolling Stone as one of the "Hot Picks of ’94. His powerful performances and sounds also resulted in letters of admiration from former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, television host Jay Leno and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as from executives at the New York Times and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

2002 - present

In 2002 Hakmoun teamed up with American-born producer Fabian Alsultany to record a new album, The Gift. The album included the release of the single, "This Gift," a duet with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole. In 2003 The Gift received an INDIE award for "Best Contemporary World Music Recording" from the Association for Independent Music (AFIM).

In addition to producing his own albums, Hakmoun has contributed to other artist’s recordings, adding to such projects as "Caravan" for Dee Dee Bridgewater’s album Prelude To A Kiss, Ozomatli’s Street Sings, which won the award for "Best Alternative Music Album" at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2005 and "Lovelight" for Paula Cole’s Courage in 2007.

Hakmoun has also composed and recorded for several films such as Rendezvous in Samarkand directed by Tim Bridwell, The Past and the Present of Djemma El Fna by Steve Montgomery and the documentary Footsteps in Africa. Hakmoun appeared in several movies as an actor, dancer and musician, including Disney’s Jungle 2 Jungle in 1997 and Rollerball by John McTiernan in 2002.

Today Hakmoun continues to record and perform in major festivals and venues around the globe, as well as give master workshops in universities. Hakmoun subsequently began a project in collaboration with other percussive dancers to create a new style of Gnawa dance.