Master Musicians of Joujouka

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This article is about the band led by Ahmed El Attar, which has recorded on Sub Rosa Records. For the band led by Bachir Attar and previously by his father, Hadj Abdesalam Attar, see Master Musicians of Jajouka.
The group in their mountain village in December 2005
The group in their mountain village in December 2005

Master Musicians of Joujouka are a musical ensemble from the village of Jajouka near Ksar-el-Kebir in the Ahl Srif mountains in the southern Rif Mountains of northern Morocco.

Contents

[edit] Background

The Master Musicians of Joujouka are one of two groups claiming to inherit traditions of their village passed down for 4000 years. Before the Alaouite dynasty, the masters used to play in medieval times for sultans in their courts, travelling with them and announcing their arrival to villages and cities.

Their first exposure to outsiders seems to have come through their introduction to the Beat generation. Painter/folklorist Mohamed Hamri led artist Brion Gysin to the village to meet the group. Gysin became fascinated with the group's music and led writer William Burroughs to the village. Burroughs described it as the world's oldest music and the musicians as a "4000-year-old rock and roll band". In Tangier, Gysin and Hamri founded the 1001 Nights restaurant, in which the musicians played throughout the 1950s to a largely Western audience in what was then an international zone, the "Interzone" of William S. Burroughs' fiction. The master musicians of that early group were led by tribal chief Hadj Abdesalam Attar.

When Rolling Stones lead guitarist Brian Jones visited Morocco in 1968, Gysin and Hamri took him to the village to record the master musicians in the ground-breaking release Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka, whose original release cover had spelled the last word as "Joujouka" and had featured cover artwork by Hamri before a 1990s redesign. Hamri had assisted the group during the period of the first album. In an article in Rolling Stone published in October of 1971 to publicize the new release, journalist Robert Palmer mentioned Hamri's role translating some of the old chief's comments to Palmer during his visit to the village.

[edit] 1990s to present

A group managed by Hamri honoring the musical styles and traditions of the 1970s group released their first album, Joujouka Black Eyes, on Sub Rosa in 1995, under the recording name Master Musicians of Joujouka. The album was produced by Frank Rynne. The spelling of the village used in the group's name was a common variant in the 1960s used on the famous Brian Jones production and in Hamri's 1975 book Tales of Joujouka.

Hamri continued to manage the group throughout the 1990s. After Hamri's death in 2000, producer Rynne carried on the group in Hamri's memory, along with writers Joe Ambrose and Chris Campion.

The band includes Ahmed El Attar, Abdeslam Boukhzar, Mohamed El Attar, Abdeslam Errtoubi, Ahmed Bousini, Mustapha El Attar, Radi El Khalil, Abdullah Ziyat, and Mohamed Mokhchan, among their members. The group travelled to perform in Porto, Portugal in spring 2006. In September 2006 their new CD Boujeloud, recorded in 1995 during the Joujouka Black Eyes sessions, was released on Sub Rosa.

[edit] Music and instruments

Joujouka, a Brotherhood of breath and beat
Joujouka, a Brotherhood of breath and beat

The group's music is a form of reed, pipe, and percussion music that relies on drones, improvisation, and complex rhythms, much of which is unique to their village.

Their flute is called the lira and is considered the oldest instrument in Jajouka. The double-reed instrument is called the rhaita; it is similar to an oboe, but possessing a louder sound and more penetrating tone. The drum is called the tebel and is made of goat skin and played with two wooden sticks. There is also another goat-skin drum called the tarija which allows for more fast-paced virtuosity.

The music itself is considered to be part of the Sufi tradition of Islam. Prior to the colonization of Morocco by France and Spain, master musicians of the village were said to be the royal musicians of the sultans. In past centuries master musicians of the Jajouka village traditionally were excused by the country's rulers from manual labor, goat-herding, and farming to concentrate on their music because the music's powerful trance rhythms and droning woodwinds were traditionally considered to have the power to heal the sick.

The music of the region has a strong connection to Pan. According to the tale, thousands of years ago a goat-man called "Bou Jeloud" appeared to an Attar ancestor in a cave, and danced to his music. The musicians of the village re-enact this event annually.

[edit] Discography

  • Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka(1971)
  • Master Musicians of Jajouka (1974)
  • Joujouka Black Eyes (1995)
  • Moroccan Trance Music: Vol. 2: Sufi (compilation, 1996)
  • Boujeloud (2006)

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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