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The Master Musicians of Joujouka

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Revision as of 10:30, 9 February 2010 by 97.118.8.109 (talk) (Undid revision 341188494 by 64.128.245.110 (talk) Links, references, and content restored)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about a Morroccan musical group. For the Japanese techno group, see Joujouka (band). For the Moroccan music group led by Bachir Attar, see The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar.
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The Master Musicians of Joujouka
Musical artist

The Master Musicians of Joujouka are Sufi trance musicians most famous for their connections with the Beat Generation and the Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. These musicians hail from the village of Joujouka, Jajouka or Zahjouka (spelled جوجوكة or جهجوكة in Arabic) near Ksar-el-Kebir in the Ahl Srif mountain range of the southern Rif Mountains in northern Morocco.

Background

The Master Musicians of Joujouka have a long history being recorded by Western artists. Their first L.P. was produced by Arnold Stahl and released in the early 1960s. This double L.P. was released by the Musical Heritage Society. It listed the musicians as the "Mallimin Ahl Shrif" or Masters of the Ahl Srif. The name Master Musicians of Joujouka was first used by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs in the 1950s, Timothy Leary and Rosemary Woodruff Leary in the 1960s and 1970s and on the Brian Jones L.P. released in 1971. A 1974 release utilised the title Master Musicians of Jajouka. In the 1980s the musicians were sometimes called by the names Master Musicians of Jahjouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka and Master Musicians of Joujouka in both articles and on official documents. However when a musician from the village, residing in New York, signed a recording contact and began trading as Master Musicians of Jajouka Featuring Bachir Attar the musicians used the earlier name to avoid any confusion with the cross-over World Music music that the solo artist performs. Bachir Attar's incorporation of the traditional music of his village on World Music recordings has been described as "putting an unsettling dance-music spin on age-old rhythms".

Sufism and Pan

The Master Musicians of Joujouka adhere to the traditional Sufi trance music of their patron saint passed down for 1200 years. Timothy Leary having visited the village in September 1969 wrote an essay on his time with Mohamed Hamri and the master musicians in his 1971 book "Jail Notes" called "The four thousand year old rock'n'roll band". Leary based his dating on William Burroughs's belief that the ritual Boujeloud, performed in Joujouka, owes its origin to the Ancient Greek deity Pan.

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.

Beat Generation

Their first exposure to Western audiences came through their introduction to the Beat generation. Painter/folklorist Mohamed Hamri, whose mother was an Attar from the village, led artist Brion Gysin to Joujouka 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 was the first person to call the musicians 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 (book) of William S. Burroughs' fiction.

Brian Jones and Ornette Coleman

When Rolling Stones lead guitarist Brian Jones visited Morocco in 1968, Gysin and Hamri took him to the village to record the Master Musicians of Joujouka in the ground-breaking release Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, whose original release featured cover artwork by Hamri before a controversial 1990s redesign which appeared as Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka. Ornette Coleman recorded with the musicians in January 1973 some results of which featured on his LP Dancing in Your Head. A second L.P. "Master Musicians of Jajouka" was released in 1974.

1990s to present CD and DVD releases

The Master Musicians of Joujouka, now led by Ahmed Attar, released their third album Joujouka Black Eyes, on Sub Rosa in 1995. In 1996 "Sufi: Moroccan Trance II" was released, an album featuring the Sufi music of Joujouka's saint Sidi Ahmed Scheech and also Gnawa music from Marrakesh. The same year "10%: file under Burroughs" featured the Master Musicians of Joujouka in collaboration with Marianne Faithfull on "My Only Friend", an homage to Brion Gysin, as well as a prayer giving blessings and a vocal track by the musicians. The same CD features artists such as Scanner sampling the master musicians to create homages to Brion Gysin and William Burroughs. Other artists on "10%:file under Burroughs" include Bill Laswell, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Bomb the Bass, Brion Gysin, Chuck Prophet and Stanley Booth.

Hamri continued to promote Joujouka music as President of their collectives' organisation Association Srifiya Folkloric until his death in Joujouka in August 2000. Despite Hamri's death in 2000 the musicians continue to work in Joujouka and abroad. The Master Musicians of Joujouka living in the village of Joujouka include Ahmed El Attar, Abdeslam Boukhzar, Mohamed El Attar, Abdeslam Errtoubi, Ahmed Bousini, Mustapha El Attar, Radi El Khalil, Abdullah Ziyat, and Mohamed Mokhchan, as well as other members of their Sufi community and their children.

The musicians travelled to perform in at Casa Da Musica,Porto, Portugal in spring 2006. Their most recent CD Boujeloud recorded over a four year period; documenting the music of the Boujeloud or Pan ritual, was released in September 2006.

A DVD, "Destroy all Rational Thought", featuring their 1992 performances at the Here To Go Show in Dublin Ireland was released in 2007. The documentary also feature the music of Bill Laswell, Material ,and Shabba Ranks. It also features the artist Brion Gysin and writer William Burroughs whose works were the focus of the show.

Music and instruments

The Joujouka brotherhood play a form of reed, pipe, and percussion music that relies on drones, improvisation, and complex rhythms, much of which is unique to Joujouka.

Their flute is called the lira and is considered the oldest instrument in Joujouka. 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 Joujouka 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.

Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival

The Master Musicians of Joujouka host a festival, on 29 July 2008, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Brian Jones recording, on 29 July 1968, their most famous L.P. Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka.

Discography

Books

Tales of Joujouka by Mohamed Hamri

Personnel

The following musicians performed on Boujeloud, Joujouka Black Eyes, and Sufi as well as other recordings.

  • Ahmed El Attar – drum and vocal; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka (1971), Master Musicians of Jajouka (1974), and Boujeloud
  • Mohamed El Attar – lira, rhiata and vocals
  • Mustapha El Attar – drum
  • Ahmed Bouhsini – rhiata, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
  • Abdelslam Boukhzar – drum, vocal; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka , Steel Wheels by The Rolling Stones, and Apocalypse across the Sky
  • Abdelslam Errtoubi – rhiata, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
  • Mujehid Mujdoubi – lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
  • Muinier Mujdoubi – drum
  • Muckthar Jagdhal – drum, vocal; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Apocalypse across the Sky
  • Mohamed Mokhchan – rhiata, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
  • Abdelslam Dahnoun – drum, rhiata, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka
  • Abdellah Ziyat – rhiata, lira, vocal
  • El Hadj – clapping, vocal; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
  • Si Ahmed – violin

See also

References

  1. Sleeve Note Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Rolling Stones Records, 1971
  2. Timothy Leary "The Four Thousand Year Old Rock'n'Roll Band, Jail Notes, London 1972, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, "The Master Musicians" in Ed. Paul Krassner. Psychedelic Trips for the Mind reprinted 2000,
  3. The Independent, London,Aug 13 2000, Review by Phil Johnson. "Soloist Bachir Attar (on horn) is accompanied not only by the traditional Jajouka chorus, but also by Singh's tabla drumming and electronic soundscapes,
  4. The Independent, London,Aug 13 2000, Review by Phil Johnson. "Soloist Bachir Attar (on horn) is accompanied not only by the traditional Jajouka chorus, but also by Singh's tabla drumming and electronic soundscapes, putting an unsettling dance-music spin on age-old rhythms."
  5. Rosemary Woodruff Leary, "The Master Musicians" in Ed. Paul Krassner. Psychedelic Trips for the Mind reprinted 2000Leary, Timothy, Jail Notes, (New York, 1971)
  6. www.joujouka.net

Further reading

  • Hamri, Mohamed (1975), Tales of Joujouka. Capra Press.
  • Gysin , Brion, The Process.
  • Schuyler, Philip (2000) "Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjoukah -- Moroccan Music and Euro-American Imagination", in Armbrust, Walter, editor. "Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond". Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
  • Strauss, Neil (12 October 1995). "The Pop Life: To Save Jajouka, How About a Mercedes in the Village?". The New York Times.

External links

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