The Master Musicians of Joujouka

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The Master Musicians of Joujouka

The Master Musicians of Joujouka are an ensemble of Sufi trance musicians most famous for their connections with the Beat Generation and the Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. These original musicians hail from the village of Joujouka, Jajouka, or officially 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 are the group from their village with the longest history of being recorded by Western artists.[1]

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 1970 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".[2] Leary based his dating on William Burroughs's belief that the ritual Boujeloud, performed in Jajouka, 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

File:395px-Burroughs1983 crop.jpg
William Burroughs in 1983

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 Jajouka 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

File:Jonesnote.jpg
Inside cover of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka a recording of Master Musicians of Joujouka

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 My Head. A second L.P. "Master Musicians of Jajouka" was released in 1974.









1990s to present CD and DVD releases

Boujeloud CD Cover 2006

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 Jajouka'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. These CDs were produced by Frank Rynne.

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 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.

Discography

Books

Tales of Joujouka by Mohamed Hamri

Master Musicians of Joujouka who performed on Boujeloud,Joujouka Black Eyes, and "Sufi" plus some other album credits

References

  1. ^ Sleeve Note Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Rolling Stones Records, 1971
  2. ^ Lear Timothy, Jail Notes, (New York, 1971)

See also

Further reading

  • Hamri, Mohamed (1975), Tales of Joujouka. Capra Press.
  • Gysin , Brion, The Process.
  • Palmer, Robert (October 14, 1971). "Jajouka: Up the Mountain". Rolling Stone.
  • Strauss, Neil (October 12, 1995). "The Pop Life: To Save Jajouka, How About a Mercedes in the Village?". The New York Times.

External links

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