Here's some killer Houariyat sounds from Marrakech. This women's vocal and percussion tradition is some of the most joyful, raucous music I know. Sadly, the tape met an unfriendly player at some point over the last 20 years. But this half of a Houariyat tape will rock you better than most full albums.
For more Moroccan women's percussion group sounds, check the Stash's offerings from Houariyat and Âouniyat groups.
Al Houariyat الهواريات Led by Jmiâ Al Marrakchia برئاسة جميعة المراكشية Sawt Al Menara cassette MN.32 صوت المنارة c. 2000
A1 Sir Âlia Aymanek (snippet) سير عليى ايمانك A2 Al Âyyadi العيادي A3 Nouri Ya L-Ghaba B1 Ghir Jini Nichan غير جيني نيشان B2 Khurji ya Najat (snippet) خورجي يا نجاة
Salaam, friends - I just stumbled across a 7-hour (!!) recording of a Gnawa lila from Marrakech/Tamesloht that was posted on the Internet Archive by French musician David Vilayleck. It dates from November 2018 and features Maalem Aziz Arradi from Marrakech. I'm about 3 hours into it, and it's a real gift of a recording. Not because of its sound quality (it was recorded on a smartphone), but because of the pace of the performance and the overall ambiance of the recording.
You can't hear all of the lyrics, the guinbri is a bit buried, the qarqabas are pretty loud, and there's a fair bit of discussion going on among the assembled. In other words, this is what it sounds like to be at a lila. The songs take as long as they require to get where they need to go - or rather, to get people where they need to get to.
Listen in the player above, or download from the Internet Archive HERE.
Thanks David and Aziz for sharing this recording, and alhamdulillah I found it on good night to be aurally transported away from the shitshow that my country has become.
US voters elected over 100 women to Congress in this week's midterm election. May they be as fierce as these awesome âouiniyat ladies out of Marrakech!
Âouniyat Ladies of Safi Disque Safi Disque cassette
circa 2001
1) Wa Lalla Fatima / Aw ya L-Hajj
2) Ândi bniya wahda / Âjebtini a bniti
3) Rani halfa / Ha hiya jatek ya loulid
4) Feen jellaba elli bghit ana / Wa kanet jaya jaya malha wellat / Âjbatu w bghaha
5) Ghadi âref a ya siri fouti / Had rajel ârfali fâylu / Ha w feen saken
Wow, 2017 comes to a close. Some of this year was pretty awful, at least here in the US. And our current leadership won't be doing anything to address mass gun violence, climate change, and numerous other ills.
Yet hope and light continue to shine forth here and there. The #metoo movement is bringing some long overdue attention to pernicious, pervasive male behavior. I hope that some positive culture change comes out of it.
So in honor of #metoo, here's a tape of some badass Houariyat from Marrakech. This style of music just delights me. Raucous drumming and hearty, bawdy call/response singing. This joyful music is made by women, for women, to enjoy primarily among themselves.
Wishing goodness, blessings, and fulfilling grooves to you all in the new year!
Fatima el Houaria, Vol. 2 Safi Disque cassette, ca. 2001
1) Diggu Li L3youn Digga Roumiya
2) Douwaya Nhakoum Llah 3liya Rjaya f-Llah
3) Wa Mwaliya Ya Mwaliya
4) Farha f-Salatu 3a n-Nbi 5) Ma Khellali Ma Gal Fiya Klam L3ar
Here also are some great 2017 posts from the music blogosphere, sharing recordings of North African women's music:
Wallahi le Zein! - Unreleased DIMI mint ABBA from the late 1990s : Rissala
Fantastic, ecstatic, electric recording of a private concert of the late, great Mauritanian singer. And excellent notes about concerts and contexts from Matthew Lavoie, formerly of the Music Time in Africa blog.
Gharamophone: Reinette l’Oranaise – Ya biadi ya nas – Polyphon, c. 1934
History of the song "Ya biadi ya nas", which became well known in Morocco and Algeria, as well as its first recording, by the great Reinette l'Oranaise. Gharamophone is Chris Silver's continuation of his earlier, fine blog Jewish Maghrib Jukebox.
KILLER! Most of the folk song styles I've heard from northwest Algeria/northeast Morocco features the raspy gasba flutes, like you would hear on recordings by Cheikha Remitti. This tape features the Algerian singer Cheikha Rahma, performing with an awesome double-horned, double-reed instrument that I believe is called a zamar. If you visit the blogpost, you'll find a great YouTube video showing Cheikha Rahma performing with one of these groups.
Bodega Pop: Spice Ray
Bodega Pop has returned with a great stash of cassettes recently obtained in Queens. This unusual cassette appears to be a Moroccan rai album credited to "Spice Ray" (the Moroccan rai Spice Girls?), and contains several songs that address social issues, including an opening track lamenting the death of children under bombs in Iraq.
Do not mess with these badass âouiniyat ladies, who come to you straight outta 1990s Marrakech armed with bendir-s, târija-s, and non-stop rhyming couplets, to rock you all night long. Just fire up a pot of mint tea, set out a tray and some glasses, and when the groove takes you, get up and shimmy to your heart's content.
As I've said before, everything I've ever heard on the Âatiphone imprint out of Kelaat es-Sraghna is super-great, and this tape is no exception. Enjoy!
Âouniyat Ladies of Âatiphone Âatiphone cassette, Kelâat Es-Sraghna, 1990s
01 Wa Khay Ya Khay
02 Ara Liya Khwitmi Ha Lbalini Ya 03 Alawa Ya Mwi Lawa Ya Tawl Ezzman Âyyani
04 Hak a Rasi
05 Wa Jewwejih Ya Mwi Duwwez Hayatu Wa
06 Diri 3lach Terj3i Ha Ya Lwaqfa Fel Bab
07 Wa Rah Blani Lalla
08 Duwr a Chayfuwr
Here's a slight upgrade to a tape I shared a few years ago. I wanted to share some more of the great Daqqa Marrakchiya music that gets played in the streets of Marrakech on Ashura, and I knew I had another tape.
The downside was that the tape turned out to be the same one that I shared previously. The upside was that there was different, equally great j-card art, and that the tape flip and in/out points were different.
I patched the two together, so here is a slight upgrade that adds an additional great 20 seconds of music and that can now be heard as a single track uninterrupted by a tape flip.
I like it when Islamic and Jewish holidays line up together. This
year both new New Years came in at the same time, as did Ashura and Yom
Kippur. Wishing blessings, reflection and inspiration to all.
Dekka de Marrakech (الدقة المراكشية) Majmuât ad-daqqa al-marrakchiya (مجموعة الدقة المراكشية) under the direction of al Hajj Muhammad Baba (برئاسة الحاج محمد بابا)
Sawt el Haouz (صوت الحوز) cassette S.H. 38
slight upgrade
This post follows from my post of Sunday. Because I'm like that, I went through and identified the songs in the Gnawa recordings in Mohammed Aït Youssef's 1966 collection, and have linked to them below by title. I scoured CREM's various collections of unpublished North African recordings to try to locate any additional Gnawa recordings. Below you'll find links to what I could find. There are a few tracks in Aït Youssef's other collections, and some from a 1950-55 collection of recordings from the Algerian oasis of Tabelbala.
Enjoy!
Collection : Maroc. Aït Youssef, M. ; 1965
1965 recordings by Mohammed Aït Youssef. In addition to Berber music from the Draa, Aissawa music from Marrakech, and more, the collection includes 5 Gnawa tracks from Marrakech. Like the 1966 recordigs, they appear to feature Ahmed ben Lahcen.
The third and final collection of recordings by Mohammed Aït Youssef dates from 1968. Much of it comes from the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech. There are no recordings of Gnawa alone, but one track is a walkthrough of the plaza, and one can hear Gnawa with qraqeb and tbola, among other performers.
Collection : Algérie, Tabelbala, missions D. Champault 1950-1955
Massive collection of recordings from the Northwest Algerian Saharan oasis of Tabelbala made by Dominique Champault includes four tracks from the Beniou population (former slaves) - songs with qarqaba and drums.
Those of you with a taste for field recordings may enjoy perusing the online collection of CREM (Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie), housing the audio archives of the CNRS and the Musée de l’Homme. Much of this vast audio archive of commercial and unpublished recordings is available for online listening.
I'm currently enjoying a remarkable collection of recordings made by one Mohammed Aït Youssef in Marrakech in 1966, featuring over 3 hours of Gnawa music:
Some of the recordings in the CNRS collection appear to have been made in the Djemaa el Fna plaza. Others, perhaps not - it's difficult to say. At any rate, it's a great collection of recordings - a lot of Ouled Bambara and Negsha songs, some with clapping, some with qarqaba, a few tracks of drumming and qarqaba-ing. (Almost no mluk trance songs, though.) There are also a few tracks of odds and ends. 08-03 features the bells of Djemaa el Fna water sellers. 07-01 is a drum and qarqaba song featuring the ismkhan (also known as âbid chleuh - Berber-speaking Gnawa who have a repertoire completely separate from that of the more well-known Arabophone Gnawa), and 07-02 is entitled "Solo de flûte Gnawa". The latter track sounds to me like an instance of the Soussi Berber style of âwad flute. Perhaps it's a Gnawi musician who doubles on flute - I've never heard of a discrete Gnawi flute tradition or repertoire, but the world is full of musical surprises, so perhaps I'm wrong!
I couldn't find any information about the researcher Mohamed Ait Youssef, what sort of
research he was doing, or how his recordings ended up in the CNRS
archive. The archive contains other recordings of his dating from1965 and 1968. These recordings, also from Marrakech, feature several different genres (as well as a few more Gnawa tracks). Whatever his story may have been, it's wonderful that he left us such extensive recordings, and that CNRS has shared them online.
I recently inherited a box full of cassettes with no j-cards. The second cassette I popped in is an album by the AWESOME electric-guitar-drum-kit-and-shikhat group Noujoum al Houz, who were featured in one of the earliest posts on this blog, almost exactly five years ago!
The music of this group remains one of my favorite Moroccan sounds of all time. I've not heard another group doing quite what these folks did back in the late 80s/early 90s. The songs and singing are straight-up âita and women's chaâbi styles. The accompaniment just happens to replace the viola with an electric guitar and to move the bendir-taârija continuum of interlocking rhythms to a drum kit.
Having a guitar take the riffing melodic lead role (usually played by a viola or an oud) - is something I've not heard elsewhere inMoroccan chaâbi. Most electric guitars one hears in chaâbi (and one rarely hears them any more) are relegated to strumming rhythmic patterns and playing chords along with melodies that never used chords before (like in this old Orchestre Asri cassette, h/t Snap Crackle & Pop). This chordal support function in chaâbi was taken over by keyboards by the early 90s. One was more likely to hear melodic picking of electric guitars in Berber music (Moulay Ahmed Elhassani, Mohammed Amrrakchi), or in some of the Ghiwanesque folk revival groups (Oudaden, early Tagada).
As for the drum kit, well it does remain in chaâbi music, but it's never as in-your-face as you'll hear here. (And I mean "in-your-face" in a good way!) In most chaâbi music, the drum kit seems to play a supporting role in the overall texture of the ensemble. It doesn't drive the rhythm section, but rather provides support to the darbuka and bendirs (like dig this Daoudia live clip - you can barely hear the drum kit behind the bendirs, qarqabas, and darbuka, and it never does any fills.) But for a minute in the 80s and early 90s, the drum kit took a fantastic role in a few chaâbi recordings, stepping to the front of the mix, tumbling and accenting in a really exciting way. (In addition to these Noujoum el Haouz recordings, I'm thinking also of these bitchin' Mahmoud Guinia recordings and this excellentanonymous chaâbi tape.)
Today I'm offering a twofer. One is the newly-found cassette on the Kawakib label.
The second, let's call it a bonus album, is the actual tape that matches this j-card that I uploaded with my original post 5 years ago:
I never uploaded the actual tape that goes with this j-card because it is severely damaged. Over half of side A is barely audible due to some magnetic weirdness. Bits of side B suffer from this as well. Don't download this until you've heard the other tapes. If, like me, you can't get enough of them, you will happily sit through the magnetic weirdness in order to spend a few more minutes with this fantastic group.
I've been able to find no information online about the group or its leader, Lâyyadi Abdeljalil. I'm guessing they were a purely Marrakchi phenomenon, since both of the labels they appeared on, Sawt el Mounadi and al Kawakib, were based in Marrakech. Hope to find out more about them some day. In the meantime, enjoy!!
Noujoum el Haouz (نجوم الحوز) - Sawt el Kawakib cassette (ca. 1990)
1) Daouli Ghzali
2) A Moul L3aoud A Wlidi
3) Track 03 4) Sayh Ya Bu Derbala (see YouTube clip above)
5) Ayma Sabri Llah
6) Track 06
7) Suwwelu Moul Dar
Noujoum el Haouz (نجوم الحوز) - Tansiq ou Tanshit Lâyyadi Abdeljalil (تنسيق و تنشيط العيادي عبد الجليل) Sawt el Mounadi (صوت المنادي) cassette, ca. 1993
01) Dami
Alf Lila Ou Lila
Husa ya Husa
Waye Wa Houara
02) Ila Bghiti Temchi Ghir Sir
Ezzine oul Jamal
Lilwajed Lmra Zwina
This tape has major audio problems on side 1 (the first 13 minutes), and a few on side 2 as well. But the music is so good, I'm uploading the whole thing anyway.
In honor of Ashura, which is celebrated this week, I'm breaking away momentarily from my series of Jbala posts to return to my beloved Marrakech.
Here's a swell tape of daqqa marrakchiya, a fantastic genre performed especially for Ashura, famously in Marrakech (though its roots are apparently in Taroudant).
It's surprisingly difficult to find video examples of it online. The only one I could find is this snippet from the streets of Marrakech, apparently from the Sidi Youssef quarter:
It's performed by large groups of men, most of them with a taârija drum, with one man on a pair of qraqeb. It starts slooooooooooooooow and heavy with looooooong poetic stanzas. Eventually it builds in speed, the rhythms become less complex, and ends with a raucous, deafening section in good 'old 6/8.
It seems like many Moroccans use the term daqqa marrakchiya to refer to what I knew in Marrakech as dqiqiyya or tkitikat - i.e., men's perussion/party ensembles:
These groups are great fun, but should not be confused with the daqqa I'm presenting here.
Etymological excursion: I'm pretty sure the names of these percussion groups are diminutive forms of the names of other Moroccan genres: dqiqqiya being a diminutive form of daqqa, and tkitikat sounding like a diminutive form of taktouka (about which, more next week).
Back to the real daqqa: In bygone days, each neighborhood in Marrakech had its own daqqa group that would perform all night, outdoors, on the night of Ashura. The rhythm of the long, slow opening section (the âayt), is a lopsided thing. It alternates 3 bangs on the taârija with 4 bangs, and each grouping is separated by a clack of the qarqaba whose delivery is streeeeeeeetched out beyond any reasonable sense of meter. Very striking stuff - check the excerpt below for a bit from the beginning and a bit from the end of the tape.
If you like the sound of this, (and I know you do), try to find a copy of the CD La Daqqa: Tambours sacrés de Marrakech. It's a lovely 62 minute recording (one single track!), with excellent performers.
Dekka de Marrakech: Majmuât ad-daqqa al-marrakchiya under the direction of al Hajj Muhammad Baba Excerpts from sides 1 and 2
Ya know 'em, ya love 'em! Here's another vintage cassette of houariyat songs. These are all in the standard 6/8 chaâbi rhythm. None of the mind-warping songs in 7/4 -> 10/8 rhythms, which Alaa Sagid identified as "houari tqil" and "houari khfif" in an earlier houariyat post. Still, the groove is undeniable, and these Marrakchiyat pour some crazy energy into it. And when they shift melodic gears mid-song and soar off in a completely unrelated key (see embedded track at 4:27)... Yeah!!
By the way, the lovely j-card graphic shows two ladies clapping on the ramparts at Essaouira. I don't think this music is typically found as far west as Essaouira - I always understood it to be centered around Marrakech and the surrounding countryside. The tape itself is produced in Marrakech.
Oh, and if the clapping ladies were actually standing on the ramparts as pictured here, they would be at least 35 feet tall.
Happy 2013 to all. Sorry for the long absence - tape deck needed a little maintenance, and I guess I needed a little break too. Thanks for the comments and well wishes in the interim!
Still have a bunch of tapes from my summer trip to get digitized and out to ya. For now, though, here's a couple of oldies from deep in the stash. These both feature my fave oud man out of Marrakech, Hamid Zahir, but also highlight a particular member of his group, Si Mohamed Aguir.
The first tape, pictured above, is credited to Alfarqat Almarrakchiya (The Marrakchi Ensemble). It's basically the Hamid Zahir group, but featuring some different lead singers. I'm pretty sure that the singer on some of these tracks is Si Mohamed Aguir, and I think he's the one pictured on the cassette j-card. The only picture I could find online is from the sleeve of the 45 seen in the YouTube clip below. Does it look like the same guy to you? It sure sounds like him:
The cassette contains some tracks that appear on other cassettes credited to Hamid Zahir (#2 and #3 specifically). You'll still want to hear this album, though, if only for the insanely catchy singalong "Lebniya Llah Ihdik" (preview below).
The second cassette, pictured below, features tracks recorded live by Hamid Zahir and troupe (somewhere outside of Morocco, if I'm hearing the introductory comments to track 5 correctly).
This set features Si Mohamed Aguir singing on track 5. Zahir introduces
Si Mohamed as the singer (and, at the end of the song, dancer). You'll
hear Aguir's prominent rhythmic footstamping on several tracks. I believe Si Mohamed is the heavy set gentleman clapping, dancing and singing back-up in the following YouTube clip.
Even when he's not singing lead, he's a huge part of the atmosphere of Zahir's performances - adding the percussive clapping, cadential call-outs, and syncopated footwork. The songs he sings are more ironic and comedic than than those sung by Zahir. I don't know if he's still with us, but his good-time vibe is still in effect when the Marrakchi groove hits!
Any corrections or additional info about Si Mohamed Aguir would be greatly appreciated!!
Audio transfer notes: I did a time-pitch correction on track 4 of "Alfarqat Almarrakchi". It always seemed to run too fast to me - now the oud is in tune with that of the other tracks on the tape, though this track was certainly recorded at a different session. The Koutoubiaphone tape seems to me to run on the slow side, but I didn't adjust anything on it.
Discographic note: The Zahir live tape says "Koutoubiaphone" on the j-card, but the cassette shell bears the Tichkaphone imprint. They are one and the same company.
Tagnawit note: Track 2 of the Koutoubiaphone tape contains 2 Gnawa-related songs. "Hada Wa'du Meskin" takes lyrics from a Gnawa song but gives them a different (but still pentatonic) melody. "Lagnawi" refers to the Gnawa melk Sidi Mimoun. However I believe this song has its origins in the Aissawa repertoire - I've heard the melody played at an Aissawa ceremony, but it's not typically played at Gnawa ceremonies.
2) A Bgha Itjewwej
3) Kulshi Msha Ghafel
4) Farkh Lehmam (or so it says on the j-card - the only refrain I hear sung refers to "Al-ghaba") Hamid Zahir - H. Azzahir (live) Koutoubiaphone/Tichkaphone CKTP5006
1) Lalla Souad
2) Hada Wa'du Meskin - Lagnawi
3) Lil Lil Ya Sidi Âamara
4) Lghorba 5) Ma Bghit Zuwwej
And of course there's more Hamid Zahir stashed away here and here.
Greetings everyone, and thanks for the comments and greetings during Ramadan! I hope to catch up on correspondence soon.
Morocco was HOT HOT HOT during my entire trip. I did a bit of cassette shopping, mainly around Beni Mellal, but not much in Marrakech, where I spent only a couple of days. I managed to pick up one tape there - at a second hand shop near Sidi Abdelaziz - I saw the Aâtiphone logo peeking out of a pile of tapes with no labels or jewel boxes. Everything I have on Aâtiphone is gold, so I grabbed it. Didn't have the stamina to continue poking through the pile in 120 degree heat in the middle of the day, fasting...
Indeed, it's a good tape - 40 minutes of raucous call-response, full-throated Houariyat songs (all in 6/8 - none of the loopy quintuple stuff). Zahia's name is written on the tape, and she certainly put some mileage on this tape - there are some dropouts here and there. Patina...
I'll drop some more ladies' percussion grooves soon - an interesting CD I picked up, which I'm still trying to decode.
Hi everyone. I was a little busy and distracted in the late spring, and my posts have been sporadic of late. But summer is officially here, and I should have something new for ya later this weekend.
In the meantime, sending out props for some great Moroccan tape-cd-lp posts over the last few weeks. If you missed these, do yourself a favor and check 'em out!!
Mr. Tear at Snap, Crackle & Pop served up a slice of old-school rock 'n' rai from the Frères Bouchenak c.1984. Similar to what Raina Rai were doing across the border in Sidi Bel Abbes, the Bouchenak brothers in Oujda were playing their rai with a full rock band (complete with ripping electric guitar solos). The Bouchenaks would abandon this format for the prevailing synthesizer-based format a few years later. Great to hear this oldie! Check it out here.
Gary at Bodega Pop dropped this goodie from the kings of aita marswawiya, the Ouled Bouazzaoui. These are all remakes of songs recorded in the past by Bouchaib el Bidaoui. Khaled, the singer/violist of the group, sounds so much like Bouchaib el Bidaoui, it's scary! Great to have some hi-fi versions of these old school classics! Check it out here.
Brian at Awesome Tapes from Africa laid down this one from the reigning diva of Middle Atlas tamazight song, Hadda Ouakki. A bit heavy on the synth violins for my taste, but her voice remains in great form! Dig it here.
And finally, Abdel at FolkMusicSMB rolled out this unbelievably great Hamid Zahir album! As I mentioned in my last post, it's nice when Zahir stretches his chaabi chops and veers away from his usual dkitikat-based typical Marrakchi street & party singalongs. There are some almost aita-ish melodies on this one - well worth a listen! Connect here.
Most of Hamid Zahir's oeuvre is pretty formulaic, and it's a formula I love: uptempo, singalong Marrakchi party tunes with light, catchy, often humorous lyrics, an insistent percussive drive from darbuka and tar (tambourine), interlocking syncopated handclapping, call-response vocal punctuations, and Zahir's funky oud. This album, at least to my ear, deviates just slightly from that formula - most of the familiar ingredients are the same, but tempos are just a tad slower, the melodic modes tend toward the minor (track 3) or rast (tracks 1 & 4) rather than the major, and the lyrics seem somehow a little more world-weary than usual. Not as obsessive and bluesy as Rouicha's work, but more contemplative than the typical Hamid Zahir tape.
Speaking of tapes (and ignore this if you're not interested in how I edited the album), I own 2 cassette copies of this album, both of which have incorrect pitch - one too high and the other too low. (I wonder if I perceive this album as contemplative because for years I listened to a tape that ran lugubriously slowly.) I found what appears to be a CD rip online. I planned to use that to find the correct pitch. But the CD also contained "extended" or full versions of a couple of songs which faded out early on the cassettes. Conversely, one of my cassettes contained several extra phrases of Zahir's fantastic oud soloing at the beginning of two different songs, where the CD cuts into the solos late.
So here is my edit of the CD rip (which had better audio quality overall than my tape) with the missing opening phrases appended to the beginning of tracks 1 and 3 from my cassette, with pitch correction. Whew...
1) Tiqi Biya Rak Âziz
2) Haram Âlik ya Dunya 3) Mali ou Mal Ennas
Well, his Moroccan stash is but a tiny tiny pinch of shake from his huge stash of field recordings. His recordings of American folk music are, of course, the most famous, but he also did his share of international recordings during his many years of research.
Association for Cultural Equity and the Alan Lomax Archive recently went live with over 800 hours of sound recordings as well as video and photographs from Lomax's collection. Perhaps the mother of all tape stashes!
I had no idea Lomax had recorded in Morocco! I'm just starting to dip into this collection, and I'll try to link to anything that particularly catches my ear.
Explore the Moroccan collection here.
Explore the entire audio collection here.
Or start at the main menu to get to photographs, video, and other resources.
---
UPDATE:
I found 2 more short Gnawa tracks, in Lomax's recordings from Fez. They are from outdoor processional âada repertoire, thus feature the tbola rather than the guinbri. The recordings were made at the moussem of Moulay Idriss, and include recordings of Aissawa and Hamadcha as well!
I wanted to post more chaâbi after my last chaâbi post, but didn't find anything that inspired me. Like I said last week, my fave chaâbi stays pretty close to the rural, aita end of the field (rather than the Andalusian end, the smooth orchestrated end, or the pop-rai end). I'll try to dig out a good Stati tape soon. In the meantime, here's some more bitchin' aita haouzia.
After scanning the shell, I realized that this tape comes from the same production house as my last aita haouzia post - Edition Atif, or Aâtiphone, based in ... Kelaat es-Sraghna? I've been thru Sraghna a bunch of times, since it's the biggest city on the road between Marrakech and Beni Mellal, my 2 main perches in Morocco. But never had any reason to stop there (except for one time when it was Ramadan and time to break fast - the bus parked and everyone was able able to get that important bowl of harira...) At any rate, I don't know if these performers are from Sraghna or Marrakech - I would guess Marrakech. The other haouzia group on this label was from Marrakech, and the little picture in the top-left corner of the j-card and on the spine is of the Menara - a royal-summer-house-turned-public-garden in Marrakech.
Track titles on the j-card didn't seem to match the lyrics I heard on the tape, so I didn't transcribe them. The front panel reads "The star of Haouzi song". And track 2 is seamlessly edited together from the end of side A and the beginning of side B by yours truly.
Moroccan chaabi music sounds great with a drum kit. Hi-hat gives you the bright jingle of a tar tambourine, a nice loose snare drum gives you the buzz of the bendir, and tom and bass drum give you a nice variety of low tones for the all-important dummmm.
Here's a nice old school chaabi tape with some in-the-pocket drum kit playing. I don't know who the performers are, but the tape is from the Sawt el Mounadi label out of Marrakech, so you know it's gonna be good like this and this!
Chaabi is a pretty wide genre. My fave chaabi keeps it close to rural forms and textures, and that's what you get here - one viola, heavy on the percussion (drum kit and darbuka), lots of call & response singing, one male lead singer and two or three shikhat-styled backup singer. Track 3 mixes it up a bit with a naqqus clanging out a Berber rhythm. Song titles are best-guess cribs from the lyrics.
Here's a solid cassette from Hassan Baska and group. I wrote a bit about Hassan and his brothers in my post on Muluk el Hwa last week. This tape is from around Y2K. Tracks 1, 3 and 4 are straight-up, fiery Marrakchi tagnawit (that is, music from the Gnawa ritual repertoire). Quite nicely recorded, and high in energy. (Marred slightly by vocals going sharp on the first piece of track 3). The lead vocalist sounds to me like it could be Ahmed Baska rather than Hassan, but I'm not sure.
Track 2 is an unusual gem, featuring 2 songs I believe to be originals. (They're certainly not from the tagnawit repertoire.) "Mamayo" features a darbuka in addition to guinbri and qraqeb. It is sung in a blues pentatonic (rather than the typical Gnawi pentatonic) and in a typical Maghrebi 2/4. In the second piece "Sudani Mani Zara", guinbri and qraqeb lock into a blues-swing groove! (totally weird - totally works!) There are so many overblown Gnawa fusions - this one is about as simple as it gets, and is all the more sweet for it! The vocalist is different on this track than on the rest of the album. I think it may be Hassan singing here and Ahmed on the other tracks, but again, I could be wrong.
Discographic note: I own 2 cassettes of Hassan Baska. The j-cards for both read "Edition Safi Disque". The cassette shells for both read Sawt al-Kawakib. Go figure...
Muluk el Hwa (the "Demons" of Love) formed in the late '70s in Marrakech, riding the folk revival wave of groups like Nass el Ghiwane, Jil Jilala and Lemchaheb. Unlike these groups, Muluk el Hwa performed primarily traditional songs rather than original material. Forefront in their particular mix of traditional forms was Gnawa music.
According to a 2005 resume, the group was "discovered by Spanish author Juan Goytisolo" in 1980 and went on to produce 7 cassettes of traditional Gnawa song, 4 cassettes of Gnawa popular music and 3 cassettes of love songs. The group also collaborated with the Spanish group Al Tall on the album Xarq al Andalus, which focused on medieval Valencian-Andalusian traditions.
Another member, Hassan Baska, is one of several brothers very active in Marrakech Gnawa life. The maalem
of the family is Abbas, who is featured on the 3 hours of YouTube audio I linked to in my last post. Abbas, who was one of my primary
interlocutors during my dissertation research on Gnawa music, is also
featured on several CDs of Gnawa music - World of Gnawa on Rounder, and
Kamar Music's fantastic 3-CD Black Album (2 discs of Gnawa and one of
Gnawa-inspired electronic dance music). The latter album is available at CD Baby, where you can also purchase the 2 Gnawa discs seaprarately as mp3 downloads. A third brother, Ahmed, is one of the most recognizable faces in Moroccan Gnawa music. A fabulous dancer-singer and a charismatic presence, he's performed with many Marrakchi maalems on television and CD, including Mahjoub Khalmous, Mustapha Baqbou, and Hmida Boussou. A beautiful album, if you can track it down is Rhabaouine by Gnawa Halwa, featuring Abbas and Ahmed Baska in an atypically pianissimo Gnawa recording.
1) Sa'di bil wali jani
2) Sahiyoun 3) Salah el Bahja (=Chalaba Titara)