Master Musicians of Jajouka

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Master Musicians of Jajouka
Background information
Origin	Jajouka, Morocco
Genre(s)	World, Sufi music of Morocco
Years active	1950 – present
Label(s)	Rolling Stones Records, Adelphi, Axiom, Womad, PolyGram
Associated acts	Brian Jones, Talvin Singh
Website	Jajouka.com
Members
Bachir Attar, Larbi Hlalli Attar, Mostapha Attar, Abdellah Bokzar, Tahir Bokzar, Abdeslam Bokzar, Mohamed El Attar, Mohamed El Hatmi, Ali Maidoubi, Ali Nachat[1]
Former members
Hadj Abdesalam Attar, Abdellah Attar, Hadoush Attar, Menana Attar, Rahama Attar, Mohamed Bacari,Lahesan Brital, Mohammed el Hammadi, Mokhtar Jaghdal, Ali Moujdoubi, Abdellah Shirioui[2]

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

[edit] Background

Cover of The Master Musicians of Jajouka album. Photo by Joel Rubiner, album producer.

The Master Musicians of Jajouka's traditions have been passed down in a supposedly unbroken line of the Attar family of Jajouka, going back 4000 years. Before the Alaouite dynasty, the master musicians 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 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 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.

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.

The master musicians of that early group were led by tribal chief Hadj Abdesalam Attar. Attar was also known simply as "Jnuin" (sometimes spelled "Djinnouin"), which Palmer's article said came "from the same Arabic root as the word jinn, or 'elemental spirits'".

In summer 1972 Joel Rubiner recorded The Master Musicians of Jajouka album, released on Adelphi Records in 1974. The current group's name spelling originally came from a popular name spelling used on the album cover. Also in 1973 the master musicians recorded with Ornette Coleman and journalist Palmer, a former clarinetist with the Insect Trust, on part of Coleman's Dancing in Your Head album, released in 1976.

Band leader Hadj Abdesalam Attar died in 1982. The late chief's son Bachir Attar then began leading a group of some of his father's musicians he named Master Musicians of Jajouka.

[edit] Music and instruments

The Jajouka 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] Jajouka Today

The group's performance was used on the Rolling Stones' song "Contintental Drift" on their 1989 Steel Wheels album, whose recording was documented in author Paul Bowles' Tangier journal, Days and in journalist Stephen Davis's history of the Rolling Stones, Old Gods Almost Dead. An online African Music Encyclopedia quoted Mick Jagger as calling the group "one of the most musically inspiring groups still left on the planet". Also in 1989, they toured a couple of dates with Ornette Coleman. In 1992 an album was produced by Bill Laswell, called Apocalypse Across the Sky. A track from the 1992 sessions also was featured on the 1994 Bill Laswell-produced "Lost in the Translation: Axiom Ambient" various artists compilation.

Excerpts from the song "El Medahey" from the Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar album Apocalypse Across the Sky were used on the 2000 score of The Cell by Howard Shore. "El Medahey", a standard the group often has played in live performance, was originally composed by Hadj Abdesalam Attar. The group is listed as "Master Musicians of Jajouka" on the liner notes for this and several other soundtracks since 1985, beginning with Ornette: Made in America.

[edit] Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar

Although the "Master Musicians of Jajouka" name has also been used on film soundtrack appearances and compilations as recently as 2004, beginning with Apocalypse Across the Sky, the Bachir Attar-led generation of the group used the alternate recording name "Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar" on that album and on two additional ones: Jajouka Between the Mountains and Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar. The latter album was produced by Talvin Singh on the Point Music label in 2000. The collaboration with Singh expanded the group's sound to a more contemporary audience by including a mixture of traditional acoustic field recordings and electronica-influenced ambient music.

In 2006 and 2007, film professor Augusta Palmer, daughter of the late music journalist Robert Palmer, had production under way on a film called The Hand of Fatima about the past and present versions of the group, her father, and Bachir Attar.^[3] An official website for Master Musicians of Jajouka in January 2007 listed the group as scheduled to perform in Lisbon, Portugal, in March 2007.

[edit] Discography — group led by Hadj Abdesalam Attar until 1982

• Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka (1971)
• The Master Musicians of Jajouka (1974)

[edit] Discography — group led by Bachir Attar since 1982

• Apocalypse Across the Sky (1992)
• Jajouka Between the Mountains (1996)
• Master Musicians of Jajouka Featuring Bachir Attar (2000)

[edit] Film soundtracks and compilation albums

• Ornette: Made in America (1985, film sound track appearance)
• The Sheltering Sky (1990, film soundtrack and film appearance)
• Naked Lunch (1991, film soundtrack appearance)
• Lost in the Translation: Axiom Ambient (1994)
• The Cell (2000, film soundtrack appearance)
• Time's Up Live (2001)
• Along Came Polly (2004, film soundtrack appearance)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fvfoxqrgldke
2. ^ http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fvfoxqrgldke
3. ^ "The Hand of Fatima". The Hand of Fatima film site. Retrieved Jan. 31, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

• (French) Alaoui, Mehdi Sekkouri. "Souvenirs. Sur les traces des Rolling Stones". Telquel Online. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• Barry, James "The Cell Soundtrack: Review". SoundtrackNet. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• Bowles, Paul (1991). Days. The Ecco Press. ISBN 0-88001-269-2.
• Burroughs, William (August 1973). "'Face to Face'", Oui.
• Davis, Stephen (2001). Old Gods Almost Dead. Broadway Books, 135–37, 172, 195–201, 227; 233–34, 248–53, 270, 354, 504–05, 508.
• Fariborz, Arian (2005). "The Master Musicians of Joujouka: The Faded Myth of the Goat-God". Qantara.de. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• Gross, Jason (June 2000). "Master Musicians of Jajouka: Bachir Attar Interview". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved Jan. 22, 2007.
• Kettlewell, Ben. "Features: The Master Musicians of Jajouka". Alternate Music Press. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• La Briola, John (August 30, 2001). Mystic Muses: Musical Shamans Keep the Flame Alive During a Rare Visit to Denver". Denver Westword. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• "The Master Musicians of Jajouka". The African Music Encyclopedia. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• "The Master Musicians of Jajouka - Biography". All About Jazz (August 31, 2001). Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• "Master Musicians of Jajouka: Biography. World Music Central. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• "The Master Musicians of Jajouka Music Credits". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• (French) Mellouki, Ilham (June 30, 2006). "Mémoire. Le fabuleux destin des Jajouka". Telquel Online. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• Palmer, Robert (March 23, 1989). "Into the Mystic". Rolling Stone.
• Palmer, Robert (October 14, 1971). "Jajouka: Up the Mountain". Rolling Stone.
• Palmer, Robert (December 19, 1971). "Music for a Moroccan Pan". The New York Times.
• Palmer, Robert (January 12, 1975). "Trance Music — a Trend of the 1970's". The New York Times.
• Palmer, Robert (June 11, 1992). "Up the Mountain". Rolling Stone.
• Pareles, Jon (August 27, 1989). "Still the Stones, but There's a Catch". The New York Times.
• Ranaldo, Lee (August 1996). "Into The Mystic". The Wire. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2007.
• Rosenberg, Jeff; with Flessas, Daniel contributor (September 26, 2001). "The Masterminds: Bachir Attar and Mustapha Attar Launch the Ancient Traditions of Morocco's Mountains into the 21st Century". Willamette Week Online. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• Strauss, Neil (October 12, 1995). "The Pop Life: To Save Jajouka, How About a Mercedes in the Village?". The New York Times.
• Tsioulcas, Anastasia. "Master Musicians of Jajouka". National Geographic World Music. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• Tsioulcas, Anastasia (September 1, 2005). "World Music Features: Magical, Mystical Morocco". Global Rhythm. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
• "Videos — Ornette: Made in America". Synergistic Press Videos. Retrieved Jan. 30, 2007.

[edit] External links

• The Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar official web site
• Master Musicians of Joujouka Official site of the Sufi brotherhood of The Master Musicians of Joujouka
• Master Musicians of Jajouka official myspace page
• The Hand of Fatima Film site about Master Musicians of Jajouka
• "No Stone Unturned: Bachir Attar and Frank Rynne comment on the controversy surrounding the reissue of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka" in The Independent (retrieved 28 March 2007)
• Burroughs/Gysin/Master Musicians article/interview part 1
• Burroughs/Gysin/Master Musicians article/interview part 2

• Lion-Auriga Music Publishing Master Musicians of Jajouka artist page