The Master Musicians of Joujouka have a long history being recorded by Western artists.[4] Arnold Stahl produced an LP record, Tribe Ahl Serif: Master Musicians Of Jajouka, recorded on location as part of a documentary film written and produced by Stahl. This double album was released in the early 1970s by the Musical Heritage Society.[5] During the 1970s, the French label Disque Arion released a single album of the same music, produced by Stahl and titled Le Rif: La tribu Ahl Serif.[6][7] Both albums are credited to Master Musicians of Jajouka (or Maîtres musiciens de Jajouka).[5][6][7] 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.[8] 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.
Schism
A schism exists between two similarly-named ensembles from the same village.[9][10]Lee Ranaldo, following a 1995 visit to Morocco, wrote
[T]here are currently two groups of musicians claiming to be the 'real' Master Musicians OF Jajouka/Joujouka (they're even arguing over the spelling). One group, the 'Jajouka' faction, is led by Bachir Attar, whose father was the leader of the group in the 60s when Brian Jones and Ornette Coleman made their visits.... The 'Joujouka' faction is in the care of Mohammed Hamri, who has been involved with the village since the 50s and 60s, and who had a hand in bringing Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles there.[10]
Inconsistent English rendering of the village's name compounds the issue. For example, RE/Search uses both spellings in an interview with Brion Gysin: "Jajouka" for the village name, and "Joujouka" for the album Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka.[11]
In the UK the Independent newspaper first noted the schism in 1995.[12] The same year Neil Strauss in his Pop Life column for the New York Times also referred to the fact that there were two groups from the village, noting that protests had been held in the UK outside concerts by Bachir Attar.[13]
In 2005 the German magazine Quantra published an article referencing the continued schism entitled "the Faded Myth of the Goat God" noting that the schism was not good for the village or the musicians.[14]
In 2009, Jace Clayton wrote for the Dubai-based The National of the two groups and the village stating it was: ""Master Musicians of Joujouka" versus the "Master Musicians of Jajouka (featuring Bachir Attar)"".[15]
In 2012 The Quietus published an article about the schism "Jajouka Or Joujouka? The Conflicted Legacy Of The Master Musicians " urging fans to support both groups and noting that both groups had differing musical styles with The Master Musicians of Joujouka having "a desire to conserve the purity of the ancient music in its traditional form." [16]
Sufism and Pan
The Master Musicians of Joujouka adhere to the traditional Sufitrance 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".[17] Leary based his dating on Burroughs's belief that the ritual Boujeloud, performed in Joujouka, owes its origin to the Ancient GreekdeityPan.
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.[citation needed]
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 the Rif Mountains. 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 folklore. According to Attar tradition, 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.
Beat Generation
Their first exposure to Western audiences came through their introduction to the Beats. 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 William S. 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"[18] of Burroughs' fiction.
Brian Jones and Ornette Coleman
When Rolling Stones Brian Jones visited Morocco in 1968, Gysin and Hamri took him to the village to record the Master Musicians of Joujouka for the release Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, whose original release featured cover artwork by Hamri before a controversial 1990s redesign. Ornette Coleman recorded with the musicians in January 1973, some results of which featured on his LP Dancing in Your Head.
1990s to present LP, CD and DVD releases and concerts
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 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 musicians to create homages to Gysin and Burroughs. Other artists on album include Bill Laswell, Herbert Huncke, Burroughs, Bomb the Bass, 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, the musicians continue to work in Joujouka and abroad. Those living in the village 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 at Casa Da Musica, Porto, Portugal in spring 2006. Their most recent CD Boujeloud recorded over a four-year period, documents 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 Laswell, Material, and Shabba Ranks. It also features Gysin and Burroughs, whose works were the focus of the show.
The same year they appeared on the track End to the Lies by Jane's Addiction on the album The Great Escape Artist.[20] According to Perry Farrell the collaboration came about because Jane's Addiction wanted to add "a sense of ancient ritual and some depth beyond normal instrumentation, getting off the typical path that rock bands use" and they "wanted the music to cast a spell on the 'lies.'"[21][22] The LP reached No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Charts on 5 November 2011.[23]
In January 2015 the Irish language TV channel RTETG4 broadcast an episode of Ceolchuairt Musical Pilgrimages featuring Fiachna Ó Braonáin of Hot House Flowers visiting and collaborating with Master Musicians of Joujouka.[25]Hot Press stated that Ó Braonáin explored "the ancient links with traditional Irish music culminating in a magical moonlit encounter with the famous Master Musicians of Joujouka".[26]
On Record Store Day 2015 the L.P., Into the Ahl Srif, was released in a limited edition of 1000. The vinyl-only release was recorded at the Master Musicians of Joujouka's annual festival by Adrian Rew and was released by Ergot Records. It was the group's first vinyl release since 1978.[27][28]
In 2016 The Master Musicians of Joujouka played the Grand Salle at Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, participating in the museum's Beat Generation: New York, San Francisco, Paris, exhibition.[29]
Jarvis Cocker, Joujouka, "Wireless Nights" BBC Radio 4
Jarvis Cocker from Pulp recorded a show in the village with Master Musicians of Joujouka for the fifth season of his Wireless Nights series for BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on 13 March 2017 and is available on podcast. It was recorded binaurally and was championed by The Guardian as "the best radio of the week".[30][31]
Brian Jones Anniversary Festival
The Master Musicians of Joujouka hosted a festival, in 2008, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Brian Jones recording on 29 July 1968. The festival was attended by Anita Pallenberg.[32] The festival has continued each year and was described by Rolling Stone as "the Oldest and Most Exclusive Dance Party in the World".[33] Attendance is limited to 50 people annually.[34] In 2017 Richard Hamilton reported on the 9th edition for BBC Radio 4 From our own Correspondent noting that some guests came for healing and described being lost in trance dancing to the massed sound of the musicians.[35]
Ahmed Bouhsini – rhaita, 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 – rhaita, 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 – rhaita, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
Abdelslam Dahnoun – drum, rhaita, lira; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka
Abdellah Ziyat – rhaita, lira, vocal
El Hadj – clapping, vocal; appears on Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, Master Musicians of Jajouka
Brion Gysin was a painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices born in Taplow, Buckinghamshire.
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones was an English musician, best known as the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, Jones would go on to play a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts, such as rhythm and lead guitar, sitar, dulcimer, various keyboard instruments such as piano and mellotron, marimba, wind instruments such as harmonica, recorder, saxophone, as well as drums, vocals and numerous others.
Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar is a group led by Bachir Attar, from the village of Jajouka near Ksar-el-Kebir in the Ahl Srif mountains in the southern Rif Mountains of northern Morocco.
Extended Revelation for the Psychic Weaklings of the Western Civilization is the second album by the Swedish band The Soundtrack of Our Lives. It was the band's last Europe only release.
Sanaa Hamri is a Moroccan-American film, television, and music video director. Hamri has directed music videos for musicians including Prince, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, and Sting. She is known for her 2010 film Just Wright and the 2008 movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, as well as for her music video for the Nicki Minaj song Super Bass. She made her directorial debut in 2006 with the Focus Features romantic comedy Something New. She has since directed the sequel to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Mohamed Hamri, commonly known as Hamri, was a was a Moroccan painter and author. Self-described as "The painter of Morocco," Hamri was one of the few Moroccans to participate in the Tangier Beat scene.
Jajouka, Jahejouka or Zahjoukah is a village in the Ahl-Srif mountains in the southern Rif, Morocco. The mountains are named after the Ahl-Srif tribe who populate the region.
Ira Cohen was an American poet, publisher, photographer and filmmaker. Cohen lived in Morocco and in New York City in the 1960s, he was in Kathmandu in the 1970s and traveled the world in the 1980s, before returning to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. Cohen died of kidney failure on April 25, 2011. Ira Cohen's literary archive now resides at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Point Music was a record label that was started in 1992 as a joint venture between Philips Classics and Michael Riesman and Philip Glass’s Euphorbia Productions. In 1999, Decca Records became its distributor when it absorbed Philips in the aftermath of the merger that created Universal Music. It originally specialized in cutting-edge contemporary Western classical music, but it expanded to include film scores, some world music, and rock–classical crossover projects. It was shut down in 2002.
The Process is a novel by Brion Gysin which was published in 1969. Gysin was a painter and composer, and also collaborated with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs on many occasions. The Process was his first full-length novel.
Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka is an album produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The album was a recording of the Moroccan group the Master Musicians of Joujouka, in performance on 29 July 1968 in the village of Jajouka in Morocco and released on Rolling Stones Records, and distributed by Atco Records in 1971. Jones called the tracks "a specially chosen representation" of music played in the village during the annual week-long Rites of Pan Festival. It was significant for presenting the Moroccan group to a global audience, drawing other musicians to Jajouka, including Ornette Coleman.
Bachir Attar is the leader of The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. He is the son of Hadj Abdesalam Attar, who led the group Master Musicians of Jajouka at the time of their album, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka, produced by Brian Jones in 1968.
Frank Rynne is an Irish-born singer, record producer, art curator, film-maker, writer, and historian. He has played in three bands Those Handsome Devils in 1984, The Baby Snakes (1985-1994) and Islamic Diggers. He has produced three CDs of Moroccan folk music by the Master Musicians of Joujouka. In 1992 Rynne co-organised The Here to Go Show, an international art show featuring the works of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin and, with fellow organisers Joe Ambrose and Terry Wilson, co-wrote Man from Nowhere. He co-produced the CD 10%: file under Burroughs (1996).
Towards Thee Infinite Beat is an album by Psychic TV. It was followed by the remix album Beyond Thee Infinite Beat.
Joujouka Black Eyes is a CD by Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka. It was released in May 1995 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne and includes the song "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" written by Joujouka born painter Mohamed Hamri. This song commemorates the third visit of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones to Jajouka. On this visit Jones recorded Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. The group on this CD includes veteran Joujouka musician Mujehid Mujdoubi (1893-1997).
Boujeloud is a CD by the Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka.
Tales of Joujouka is a book by the Moroccan painter Mohamed Hamri (1932–2000) containing eight stories featuring the legends, folklore and Sufi origins myths and rituals of the Master Musicians of Joujouka. These are the stories and legends of Hamri's native village of Joujouka or Jajouka in Morocco, famous for its connections with the Beat Generation and Brian Jones founder of the Rolling Stones.
Leah Singer is a photographer and multimedia artist. She is the long-time artistic collaborator and wife of Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. Singer performs with multiple modified film projectors that allow her to improvise and manipulate the film projections by adjusting the frame rate. She has likened what she does with film as similar to DJs who scratch with records.
Pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument.
"End to the Lies" is the first single by American alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, from their fourth album The Great Escape Artist. It was released on March 30, 2011, via digital download, the band's first new release after 2003's Strays.
↑ 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,
1 2 Ranaldo, Lee (August 1996). "Into The Mystic: Lee Ranaldo's Jajouka Journal". The Wire (150).
↑ Wilson, Terry (1977). "Here to Go: Planet R-101", Soft Need Brion Gysin Special. Appears in V. Vale and Andrea Juno, eds. (1982). RE/Search #4/5: William S. Burroughs/Brion Gysin/Throbbing Gristle. RE/Search. pp.46–50. ISBN0-9650469-1-5.CS1 maint: uses editors parameter (link)
↑ Rosemary Woodruff Leary, "The Master Musicians" in Ed. Paul Krassner. Psychedelic Trips for the Mind, reprinted 2000; Leary, Timothy, Jail Notes, (New York, 1971)
↑ Richard Hamilton, reports from Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 2017, From Our Own Correspondent, BBC Radio 4, podcast from 24 mins http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08yz5y4
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