Here's some more music from Abdessadek Chekkara, the Tetouani violinist, singer, and composer we featured in a post a few weeks ago. The album contrasts nicely with the previously shared album. That album featured a large orchestra and songs in a Tetouani folk style, ostensibly composed by Chekkara. This album features a much smaller ensemble - a sextet. The first 2/3 of the album features material from the Arab Andalusian tradition. Side B concludes with 3 pieces credited to Chekara with a number of collaborators.
This album was shared in 2018 by Tawfic at the blog Oriental Traditional Music from LPs & Cassettes, which ran from 2011 to 2019 and featured music from across the MENASA region (Middle East - North Africa - South Asia). The pages remain, but the links are dead. Somehow I managed to grab this in FLAC and mp3. This album remains out of print, so I'm happy to reshare it here.
I was going to share another Chekkara album that Abdel shared at The Silence Has A Voice, And The Real Music Teach You The Silence (2007-2014), but it turns out that the album is available on digital platforms. Abdel shared loads of amazing music over the years, primarily from the Arab world. This album is another good listen, showing off the religious/devotional side of Chekkara's artistry:
There is more Chekkara available on the streaming platforms if you care to explore more of his work. Also I found out some additional information about his song "Bint Bladi", which I will share in a future post. Wishing you all an autumn where justice reigns, sieges are broken, sufferers are relieved, and oligarchs and their enablers are exposed.
Chekara Con La Orquesta Tetuán Ariola LP I-205.831, 1984
A1 Nuba L'Estehelal (Tuichia) A2 Nuba L'Estehelal (Tuichia) A3 Nuba L'Estehelal (Tuichia) A4 Nuba L'Estehelal A5 Solo De Laúd B1 Nuba L'Estehelal (Tuichia) B2 Nuba L'Estehelal B3 Fuego En El Corazón B4 Flor De Andalucía B5 En El Patio
I was very sad to hear this week that the Gnawa master Mustapha Baqbou passed away on September 8. I've sung his praises over the years here at Moroccan Tape Stash both for his sublime guinbri playing within the Gnawa tradition and for his work with the group Jil Jilala from around 1985 to 1994.
Sharing here a very nice cassette of his. Two long tracks. Baqbou on guinbri and vocals, accompanied by two musicians singing choral responses and playing what sounds like a tambourine (jingly cymbals) and a cassette tape (being tapped like a pair of qarqabas - this is what we used to do late at night in Marrakech when we wanted to play some music without being too loud). The songs are from the Black suites that come toward the end of the Gnawa lila ceremony.
I particularly love the second track (which starts with "Boussou") - these songs are from the very end of the Black suites, and I've always found them to be particularly moving. Mustapha's playing here is just fantastic: check the guinbri intro and outro to "Allal ya Allal". What he can do when strumming just the same note over the course of 4 beats is earth-shattering (dynamics, syncopation, rhythmic variation, GROOVE).
01 Mnuât Gnawiya (this track takes up all of side A and the first 4-1/2 minutes of side B). contains the songs: Berkiliya - Allah Yarki Mabana - Sidi Bouganga - Allah ya Rebbi ya Moulay - Belaiji - Shaba Kouriya - Kubaily Mama - Mamaryo 02 Mnuât Gnawiya. contains the songs: Boussou - Salaam Âla Mohamed Sidi - Allal ya Allal - Fulani
Here's a lovely cassette from singer and violinist Abdessadek Chekkara (1931-1998).
Chekkara's musical trajectory spans the traditional and the modern, the colonial period and the era of independence. As a child, he began his musical tutelage at the Zawiya al-Harraq, whose founder, the Shaykh Sidi Mohamed al-Harraq, was an ancestor of his mother. At the zawiya, he gained a traditional foundation in the Moroccan Andalusian repertoire (al-Âla) as well as the musical repertoires associated with Sufi brotherhood practice (dhikr and amdah), joining the zawiya's musical ensemble when he reached the age of 14. In 1947 he broadened his musical education by enrolling at the Music Institute in Tetouan, undertaking techincal training on the violin and leading student ensembles. He spent time collecting poetry and music from oral traditions, and by 1956 became an instructor at the Institute.
In the late 1950s Chekkara began a recording career, recording songs from the Tetouani popular, religious, and Andalusi traditions, as well as his own compositions. While becoming a successful recording artist, it appears that Chekkara remained active in musical instructional activities and community performances in Tetouan, retaining his position at the Institute and leading Friday dhikr at the zawiya.
The most well-known song associated with him is probably his composition "Bint Bladi" (lyrics by Abderrahmane al-Alami). The album containing this song is available on the streaming platforms:
"Bint Bladi" ("Girl of my homeland") famously contains an interpolation of the Spanish folk song "La Tarara", saying something about the musical, historical, and/or cultural relationship between Tetouan and Andalusia, or Morocco and Spain. Tetouan was a major recipient of Muslim and Jewish refugees after the fall of Granada in 1492, thus becoming a primary site of retention for Andalusian culture (including music). Tetouan was also the capital of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco from 1913 to 1956.
On a tangential note, another Chekkara song from the above album, "Ya Wlidi" was given a fantastic Son Jarocho treatment by Moroccan singer Nabyla Maan in 2009. In my old band I always wanted to do something that combined the Moroccan chaabi 6/8 rhythm with the Mexican sesquialtera 6/8, but Nabyla beat us to it:
Anyway... the album I'm sharing today is similar to the "Bint Bladi" album, containing what I believe are compositions by Chekkara in Tetouani style, recorded with a large orchestra and choir (perhaps from the Tetouan Music Institute). Delightful stuff.
What caught me off guard was the exquisite instrumental improvisation and mawwal that begin track B2 "Laghram Manaa Wa Siib". On first casual listen, I thought the improvisation was being played on some sort of electric keyboard. On second listen, I think it's a piano being played without use of pedal, recorded in a large room with natural reverb. This whole performance is wonderful - the piano improvisation gives way to a mawwal sung by Chekkara with piano responses and a violin improvisation (I assume also played by Chekkara). The use of piano in Arab Andalusian music is something I associate primarily with Algerian traditions, but apparently is also used in the Tetouani tradition. And I swear I can hear birds chirping in the garden in quiet passages!
The album was originally issued as an LP. My cassette copy is clearly a rip from a well-loved vinyl complete with pops and clicks. I took some extra time to remove as many clicks as possible from the aforementioned mawwal and improvisation.
Hope you enjoy!
Abdessadak Chqara عبد الصادق شقارة Tichkaphone cassette TCK 605 تشكافون
A1 Ana Mzawag أنا مزاوݣ A2 Kane Msafer كان مسافر A3 Saadia السعدية B1 Laghram Ma Andou Dwa الغرام ما عندو دوا B2 Laghram Manaa Wa Siib الغرام مانع وصعيب
Ali Al-Zougari. "الفنان عبد الصادق شقارة أحد أعلام الآلة والذكر والموال والكمان والموسيقى التراثية التطوانية". Pp. 11-18 in عبد الصادق شقارة : حياه ونغمة. Tetouan: Association Tetouan Asmir, 1996.
