Noujoum Eddiwane Quartet - live on KPFA

Something different this week. This is a recording of four members of the Algerian group Noujoum Eddiwane who spent a couple months in the San Francisco area (the East Bay - Richmond, specifically) in the summer of 1997. In addition to a handful of live performances, they performed this short set on KPFA radio's "Majoun Traveler" - a program that aired Mondays at midnight (technically Tuesday mornings) and was hosted by the dearly missed DJ Cheb i Sabbah. 

Noujoum Eddiwane (The Stars of Diwane) hail from Sidi Bel Abbès. They are formed as a cultural association dedicated to the preservation of diwane. The Algerian diwane ritual/musical tradition is analogous to that of the Moroccan Gnawa. The instruments are the same (guinbri and qarqaba), nightlong ceremonies invoke a sequence of suites dedicated to different groups of saints and spirits, and the traditions are understood to have roots in sub-Saharan African cultural groups. Some songs of each repertoire are clearly related to each other; others are unique to regional repertoires. The term diwane is short for Diwane de Sidi Bilal, a reference to Bilal, a companion of Prophet Muhammad, whom both traditions hold in reverence as a spiritual forbear.

In California in the 1990s, we were able to hear Moroccan Gnawa music via CDs and the occasional touring group (Hassan Hakmoun came from New York sometimes, and even Hmida Boussou performed once in Berkeley.) But there was no absolutely no information about diwane and no way to hear this music (other than a single OCORA album), so it was an unexpected pleasure to have Noujoum Eddiwane spend some time in our area to give us a taste of this deep tradition. 

In the ensuing years, YouTube has made it easy to search, click, hear and see diwane musicians. (Dig this channel!) And some outstanding scholarly work has been done on diwane - Dr. Tamara Turner has published several articles and book chapters, and her book will be coming out next year! Yet high-quality audio recordings remain few. This one is a bit rough (live radio broadcast), but the energy and music are great. Hope you enjoy.

Noujoum Eddiwane
"The Majoun Traveler" KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley, CA, USA
August 19, 1997

1. DJ Cheb i Sabbah intro
2. Salaamu Alaykum intro
3. Lâfu ya Mulana (Salaamu Alaykum)
4. Ya Bulali Ba Dawi
5. Wayna Zuru ya Kama
6. DJ Cheb i Sabbah outro

Youssef Mazouzi - goumbri, solo vocal
Ada Belamri - derbuka
Abdellah Benhada - karkabu, vocal
Mustafa Elbordji - karkabu, vocal 

FLAC | 320