Shikh Hassan El Dariouki - Aita Haouzia From The Turn Of The Century

Here's a cassette of Aita Haouzia from the year 2000. The performers are the group Ouled el Haouz featuring Shikh Hassan Dariouki (here misspelled as Darouki, elsewhere spelled Driouki or Daryouki). During my fieldwork time in Morocco, they were ubiquitious - I saw them perform on the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech, at an Aita festival in Safi, and at a gathering of ethnomusicologists in Tangier. 

We've featured some fine Aita Haouzia recordings before in the stash here and here, but it's been a hot minute since we did so. Frankly I'd forgotten I had this tape. I think I never shared it because I thought it wasn't as good as the other two, but upon listening again, and aided by the magic of a little EQ and compression, it sounds pretty good to me today. 

Aita Haouzia is such a great sound - scratchy fiddle and screechy vocals staying within the range of a minor third for the entire song, accompanied by explosive beats on the little tarija clay goblet drums (how do those little drums make such startling big noises?). The Dariouki group seemed to be the primary exponent of Aita Haouzia back around the turn of the century, or at least the most famous. Here's a video clip of them in action around this time - I believe this comes from a 2004 VCD:

One thing I love about this group is the old thin guy with glasses who doesn't sing but just dances and wanders around the stage, sometimes getting up on the qaada to stamp out a beat with his feet. Hassan El Dariouki has passed away, but according to this article, the dancer, Mohamed Zaitra, was still alive and stepping in beat as recently as 2024. May God give him, and all of us, health, joy, and transcendent grooves.

Cheikh Hassan El Darouki شيخ حسن الدروكي
M3a Farqat Oulad Al Haouz مع فرقة ولاد الحوز
[with Ensemble Oulad al Haouz]
Safi Disque cassette 15/2000 صافي ديسك 

FLAC | 320