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
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.
Here are a pair of delightful albums of Moroccan tarab al andalusi (aka al âla, aka Arab-Andalusian music). These come to us courtesy of Peter Doolan, curator of the great Monrakplengthai blog.
Haj Abdelkrim Raïs (1912-1996) was a pivotal figure in the Moroccan Andalusi musical tradition. His career spanned from the era of the French protectorate to that of independence and from the era of oral tradition to that of mechanical reproduction (recordings and transcriptions) and the documentation of patrimony. He began his career performing with the Al-Brihi Orchestra in his native Fes. After the death of the orchestra's leader Mohamed al-Brihi in 1946, Raïs took over leadership of the orchestra but retained its name Al-Brihi in honor of his master.
In addition to maintaining the performance and transmission of the centuries-old Moroccan al âla repertoire with the al-Brihi Orchestra, Raïs worked to document the repertoire through published works. Among these are a collection of poetry drawn from the repertoire and a complete musical transcription of the nouba (suite) Gharibat Al-Husayn.
Raïs also made many recordings over the span of his career. He recorded 4 complete noubas as part of the anthology of CD box sets produced by Maison Des
Cultures Du Monde with the Moroccan Ministry of Culture in the 1990s. The Nûba al Istihlal recording is available on streaming platforms and it is 7 hours and 40 minutes in duration. The earliest recording of his that I found is that made by Paul Bowles for the Library of Congress in 1959. I had a look at Hachlaf's discography of Arab music on 78s but did not see any entries for the al-Brihi Orchestra. You can find many other recordings of his on Discogs.
As I've written before, I find the Moroccan commercial cassettes of tarab al-andalusi to be more enjoyable than those recordings made for international audiences. The cassettes are made with a Moroccan audience in mind and tend to be more energetic and less clinical sounding than those made for the international audience or for more documentary purposes. Please enjoy these, which feature the singers Abderrahim Souiri and Abdeslam Sefiani.
In 1959, noted American author and
composer Paul Bowles made several trips around Morocco recording as many strains of Moroccan traditional music as he could capture. Bowles curated some of these recordings for release on a 1972 2-LP set "Music of Morocco" issued by the Library of Congress.
Bowles recounts some of the experiences of the 1959 recording project in the essay "The Rif, to Music" in his essay collection "Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue". For a deep dive into Bowles' musical upbringing and aesthetics and how these inform his recording project, it's well worth seeking out Philip Schuyler's essay "Music of Morocco: The Paul Bowles Collection", included in the 4-CD reissue and expansion of the Library of Congress album, released in 2016 by Dust to Digital. This release is one of the most beautiful artifacts in my own stash - from the ornate box to the leatherette-bound booklet down to the track selection, sequencing, and notes, everything was done with great care, thought, and taste.
If you can't find the box set, the album is available to purchase digitally at Bandcamp, including a pdf of the booklet. The album is also available to stream online through various platforms, though of course without the reading materials:
I had meant to post something about this back in 2016, but did not manage to do so. While scrolling through Twitter last week, I stumbled across a YouTube clip of a Gnawa recording I'd not heard before, originating from the Bowles' collection, but not issued as part of the LP or CD sets. The video was uploaded by Archnet, a digital resource sponsored by MIT and the Agha Khan Trust for Culture.
It turns out that Archnet has made the entire collection available online in YouTube form! 60 reels of tape! As Michael Toler of Archnet explains on his blog, these clips are raw transfers of the original tapes, so do not expect them to sound like the versions on Dust to Digital's release, which were nicely mastered to improve sound quality.
Still, what an amazing gift to be able to hear these tapes! As an additional gift, Archnet has uploaded a scan of Bowles' own typed notes on the recordings, which accompanied their submission to the Library of Congress: http://archnet.org/publications/10093. Excerpts from these notes appear in the Dust to Digital booklet, but you can now see the whole set.
I found the Archnet website difficult to navigate, and the way they have named the YouTube videoclips is inconsistent and often incomplete. So for my own benefit and yours, I have grouped the clips into YouTube playlists, which I hope are easier to navigate. The playlists are linked below. I generally named them by recording date, artist name/style and location. A small number of things listed by Archnet or in Bowles' notes are missing or mislabeled, but the links below will get you to nearly everything he recorded for the Library of Congress from August to December of 1959:
1956-08 Gnawa Tangier - This recording was submitted by Bowles to the LOC as a supplement to the 1959 recordings. It was made with "inferior equipment", but he deemed it to be important enough to submit.
1959-09-25 Andaluz Music of Fez - Abdelkrim·Rais, director (and rebab), Fez, Musée du Batha - Bowles' notes indicate that 2 reels of music were captured from the group: 26B and 27A. However, Archnet's link to 26B is broken, and their video for 27A contains the music from 27B (Taqtoqa Jabaliya).
1959-12-13 Chanson Moderne - Mohammed Mohiyeddine and his Orchestra, Meknes - Bowles calls this "chaabiya" in his liner notes. Perhaps it was described to him as "chaabi" or "popular", but it's not what we would call chaabi today, but rather âsri or chanson moderne. Also, Archnet has mislabeled 57A as 57B, and vice versa.
If time permits, I'll comment on some of the individual tapes in future posts. I'm of course loving the additional Gnawa material, in particular the hour's worth of material from 1956 (the first playlist above). Until then, there's plenty for you to explore!
Ramadan Mubarak - may your month be full of thankfulness and remembrance, and may you be uplifted and sustained.
In bygone times, the link between Ramadan and the sound of Arab Andalusian music (a.k.a. tarab andalusi, a.k.a. al-âla) was a strong one for Moroccans. RTM (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Marocaine) used to broadcast clips of this music right before and after the sundown call to prayer during the holy month. Back when there was only 1 or 2 TV stations, this meant that for years a huge portion of the Moroccan population would have been at home with this music on the tube as the soundtrack to the breaking of the daily fast around the family table.
I'm not sure whether that's still the case. Even if it is, with the spread of satellite TV, home internet and portable phones in the 21st century, folks are tuned in to many different things now, so it's unlikely that the Andalusian tones are as ubiquitous as they once were at iftar time.
At any rate, here's a nice tape that I dubbed in 1992. My dub is pictured above, but I believe the j-card looked something like this:
Mohamed Bajeddoub was at the time the most renowned singer of the Moroccan Andalusian tradition. (Within a few years, Abderrahim Souiri would rise to similar heights.) LIke Souiri, Bajeddoub rose to fame as a member of the ensemble of Haj Abdelkrim Rais. .
This tape contains a couple of the most famous and popular songs of the Moroccan Andalusian repertoire: "Shams al Âshi" and "Bouchra Lana". The version of "Shams al Âshi" is quite spirited, and segues into some energetic, festive chaâbi.
WELCOME L'AGE D'OR de la musique andalouse with the singer BAJADOUB
1) Shams al Âshi
2) Mawwal 1
3) Mawwal 2
4) Bouchra Lana
Here's a nice album from the late 1990s of Moroccan music from the Arab Andalusian tradition (a.k.a. tarab andalusi, a.k.a. al-âla). This repertoire is understood to trace back in some form to the legendary 9th century musician Ziryab at the court of Cordoba. The tradition flourished in Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, and Valencia, and was carried on in North African cities during and after the Reconquista.
The singer Abderrahim Souiri is one of the most renowned Moroccan singers currently working in this tradition. His buoyant presence and soaring voice have made him a national musical icon. He is featured often on Moroccan television (including commercials/adverts) and at festivals, performing not only the classical Andalusian repertoire, but also melhun, chaâbi, and amdah repertoires. The j-card lists the orchestra as that of maestro Mohamed Briouel, so this may be the famed Orchestre arabo-andalou de Fes. Both Souiri and Briouel worked under the late maestro Haj Abdelkrim Rais of Fes.
It's nice to hear Arab Andalusian music in a live performance setting, with audible audience reactions. Some of us non-Moroccans first encountered this music via studio recordings released by OCORA or Maison du cultures du monde / INEDIT. Those recordings, while historic and beautiful, didn't give a sense of the excitement this music can generate with an audience of aficionados. This concert recording gives a glimpse of the live tradition in performance.
By request, here are two albums of Jilala music that were previously offered at the now defunct WwW.ZizMp3.CoM. These are very nice recordings of a group from Fes. There's more Jilala music in the stash if you like this intense stuff.
S'hab el Hal - VariétésJilalia (Mounawaates Jilalia)
Volume 1 - get it here.
Volume 2 - get it here.
Meanwhile, kind souls across the interwebs continue to share Moroccan goodies. Here are a few recent gems:
Lokman_ud launches his new blog أرشيف لقمان with a FANTASTIC cassette of Mahmoud Guinia. My copy of this went missing years ago, so it's wonderful to hear it again. The percussion is, for the most part, not metal qarqabas, but something lighter, and Mahmoud's guinbri playing here is more laid back than usual, though the riffing is just as righteous. Overall, it's got a warmer sound than your typical Gnawa music cassette. It's a delight, and you should visit this page and download it right away!
Meanwhile Tawfiq at the venerable blog Oriental Traditional Music from LPs & Cassettes dropped a lovely album of Qur'an recitation by Abderrahim Abdelmoumen, a Moroccan reciter who is also versed in Moroccan Andalusian Sufi singing. It's rare to hear Moroccan melodies and vocal stylings in Qur'an recitation, so this is a real treat. You can find it here.
Chris recently shared a rare 78RPM recording of the Jewish liturgical chant "Adon Olam", recorded in the 1950s by Moroccan singer Judah Sebag.
And finally, Gary of Bodega Pop has been hosting a fantastic weekly radio program on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio online, called Bodega Pop Live. A few months back, he devoted an entire 3-hour program to Moroccan music, covering a LOT of styles and time periods. The program is still archived online, and you can listen here.
Here's another vintage album from âita pioneer L'Hajja L'Hamdaouya. These are some classic âita marsawiya and chaâbi tunes here, the sort you would hear typically with a small ensemble (oud, viola, derbuka, bendir) such as that of Bouchaib el Bidaoui. Hamdaouya performs them here with a larger ensemble including several violas, flute, and tar (tambourine). Interesting to hear the âita-style viola riffing with multiple violas, and the nice looooooose heterophony and prominent tambourine give these recordings an almost Arab-Andalusian âla vibe in places. And on top of that, it also manages to rock!
Some of these songs can be heard by other performers elsewhere in the Stash. "Ma Cheftou Leghzal" appears by Bouchaib el Bidaoui here. And "Elghaba" appears (in a version about 7 times faster) by Hamid Zahir and Alfarqat Almarrakchiya here. Enjoy!
Chris over at the Jewish Morocco blog recently uploaded a couple nice tracks from this cassette here. There are some other audio goodies in his stash - mainly vinyl - from Morocco (Koutoubiaphone) and Israel (Koliphone), as well as great info about some overlooked artists. Check it out!
Several fantastic posts this month over at the Oriental Traditional Music from LPs and Cassettes blog. 2 cassettes of the rarely heard Moroccan style of Qur'an recitation that follows the melodic structures of Arab-Andalusian music. I'm told that this reciter, Al-Haj Abd er-Rahman ben Moussa, used to be featured prominently on Moroccan state media years ago. These days, the Qur'an recitation on the Moroccan channels tends to follow a more Middle Eastern model.
Also available, some lovely a capella amdah and inshad (religious poetry), also in Arab-Andalusian style, from the munshid Al-Haj Muhammad al-Barraq.
Many thanks to Tawfiq for making these available for Ramadan enjoyment!
