More from Mluk el Hwa

Here's another cassette from the Marrakchi folk group Muluk el Hwa. I've sung their praises previously here and shared a compellingly corrupted tape of theirs here. Today's tape I digitized a long time ago but never shared it. I think it was because this j-card doesn't belong to the cassette with which it came. None of the listed song titles match what's heard on the tape, and somebody used a ballpoint pen to scribble out the catalog number 299.

The cassette certainly contains music by Muluk el Hwa, and it was issued by Sakhi Disque, the Casablanca-based label that released the other two tapes of theirs that I own. Unlike those two tapes, which contain almost exclusively Gnawa songs, this cassette contains no Gnawa songs (unless you count instrumental track that ends each side of the tape).

The songs on side 1 are traditional tunes. The opening track "Tafla Zina" has been widely recorded by Gnawa-affiliated folks, usually under the name of "Hasna ya Laila" or something similar. It has a feeling similar to the Soussiya songs that Gnawa perform at the end of lila ceremonies - the same melodic and rhythmic feel, lyrics of a popular nature, simple and catchy catchy catchy. I first remember hearing the song on a Mahmoud Guinia tape in a lovely solo vocal and guinbri version. Muluk el Hwa's recording is roughly as old as Mahmoud's, so the song has been circulating in Gnawa circles since at least the 1980s. Muluk el Hwa attributed the song to a Saharan origin. Their version seems to have different lyrics than what you hear in the many many versions of this song that you can find online.

Tracks 2 and 3 sound like traditional pilgrimage songs, though I'm not sure which saint is the destination of the pilgrimages in question. The Bahr el Ghiwane YouTube channel has shared a lyric video for these tracks. The songs on side 2 sound like original compositions, in the vein of classic Nass el Ghiwane and fellow Marrakchis Jil Jilala.

I must admit that Mluk el Hwa are more complex than I'd first characterized them. I'd originally thought of them as doing primarily Gnawa songs with a Ghiwane-type ensemble. But really they drew on a broader range of traditional material and they composed more original material than I'd realized.

Hope you enjoy - I'll have some more Muluk el Hwa posts soon!

Muluk el Hwa ملوك الهوى
SAKHI DISQUES cassette S.L. ??? الساخ ديستك

A1 Tafla Zina
A2 Ghir Joudouni Berdakoum
A3 Dar Nnbi A Dar Aljoud
A4 instrumental (ouled bambara)
B1 Ayayay Lemluk Lahwa
B2 Chi Rwa Min Safi, Chi Rwa Min Leghdira
B3 instrumental (ouled bambara)

FLAC | 320

Âita With Guinbri Really Shouldn't Work, But Tagada...

Well whaddya know? The Stash yields another Tagada tape! This dates from around 1992, when Mohamed Louz was still a member of the group. (For some historical info on the group, see our previous Tagada post.)

I wrote previously that Tagada's folk-revival approach was rooted in the âita. This album stretches things a bit, while maintaining a core texture of viola driving the melody, male group or antiphonal vocals and a bendir-driven percussion section.

"Lalla Lgada" leads things off in a typical âita mode, though with what sounds like scissors hearkening back to the âbidat errma. The strange "Ach Ngoul Lik" leads off with a pentatonic viola solo somewhat evoking the amarg tradition of the Soussi rwayes, but then the rhythm enters, featuring a Gnawa guinbri (and some faint qraqeb, I think). It sounds sort of Nass el Ghiwan-ish, except for the continued presence of the viola, which pulls the sound in a different direction. "Âyyitini" goes full Soussi, adding a banjo or lotar and naqqus for that rwayes vibe, though the singing is in Arabic, not Tachelhit.

Finally "Hada Hali" returns viola and bendir to the center of the texture with a real deep âita feel - angular bendir-s, alternating solo vocals evoking shikha song, sliding eventually into trance-based and trance-evoking lyrics, idiomatic viola riffing recalling the sweaty middle-of-the-night when the âita groove gets so heavy and REAL that it crosses over into that zone where all one can do is call prayers upon the Prophet and the saints, hope for deliverance and submit to the groove. At this point in the song, Tagada incorporate the guinbri and qraqeb again. This sounds nothing like Gnawa music, though, resembling much more the saken trance songs of the âita tradition. But with Gnawa signifiers added for intensification? Mixing these elements together is a weird, improbable idea, to which I'm sort of opposed on principle, and yet somehow... it kind of works! Well played, Tagada, well played!



Tagada (تگدة) Edition Hassania cassette EH 1462
01 Lalla Lgada (لالة الگادة)
02 Ach Ngoul Lik (اش نگول ليك)
03 Âyyitini (عيتني)
04 Hada Hali (هذا حالي)

Get it all here.

Tagroupit in the House - Oudaden Live at Ksar al Andalus, Agadir

Well here's another Moroccan live album from La Voix el Maarif! This one is from the Soussi group Oudaden. Unlike our last live album from LVEM, which was recorded in Canada, this one was recorded in Morocco. According to the Arabic text on the spine and shell, this is a "live artistic soirée with Oudaden at the Ksar al Andalus in Agadir."

According to Anir at amazighnews.net, Oudaden recorded their first album for LVEM in 1985. (Perhaps this is it? It does say "Volulme (sic) 1".) The author characterizes Oudaden's artistic direction as being different from that of earlier groups from the 1970s such as Izenzaren. That earlier style, which came to be called Tazenzaret (i.e., in the manner of Izenzaren), was characterized both by its "revolutionary" lyrics and by the novel musical compositions of Igout Abdelhadi, who incorporated non-Soussi rhythms and melodies.

Oudaden, on the other hand, represented a return to traditional Soussi rhythms and melodies, albeit with the use of the electric guitar alongside the banjo. Oudaden also specialized in love songs. This style - love songs, traditional Soussi melodies and rhythms, with a somewhat modernized ensemble - came to be known as "Tirubba" (possibly "in the manner of a rub3a quartet"?) or "Tagroupit" (in the manner of a groupe - i.e., a modern ensemble). Oudaden group member Mohamed Jemoumekh, describes these styles as "le chaabi n tchelhit" (Berber chaâbi).

There's rather a lot of tape hiss on this one - I tried to roll off some of it in the EQ. There's loads more Oudaden over at Yala, if you want to sample some other, more hi-fi recordings of theirs.

By the way, the group name Oudaden refers to the bighorned Barbary sheep native to the Atlas mountains.

Oudaden - Live at Ksar al Andalus, Agadir (LVEM 126)
Track 2 (of 4)

Get it all here.

Like Chaâbi, Tagroupit seems to be continuing its popularity. Moroccan Tape Stash blog follower Owen Buck traveled in southern Morocco earlier this year and was treated, while dining, to a musical performance from an amateur Tachelhit group. I couldn't tell you whether the style is more tazenzaret or more tagroupit, but the great sound of banjos, drums and pentatonic melodies is undeniable. Enjoy some of this performance here:

Lemchaheb - Not the Village Green Preservation Society but rather the Jefferson Airplane of Moroccan Folk Revival Groups

First off, let me say that in fact there is no good reason to think of Lemchaheb as the Jefferson Airplane of Moroccan folk revival groups. Further, as Hawgblog pointed out some time ago,

"compar[ing] artists who are relatively unknown in the West to Western artists, with the aim of helping Western readers make sense of said artists [gives] results [that] are frequently ridiculous"

On the other hand, sometimes these comparisons are so purposefully ridiculous as to be awesome! Hammer at the (too long silent) Audiotopia blog titled a number of posts in this fashion, many of which pop up on the blog's homepage as among his most popular posts. (The classic "Sadoun Jaber: Iraq's Pat Boone? - سـعـدون جـابـر." is my favorite!)

With regard to Morocco's folk revival groups, a comparison with classic rock bands has long been invoked by Western writers. "The Beatles of Morocco" most often refers to Nass el Ghiwane, though Google also reveals instances of Jil Jilala being so dubbed. "The Moroccan Rolling Stones" also refers most often to Nass el Ghiwane, though one can also find the term applied to Jil Jilala. Ridiculous? Ridiculously awesome? Or actually worthy of merit?

Although the music of these groups did not particularly sound like the Beatles or the Stones, there are a number of reasons why comparisons of folk revival bands with counterculture Euro-American groups make some actual historical sense. Philip Schuyler (1) notes the influence of Euro-American counterculture on Moroccan youth culture when these groups came into existence (early 1970s), as well as the use of group names rather than names of individual star performers. These groups' stage presentation (individual musicians at individual microphones, spread out across the front of a stage) seems modeled on that of rock bands. And even Nass el Ghiwane's combination of banjo, Gnawa guinbri, and drums hearkens to the bass-guitar-drums power trios of the Who or Led Zeppelin. Furthermore, Schuyler notes, groups like Nass el Ghiwane and Jil Jilala drew on the music of the brotherhoods (e.g., Gnawa, Jilala, Aissawa). Such brotherhoods have at times "served as the focus for protest and resistance to the government", thus becoming countercultural role models of sorts.

It's one thing to note actual historical influences from Western artists on non-Western artists, or parallels with similar musico-historical contexts. Such observations can be interesting and illuminating. It's quite a different thing to claim that the zeitgeist or oevre of one artist is equivalent to that of another artist from a Western canonical tradition.

What does it mean to say that Jil Jilala and/or Nass el Ghiwane ARE the Beatles and/or Rolling Stones of Morocco? It assumes an agreement about the salient characteristics and impacts of the Beatles and Stones. It also assumes that those characteristics are so iconic and universal as to set a standard by which Moroccan artists can be measured.

So what is it about Nass el Ghiwane/Jil Jilala that makes the comparison with the Beatles/Stones so attractive? Each are the two most popular groups of their respective traditions, working within youth-oriented popular culture. Both sets of groups broke the mold and redefined what a performing ensemble could be, influencing everything that came in their wake. Do we really need to use the Beatles and Stones as archetypes to make this observation? Does doing so, in fact, serve to belittle the value of NG or JJ, or Moroccan music? or Moroccan culture? I mean, if I told you Bob Marley was the Beatles of Reggae, I'm doing a disservice to Bob Marley and to reggae, and possibly insulting your musical knowledge at the same time, right?

The other dumb thing about using the Beatles/Stones metaphor is that it invites additional and worse metaphors for other musicians within the tradition. What of Lemchaheb, for example? When one speaks of only one band, it's Nass el Ghiwane. If one speaks of two, it's NG and Jil Jilala. If one speaks of three, it's NG, JJ and Lemchaheb (unless one includes the Soussi/Tachelhit/Berber groups). If we are to stick with our first-wave-of-British-Invasion-rock-bands metaphor, then I think we'd have to propose Lemchaheb as The Kinks of Morocco.

Wait - perhaps there is some merit in that comparison! Lemchaheb arose slightly later than Nass el Ghiwane and Jil Jilala, as the Kinks arose slightly after the Beatles and Stones.  Few would argue that the Kinks or Lemchaheb were more influential or mold-breaking than the Beatles/Stones or NG/JJ. Yet there is something singular and distinct about the Kinks and Lemchaheb that let them flourish as creative forces within a newly established genre.

The most comprehensive information in English about Lemchaheb seems to be this biography by Imad Abbadi (who appears to be the author of several very good Amazon reviews of Moroccan music in the early 2000's). The author points out that, unlike JJ and NG, Lemchaheb did not draw on folk and religious sources for their compositions. From a purely musical point of view, I'd also add that Lemchaheb drew on non-Moroccan sources more liberally than JJ and NG (use of non-Moroccan instruments like bouzouki, some use of polyphony/chords here and there, and collaboration with the German rock band Dissidenten.)

But to buy into Lemchaheb being the Kinks, one has to first buy into Nass el Ghiwane and Jil Jilala being the Beatles and/or the Rolling Stones, and really, I don't want to go there. There are so many elements of each group's story that do NOT hold up to comparison. I mean, did NG or JJ have a prancing lead singer? Did one group break up early and the other continue on for decades? Did either sing a lot of love songs? Do class differences exist and are they relevant? Is one group clearly more blues/roots-oriented and the other more pop-oriented? Is NG's Boudjemâa the Brian Jones of Moroccan folk revival bands, or the John Lennon? And on the flip side, did the Beatles or Stones come together in a theatre troupe? Did they ever swap bass players? Did either have a female member?

So, rather than assert and stand by the Kinks analogy (to which there is some merit but which rests on an uncomfortable set of assumptions about the importance and universality of the first wave of British Invasion rock bands), I will instead propose that Lemchaheb are the Jefferson Airplane of Moroccan folk revival groups, for the following spurious and superficial reasons:

• This 1980 Lemchaheb album steals the design and background photo from the Airplane's 1968 album "Crown of Creation"

• The 1980 all-male Lemchaheb bears some resemblance (at least in terms of hair) to the 1980 all-male Jefferson Starship

• Each group included a female singer in a past and future incarnation

• Each group made excellent use of group vocals (dig the very end of Talit El Haramain for some contrapuntal vocal lines)

• There are some (perhaps unintentional) psychedelic elements to the Lemchaheb album:
• The track "El Jounoud" (The Soldiers) opens with gunshot and bomb sound effects. (Crown of Creation came out during the Vietnam War, though it wouldn't be until the next studio album "Volunteers" that the Airplane would get explicitly political. I don't know what the context of "El Jounoud". "Talit El Haramain", though, is about Palestine.)
• OMG, there is an Indian sitar section at the end of "El Jounoud"! I don't think the Airplane ever actually used a sitar, but the aroma of sitars sort of permeates the whole psychedelic era...
•  There is some tripped out decay on the bouzouk - dig the opening to "Ya Latif"

I hope you enjoy this fine Lemchaheb album more than my convoluted musings. Thanks to Nathan Salsburg for another swell tape rip!

Lemchaheb - "Succes 80" (EH 1143)
1) El Jounoud
2) Ya Latif
3) Talit El Harmaïn
4) Aji Netsamhou

Get it here.

(1) Schulyer, Philip D., "A Folk Revival in Morocco", in Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, ed. Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

Izmaz [Yeah!!]

 

Hello Dear Blogosphere - hope you've all been well! Sorry for the absence - ah, where does the time go? Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, I suppose, so a fond hello from me...

Sharing here the first of a few tape rips that were sent to me by the esteemed Nathan Salsburg, music producer, guitarist, and curator of one of the greatest tape stashes on the planet - the Alan Lomax archive! If you haven't lost yourself perusing the hours and hours of field recordings generously made available online at the Association for Cultural Equity, do yourself a favor - head over there and dig into a real treasure trove! [I wrote about the Moroccan collection some time ago here.] Continuaing kudos to Nathan and the good folks at ACE for making this all available!

Today's offering is a cassette from the wonderful band Izmaz. I was first introduced to Izmaz via Mr Tear's postings (and Hammer's exhaustive notes) over at the recently retired Snap, Crackle & Pop blog here and here. (Though the blog has left the building, the links appear to be live, so grab 'em while you can!) There's a wonderfully laid back yet somehow also intense quality to Izmaz that sets them apart, to my ear, from their contemporaries on the Moroccan folk revival scene (Nass El Ghiwane, Jil Jilala, Izenzaren...) Extrapolating from Hammer's discographical information, this tape would appear to date from the early 1980s. And the j-card states that it was recorded in Paris. This album features the rrbab (horesehair fiddle) more prominently than on either of the two albums shared at Snap, Crackle & Pop.



Izmaz (Chariti - Phone cassette C.P. 27)

01 Wahli Wahla Annite
02 Amaa Kmyaghen
03 Iwaa Ourreed Ghiyid Igazaal
04 Imnayen

Get it all here.

Mohamed Derhem (of Jil Jilala) - 1st (and only?) solo album

Composer, singer, percussionist, founding member of Jil Jilala, Mohamed Derhem left the group for a solo career in the mid 1990s. His intense, possessed presence onstage and his strong, impassioned singing made Derhem always appear to me as the pivotal figure in the group, though I don't know enough about the history and internal dynamics of the group to comment deeply on this point.

Derhem (at the congas here), is the vocal soloist in the second half of this song, which was featured in our previous post:



I don't remember exactly when I got this tape. It appears to date from the late 1990s or early 2000s. Sonically it shares much with Jil Jilala albums of the 1980s/90s that flirted interestingly with a mechanical rhythmic feel (like this). The main differences are the absence of group vocals and the use of synthesized horns. This horn sound was ubiquitous in 1990s Moroccan pop chaâbi and rai music, and it might have been a recipe for disaster to combine it with the nominally "folk/roots" sounds that drove Jil Jilala. Happily, though, the combination of complex rhythms, strong melodies, and Derhem's fiery vocal creates a compelling tension that, to my ear, works nicely.

A web search didn't turn up any other solo albums by Derhem after this one, though he has participated in a few one-off singles over the years, notably this collaboration with rapper Elam Jay in 2007, that also features Gnawi mâllem and Jil Jilala member Mustapha Baqbou:



Though his musical output seems to be sporadic, Derhem maintains a high profile via Moroccan television, where he has been serving as a jury member on Studio 2M, the Moroccan equivalent of American Idol.

Mohamed Derhem (ESD T.C. 1175)
01 Al Matla
02 Ahya Hadak
03 Om Al Karam

04 Danaden
05 Ana Bnadem
06 Ila Dak el Hal

The Stash has it all here.
Or, if you want more pristine (though at lower bitrate) digital versions of these tunes, Yala's got 'em here.

Most Gnawa-influenced Jil Jilala Tape

This is a gorgeous album by Jil Jilala, dating, I believe, from the mid 1980s.

Jil Jilala have featured a guinbri player at various times in their history. Paco Abderrahmane and Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri were group members in the early days of the 1970s, and Mustapha Baqbou has been a member at various times since the 1980s. Despite this fact, Jil Jilala have, to my ear, have rarely drawn overt inspiration from Gnawa melodies, songs, riffs or rhythms. This is quite different from the approach of Nass el Ghiwane in their Paco years, when they drew liberally from the Gnawa repertoire.

This album seems to the be exception. I call it their most Gnawa-influenced tape, though even here the influence is mostly subtle. The title track, "Hada Wa'dek Ya Meskine" opens with some solo guinbri riffing. The song's title translates as something like "That's your lot, poor guy", and refers to the Gnawa song "Hada Wa'do Meskine" (That's his lot, poor guy), versions of which we've featured here and here. And when the rhythm shifts at 8:18, the melody also echoes that of the Gnawa original. "Ya Men Narjak" features Gnawa-styled guinbri riffing and rhythm. And the tracks on side 2 feature guinbri lines more Gnawa-ish than on other Jil Jilala albums featuring Mustapha (such as this and this at Yala.fm, and this at Awesome Tapes.

For some great vintage Jil Jilala, check out the posts at Snap, Crackle & Pop. And for some detailed history of the group, check Hammer's megapost at The Audiotopia.

Actually, I just found another Jil Jilala album at Yala, which does feature some very Gnawa moments.

Mastering note: I grafted the first couple measures of "Sfina", which were missing from my tape, from Yala's version.

Jil Jilala - Hada Wa'dek Ya Meskin (Disques Gam GB.85.86)
01 Hada Wa'dek Ya Meskin

02 Ya Men Narjak
03 Sfina
04 Koun m3a Allah

Get it all here.

Groupe Iâachaken (ft. Omar Sayed) Vol. 2&3 - Who's Gonna Pull the Cart?

Two more lovely tapes today from Groupe Iâachaken. Like their first album, Iâachaken's second and third albums feature the participation of Nass el Ghiwane's Omar Sayed. I wish I could decode the image of the donkey cart on the 2 accompanying j-cards. On 1993's Magarn Ifassen, Omar Sayed is pulling the entire group, who sits on the cart. On 1994's Mani Nhra, the roles are reversed, and Groupe Iâachaken is pulling him, though apparently Omar achieves this turnaround by dangling a television in front of them. Make of it what you will...

These albums were released on Edition Sonya Disque, a label out of Casablanca whose tapes I first saw in 1993 and who released a lot of music in the '90s and beyond. Nass el Ghiwane released albums on the label and Paco released solo albums on it. Najat Aatabou put out some albums with the label as well.

Magarn Ifassen features qarqaba on several tracks, ramping up the group's generally laid-back feel a bit. The last tune on Mani Nhra, unlike anything else by the group, features ambient keyboard accompanying Omar Sayed's opening mawwal . It's a strange combination - the folk-revival acoustic instruments with the modern sheen of a synthesizer, but it works nicely here. (Much better than it does on a bizarre Nass el-Ghiwane tape I have...). And Omar's mawwal is an interesting one - the vocal ornamentations sound Indian in places. Quite lovely.

By the way, it's nice to hear Omar singing and reciting in Tachelhit. Nass el Ghiwane had never recorded a song in Berber.  News stories last summer indicated that a new album would soon be released, featuring their first-ever song in Berber. However, I've seen no further information about the album. Has anybody heard any news about the album's delay?

From the j-card of Magarn Ifassen:
Lyrics: Lamghari Hamid
Music: Farouq Saîd
Arrangement: Omar Sayed

Groupe Iâachaken - Magarn Ifassen (Edition Sonya Disque 325)
01) Magarn Ifassen (ft. Omar Sayed)
02) Gar Amoudi

03) Tifawin
04) Timila
   Get it here.

Groupe Iâachaken - Mani Nhra (E.S.D. 490)
01) Mani Nhra (ft. Omar Sayed)
02) Our Nsendem Yan
03) Issegueassn
04) Illi Hna (ft. Omar Sayed)

    Get it here.
 

Groupe Iâachaken ft. Omar Sayed

The group Iâachaken was a Nass-el-Ghiwane-style folk revival band in the early 1990s. I don't think they ever achieved the notoriety of other groups who worked in this style and sung in Tachelhit, such as Izenzaren or Oudaden (whom you can check out over at Snap Crackle & Pop), but they did release at least 3 lovely albums.

I saw Iâachaken perform live in June 1992 at the Palais Badiî, Marrakech, as part of the Festival Maroc Arts 92. Their song "Arnsghal" wiggled its way into my head, so I sought out this tape. It's one of the catchiest songs I've heard!

Omar Sayed of Nass el Ghiwane (pictured floating above the band in the j-card photo) had some relationship with the group. The first tune on the tape features him reciting poetry and performing a mawwal (lyric-less vocal improvisation). Subsequent albums from Iâachaken also mention and picture him. I think he may have served as a producer or musical director. I've got a couple other tapes of the group, which I'll try to share soon.

By the way, I wonder if there were groups working in the Ghiwane style that sang in the Riffi or Middle Atlas Berber dialects (Tariffit and Tamazight). I've only ever heard groups singing in Tachelhit. Please comment if you know of any!

The guinbri player from Iâachaken, Radouane Raifak (lower left on the j-card), later joined Nass el Ghiwane after the 1995 departure of Paco Abderrahmane.

Said Iâachaken (top left in the group photo) appears to have remained active as well, releasing an album in 2008, which you can hear over at Yala.



And finally, the hook from "Arnasghal" was so stuck in my head back in the day that I wrote some English lyrics to sing to it. This evolution was continued by my dear friend and musical co-conspirator Raul Rothblatt, who arranged and transformed the tune, and added it to the repertoire of his Afro-Hungarian fusion band Dallam-Dougou in New York as "On My Way (Oy Yoy Yoy)", which you can hear on the group's album New Destiny. From guinbri and banjo to cello and balafon!

Groupe Iâachaken (featuring Omar Sayed) - مجموعة إعشاقن بمشاركة عمر السيد
01) Han Tsemer Louqt (ft. Omar Sayed)
02) Taghit
03) snippet
04) Arnsghal
05) Mata Khda Ijraan

Get it here.

Great few weeks for Moroccan Stashes!

Wow - props to my blogosphere colleagues for a bumper few weeks of Moroccan grooves! Well worth checking out:

Snap, Crackle & Pop
Mr. Tear over at Snap, Crackle & Pop is back from a recent Morocco trip and promises to share some goodies in the weeks to come. If the current offerings are any indication, these should be fantastic! Already up is the Mustapha Baqbou tape pictured above - IF YOU LIKE GNAWA MUSIC, YOU NEED THIS TAPE!! This is my all-time favorite Baqbou tape - stunning virtuosity on the guinbri, masterful control of dynamics and drama, passionate singing, and songs from deep in the Ghaba suite! I lost my copy about 15 years back - so happy to hear this again. Also up at SC&P is a lovely album by the group Izmaz - an intense yet laid back offering from one of the '70s folk revival groups. 




Bodega Pop
Gary recently dropped a CD by old-school amarg artist Rais (Hajj) Omar Wahrouche. These are some great recordings, well worth a listen!









Audiotopia
Still digesting this huge cache of Jil Jilala tunes over at Hammer's. Some of it familiar, some of it very obscure!







See ya soon!