Al Hadri Hamid - Non Stop Soussiya

Here's a tape from Meknassi mâllem Hamid al-Hadri. Another tape of his, available in the Stash here, features songs from the opening Ouled Bambara section of the Gnawi lila ceremony. This tape features songs from the very end of the ceremony.

The tape opens with "Lalla Malika", part of the suite of Yellow songs/spirits from the end of the trance phase of the lila. al-Hadri then segues directly into the Soussiya 'popular' repertoire with which Gnawa typically close the night-long ceremony. (I wrote a little bit on Soussiya songs in this early blog post.) And he keeps going, non-stop, for the rest of the album, which fades out at the end of Face B.

This is a nice and unusual tape of Soussiya songs. In performance, Soussiya songs are typically given over to dancing, and are usually pretty raucous. Their light-hearted, fun nature feels like a collective sigh of relief and celebration from musicians, participants and spectators, coming after a long night of plumbing the depths and dreads of the Gnawa palette of colors, spirits and grooves. So it's unusual here that once "Lalla Malika" is finished and we move into Soussiya proper, the qraqeb metal percussion devices drop away, leaving just the guinbri, clapping and vocals. In my experience in Marrakech, the qraqeb get LOUDER during the Soussiya, since more people tend to get up and dance at that point, and they want that driving rhythm that the qraqeb provide. Maybe it's a Meknes thing for the qraqeb to drop out. Or just a quirk of this recording. At any rate, the singing is easy to hear and understand, for a change, so it's nice to get a good earful of these fun songs.

Al Hadri Hamid - Tahiri Disque 103

Excerpt from Track 2 (of 2)

Get it all here.

Al-Hadri Hamid - Riffin' the Ouled Bambara, Meknes-Style

Hard days in the music blogosphere. Sad to find the great Holy Warbles took a hit, though I have no doubt that the Owl will rise again! Hope I can continue sharing with you here. I try to keep my posts to music that is out of print and/or impossible to find. Thanks Gary at Bodega Pop for his thoughtful and passionate comments.

Carrying on with another Gnawa cassette for ya, this one picked up in Meknes c.1999. In the popular imagination (within Morocco and without...) Gnawa are associated primarily with Essaouira (where they are heavily promoted/exploited by the tourist industry) and Marrakech (where they probably exist in the greatest numbers of any Moroccan city). However, Gnawa practices and the musicians who animate them can be found in cities across Morocco, from Tangier to Oujda to Merzouga to Agadir...

The Meknes Gnawa tradition is well established and well documented.  It appears to be more prominent than that of neighboring Fez. Perhaps the presence in Meknes of the zawiya (shrine) of the Hadi ben Aissa, patron saint of the Aissawa brotherhood, makes Meknes more conducive to trance-music practitioners. Still, Gnawa from Meknes have rarely been featured in international or even nationwide recordings. One recent exception is Maalem Abdenbi el Meknassi.

I don't know anything about the performer here, al-Hadri Hamid, though I have another cassette from Meknes that I believe features him as well. This tape is all Ouled Bambara - that is, it features songs from the opening phase of the lila ceremony. Unusually, they are performed here with qarqaba rather than with the interlocking clapping that is typical of this phase. Some of the typical Ouled Bambara songs are featured here (Bangara Bangara, Chalaba Titara, etc.).  But there are also some rarely performed pieces, including a version of Tintinbara, which traditionally features a very funny pantomime where a Gnawi dancer (male) dresses up as a pregnant woman.

1) Tsiyyisa - Fangoro Fangoro - Amara Yobadi - Sidi L'-Afu Shshiyat Ammar
2) Berrma Sutanbi - Fulan Walina - Sawiye - Ye Llah Sawiye
3) Yobadi
4) Lalla L-Wa'riqma - Jellaba Titara - Jellaba Tiktu - Berkat a Husa
5) Kalkani Bulila
6) L-'Aribi 1 (Wayli a wayli) - L-'Aribi 2 (L'Aribi kum kum kum)
7) Allah Yobadi Sadiyariyara 1 - Allah Yobadi Sadiyariyara 2

8) Baniya yar kama - Allah Mitara Chkam Bambara - Wahyana waye - 'Ar Allah 'Ar N-nbi - Sadi w-Llah - Serku Balaji ya Huma - Tintinbara - Allah ya Mbwirika, Siydek rah ja (take 1)

9) Allah ya Mbwirika, Siydek rah ja (take 2)

Get it here.