Zitouni Bourgogne - Chaâbi Star

This album was shared a few years by Gary ago over at Bodega Pop. (Thanks Gary!!) I finally spent some time with it and did some digging trying to identify the artist. It's a chaâbi album by the singer Zitouni and his group. Zitouni was a member of the legendary group Noujoum Bourgogne (The Bourgogne Stars, named for the Bourgogne neighborhood of Casablanca where they originated). That group went against then-current chaâbi trend of using keyboards, drum sets and guitars, opting instead to use only acoustic folk instruments: taarija, bendir, and kamanja (violin) [1]. Here is a clip from a performance of the group, featuring Zitouni on lead vocals:

The group split in the early 1990s. Of the group members, violinist/singer Mustapha Samamrkandi (known as Mustapha Bourgogne) achieved the greatest success as a solo artist. Zitiouni also continued as a solo artist, but without as much success. Many YouTube commenters lament the fact that Zitiouni's artistry is underappreciated. 

A few of Zitiouni's solo albums are available on streaming platforms - these platforms however are not able to distinguish between multiple artists that have the same name. So if you look for Zitouni on YouTube Music or Spotify, you'll find a couple of albums by our Zitouni (Gali Ndik and Sidi Abdejlil) alongside an album by an Algerian raï singer named Zitouni and some tracks by an âita group billed as Cheikh Moslih & Zitouni. Other recordings of our Zitouni can be found under the artist name Zitouni Bourgogne. That's the name that Zitouni uses on his own YouTube channel, launched in 2021 and currently active.

At least one song of Zitouni's is a well-known classic: Daouli Ghzali. This song was burning up the wedding/party dance floors when I was in Morocco in Summer 1995, but I never knew who originally sang it. You can find an edited version of it on numerous compilations, but here's the full version from the original cassette:
 

Zitouni's solo work, like that of Mustapha Bourgogne, foregoes the acoustic-folk-instruments-only format of the Noujoum Bourgogne group. The album shared by Bodega Pop appears to be an early solo work of Zitouni's. In addition to kamanja and bendir, it features some light keyboard accompaniment (pads and bass), what sounds to me like a drum set, and a prominent darbuka. I've uploaded a few of the album's tracks to YouTube:



There are no track titles listed on the cassette or j-card. I added track titles below from listening to the lyrics and music. There are a few short instrumental pieces on the album that feature rhythmic accents reminiscent of people dancing and stepping on a qaada oil barrel, so I am calling those pieces 'qaada music'. You can grab the tracks from Bodega Pop (link below) and retag them if you like.

Orchestre Zitouni اوركسترا الزيتوني
Al-Mounafiq المنافق
Sadara Production cassette 016 إنتاج الصدارة
A1 Al Mounafiq
A2 Rani ya Sidi Ghrib
A3 Al Bahraoui
A4 qaada music
B1 Khssara Fik
B2 Lwali Bourchiche
B3 electro qaada
B4 Wa Ouladek
B5 qaada music

FLAC at Bodega Pop

Sources:
[1] Nora Dialna. "Noujoum Bourgogne, histoire d’un groupe 100% marocain". Dialna, April 19, 2021. 
https://dialna.fr/musique-noujoum-bourgogne-histoire-dun-groupe-100-marocain/

Some Deep Stati Trax Before Ramadan

Here's a fantastic Stati tape that Lalla Hafida brought me in 2016. Down deep in the âita groove, this is some great stuff. I wish I knew the identity of the shikha singer featured here along with Stati - she's fabulous.


The music and the photo are clearly much older than 2016. The cassette number 20/2000 indicates that it was released in the year 2000, but I suspect it's a reissue of an earlier album. (He looks very young in the photo.)

For those of you observing Ramadan (starting at the end of this week), here's wishing you a month of peace, blessing, and remembrance.

Stati (Al Fannan Abdelaziz Stati) - الفنان عبد العزيز الستاتي
Sawt Chaouia cassette 20/2000
1) La Tghib 3lia - لله لا تغيب علي
2) Lawah Ya Lebnia - لواه يا لبنية
3) Raqsa - رقصة
4) Jayeb Rou7i Lik Hdia - جايب روحي ليك هدية
5) Za3eri - زعري / Raqsa 3la Lqa3da - رقصة على القعدة

Get it all here.
More Stati in the Stash here.

And the Zaêri Beat Goes On - Shikh Mohammed al Khirani Khribgui

Some more great Âita  Zaêriya for ya, straight outta Khouribga, served up by Production Hicham Atlas. Couldn't find any info on Shikh Mohammed on the interwebs. Nevertheless, these performances sound like seasoned old-school veterans, rocking out Zaêri-style.

I was gonna drop 2 albums on ya. After transferring them both, however, I realized that these two tapes actually included the same recordings with merely differing fade-ins and fade-outs. Track 3 combines pieces from both tapes.

Track 2 (of 5)

Get it all here.

More Raucous Âita Zaêriya - El Khirani Charki

You want this tape! Long, sweaty tracks of âita zaêriya, just right for that we-can-do-this-all-night-long summer wedding vibe. The sound quality indicates a professional studio recording, but throughout the whole tape one can hear people having conversations, clapping along, ululating, encouraging the dancers and musicians, dancing on the qaâda perhaps? Maybe it's a good recording from a very rocking wedding? Whatever the source may be, it's a noisy, raucous, lively one that will do you right! Another winner from Production Hicham Atlas.

I don't know anything about the artist El Khirani Charki, though a few clips of his performances are available on YouTube. I picked up the cassette in 2012 in or around Beni Mellal.



By the way, I don't know what is the deal with the nutty taârija player in this video clip. I just saw him on Moroccan TV the other night, doing the same shtick. It's especially weird when, as here, sultry shikhat are vying for one's gaze. Perhaps he is the equivalent of the pickled ginger eaten with sushi to cleanse the (here, visual) palate, making one appreciate the shikhat even more...

El Khirani Charki - El Khadem (Hicham Atlas 1100)
01) El Khadem

02) Track 2
03) Zaêriya

Get it all here.

More Wimmenz Grooves - El Âouniyate Chatahate

This CD sort of does double duty - you've got some lady-driven call-response singalong tunes (which would probably sound just fine without the viola that plays along through the whole thing). And you've got some viola-driven chaabi tunes and riffs that give that desired wedding/party ambiance - in particular, track 6 which feature what sounds like someone doing rhythmic-percussive footsteps on a qaâda (the metal basin that dancers climb onto during weddings or performances, to let their feet sing).

Here's a pretty rocking qaâda clip (which spins off into silliness about halfway thru...)



But back to the CD. Personally, I prefer my call-response women's songs with percussion-only. But I understand the irresistable pull of the viola - the chaâbi ambiance-animator supreme, and it works alright here. What surprised me and worried me on my recent trip to Morocco, is that when hunting for tapes of the great âbidat errma genre in and around Beni Mellal, I was told by all tape sellers that nobody was recording it anymore with its traditional percussion-only ensemble - the only recordings I could find featured violas in the group. Stupid me, I was so disappointed that I didn't pick up any tapes of that. It would have been interesting (he says, donning his ethnomusicological hat) to compare older tapes of the genre with what's calling itself âbidat errma today. On my previous trip in 2006, the trad stuff had become quite popular, and there were loads of young men playing playing in âbidat errma groups in the Beni Mellal area. I've got some vintage âbidat errma I'll drop on ya one of these days. You've never heard a pair of scissors played so funky!!

By the way this CD and many tapes I got on this trip come from the production house Hicham Atlas. Their product lists no address - only a cell phone number. I'm guessing they're located around the greater Beni Mellal-Tadla-Khouribga-Fkih ben Salah area. Good stuff!

Here's a sample - Track 1 of 9:

Get it all here.