Al Mouqri' Laayoun Al Kouchi - Mashriqi Recitation with Maghribi Accent

Ramadan Mubarak! Here is a cassette of Qur'an recitation by the Moroccan reciter Laayoun Al Kouchi (b. Safi, 1967). One of Morocco's top reciters, Cheikh Laayoun memorized the Qur'an by the age of nine. He participated in international competitions in the 1980s and 1990s and spent time as an invited reciter in Belgium and the USA before taking a permanent position at the Al-Andalus mosque in the Anassi neighborhood, Bernoussi, Casablanca in 2005. 

Cheikh Laayoun's Wikipedia entry states that he recites in a unique style that blends the Eastern Arabic (mashriqi) recitation tradition with the Western Arabic/Moroccan (maghribi) accent. His many recordings available on YouTube seem to bear this out - his melodies and phrase parsing follow what sounds to my ear like an eastern model, but his vocal delivery is more relaxed and open-throated than eastern reciters. 

Unlike the recordings on his YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, which are relatively recent, this recording of Cheikh Laayoune appears to be from early in his career. His recitation here is at a much higher pitch than how he currently recites, but I can still hear the Maghribi accent in his delivery.

Note: Cheikh Laayoune recites in the the Warsh recitation tradition, which is typical of North Africa (Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) and parts of West Africa (Mali, Niger, Senegal). Egypt, the Arab east, and most of the Muslim world typically use the Hafs recitation tradition. (See here for more on the different recitation traditions.)

If you want more of Cheikh Laayoune's recitation, there is a phone app that includes the entire Qur'an recited by him.

Al Mouqri' Laayoun Al Kouchi المقرئ العيون الكوشي
Qur'an Karim قرآن كريم
Sakhi Disques cassette 474 الساخ ديسك

B1 Surah Luqman سُورَة لقمان
B2 Surah As-Sajda سُورَة السجدة
B3 Surah Al-Ahzab (1-11) سُورَة الأحزاب
A1 Surah Al-Ahzab (12-73) سُورَة الأحزاب
      Surah Saba (1-3) سُورَة سبأ 

320 | FLAC 

Jilala by Request, plus Recent Interweb Goodness

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 - Variétés Jilalia (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.






Phocéephone recently shared a nice 1960's chaâbi 45 from Felix el Maghrebi. There's some info on Felix from Chris of Jewish Maghrib Jukebox here and 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.

Amdah Nabawiya & Qur'an Recitation (Mabrouk Eid al-Miloud)

I don't recall how or when this tape fell into my hands. It contains some nice solo and group amdah (praise poetry in honor of Prophet Muhammad) and some solo and group Qur'an recitation.  Melodies and cadences are very Moroccan in character.  (Middle Eastern styled recitations and religious song are also common in Morocco, so it's nice to find some of that down-home religious sound).

Particularly lovely is the group recitation of Qur'an 2:284-286 (track 3). I'm fascinated with group recitation of the Qur'an, something I've heard only in a Moroccan context. Since there are no set melodies associated with the text of the Qur'an, I always wonder how reciting groups stay together in pitch and time. Here, it sounds like there is one primary reciter and the rest of the group follows his lead.

For those of you commemorating Eid al-Miloud (a.k.a. Mawlid or Milad en-Nabi or the Prophet's Birthday), may your celebration be filled with love, remembrance & blessing!

1)  Madh 1 (group)
2)  Madh 2 (group)
3)  Quran 2-284-286 (group)

4)  Qur'an 25- 58-77 (solo - cuts out during verses 60-61)
5)  Madh 3 (group)
6)  Madh 4 (solo)
7)  Madh 5 (group)


Get it here.

Arab-Andalusian-style Qur'an recitation and Nashid at the Oriental Traditional Music blog

 

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!

Visit Oriental Traditional Music from LPs and Cassettes.