Hi Y'all - Back with More Marrakchi Party Tunes - Si Mohamed Aguir

Happy 2013 to all. Sorry for the long absence - tape deck needed a little maintenance, and I guess I needed a little break too. Thanks for the comments and well wishes in the interim!

Still have a bunch of tapes from my summer trip to get digitized and out to ya. For now, though, here's a couple of oldies from deep in the stash. These both feature my fave oud man out of Marrakech, Hamid Zahir, but also highlight a particular member of his group, Si Mohamed Aguir.

The first tape, pictured above, is credited to Alfarqat Almarrakchiya (The Marrakchi Ensemble). It's basically the Hamid Zahir group, but featuring some different lead singers. I'm pretty sure that the singer on some of these tracks is Si Mohamed Aguir, and I think he's the one pictured on the cassette j-card. The only picture I could find online is from the sleeve of the 45 seen in the YouTube clip below. Does it look like the same guy to you? It sure sounds like him:



The cassette contains some tracks that appear on other cassettes credited to Hamid Zahir (#2 and #3 specifically). You'll still want to hear this album, though, if only for the insanely catchy singalong "Lebniya Llah Ihdik" (preview below).

The second cassette, pictured below, features tracks recorded live by Hamid Zahir and troupe (somewhere outside of Morocco, if I'm hearing the introductory comments to track 5 correctly).

This set features Si Mohamed Aguir singing on track 5. Zahir introduces Si Mohamed as the singer (and, at the end of the song, dancer). You'll hear Aguir's prominent rhythmic footstamping on several tracks. I believe Si Mohamed is the heavy set gentleman clapping, dancing and singing back-up in the following YouTube clip.


Even when he's not singing lead, he's a huge part of the atmosphere of Zahir's performances - adding the percussive clapping, cadential call-outs, and syncopated footwork. The songs he sings are more ironic and comedic than than those sung by Zahir. I don't know if he's still with us, but his good-time vibe is still in effect when the Marrakchi groove hits!

Any corrections or additional info about Si Mohamed Aguir would be greatly appreciated!!

Audio transfer notes: I did a time-pitch correction on track 4 of "Alfarqat Almarrakchi". It always seemed to run too fast to me - now the oud is in tune with that of the other tracks on the tape, though this track was certainly recorded at a different session. The Koutoubiaphone tape seems to me to run on the slow side, but I didn't adjust anything on it.

Discographic note: The Zahir live tape says "Koutoubiaphone" on the j-card, but the cassette shell bears the Tichkaphone imprint. They are one and the same company.

Tagnawit note: Track 2 of the Koutoubiaphone tape contains 2 Gnawa-related songs. "Hada Wa'du Meskin" takes lyrics from a Gnawa song but gives them a different (but still pentatonic) melody. "Lagnawi" refers to the Gnawa melk Sidi Mimoun. However I believe this song has its origins in the Aissawa repertoire - I've heard the melody played at an Aissawa ceremony, but it's not typically played at Gnawa ceremonies.

Alfarqat Almarrakchia - Editions Hassania EH1097
1) Lebniya Llah Ihdik

2) A Bgha Itjewwej
3) Kulshi Msha Ghafel
4) Farkh Lehmam (or so it says on the j-card - the only refrain I hear sung refers to "Al-ghaba")

Hamid Zahir - H. Azzahir (live) Koutoubiaphone/Tichkaphone CKTP5006
1) Lalla Souad
2) Hada Wa'du Meskin - Lagnawi
3) Lil Lil Ya Sidi Âamara
4) Lghorba
5) Ma Bghit Zuwwej 


And of course there's more Hamid Zahir stashed away here and here.

Goodbye Abderrahmane Paco

Sad to report the passing of the incomparable Abderrahmane "Paco" Kirouche this past weekend. First musician to explore the resonances between the Gnawa arts and contemporary social issues in a musical way. Others have done so since, none have done it better.

I have written about and shared some of his music - both solo and with Nass el Ghiwane. The tapes in this post are the last 2 commercial solo cassettes of his that I own. The 1995 cassette pictured below was his first solo album after leaving Nass el Ghiwane in 1993. It's an odd piece of work. His guinbri playing and singing are strong, and all the tunes are right out of the lila repertoire, but the musical setting is rather bizarre. There is a synth marimba that works nicely (as it did a few years later for Gnawa Diffusion). The ambient and jungle noises are just strange, and the synth guitar, synth drum and synth horn punches seem designed to jar. This tape really rubbed me the wrong way back in the day. Listening to it now, it definitely has a "feel" to it (though not as transcendently trippy as this masterpiece of Gnawa psychedelica.) Was Paco trying to make an album as different-sounding as possible from his always-acoustic ex-band?

The cassette pictured at top dates from around 2001, and it's a straight-ahead, solid Gnawa tape, though the mix is a little weird to my ear. All songs are from the Ghabawyin (the black "Sons of the Forest") suite which is performed late in the Gnawa lila ceremony. This tape also seems to be late in Paco's recorded work. I've not come across any other cassettes of his, and for most of the past decade I heard that he was sick. Please, if anyone has other commercial recordings of Paco, let me know - I'd love to hear them!

Though neither of these tapes are as earth-shattering as his best work with Nass el Ghiwane, they still brim with the character and intensity that made Paco such an unforgettable presence on stage and in memory. Saha, Mâalem!

Paco Abderrahmane (1995)
1)  Moulay Brahim

2)  Laghmami
3)  Mimouna
4)  Sidi Bu Derbala

Les Meilleures Chansons Spirituelles de GNAWA (2001)
1)  Allal Ya Allal - Fulani
2)  Sandi
3)  Balini
4)  Allah Ya Rebbi Ya Moulay

5)  Sellem Âla Muhammad Sidi

Kamal El Abdi - Straight Outta Beni Mellal

A generous hour-long cassette from Kamal El Abdi, the popular viola-slinging singer from Casablanca (originally from Khouribga/Beni Mellal). My in-laws are from the Beni Mellal area, and we started seeing VCDs of his countrified-chaâbi a few years ago. His chaâbi is the type you might hear at a wedding out in Beni Mellal province - viola centered, insistent bendir-darbuka percussive drive, high-pitched women's backup singing complementing the male lead vocal. And with a cadre of female dancers wearing the hzam dyal muzun (the belt/sash with all the jingles).



Sometimes the repertoire veers toward aita, and a female vocalist take center stage (as in track 5 here).

I'm trying to discern what separates this regional chaâbi from the mainstream Casablanca variety. Something strikes my ear as different in the melody and the rhythm. The vocal ornamentation seems less ornate than what you might here from, say Senhaji or other male singers from Casa. The melodies stay away from the major-mode aita marsawiya style melodies, tending toward rasd or bayati quarter-tone melodies. Maybe I'm wrong - I'll have to ponder on this a little more... Thoughts anyone?

Loads more from Kamal el Abdi over at yala.fm

Tracks 1-2 and 4-5 are in the style described above (with a synth bass and synth banjo thrown into the mix). Track 3 is more synth-poppy, and track 6 is some groovy synth ghaita riffing to fill out the cassette.

1)  Ma Khelliti Liya Walo - Ya Lahbiba Âyyeti - Taâla Ou Taâla - ما خليتي ليا والو - يا الحبيبة عيطي - تعالة و تعالة
2)  Miâd Halek Yâjeb - Moulay Brahim - Lagnawi - معاد حالك يعجب - مولاي ابراهيم - ااكنوي
3)  Ya Lebniya Hchouma Hadchi - يالبنية حشومة هادشي
4)  Sima Taoualli - Wajhek S'hih - Mali Ya Rebbi Mali - سيما تولي - وخهك صحيح - مالي يا ربي مالي
5)  Halka - Za'ri - Khellini Nebki - Ouaili Oulaili - حلكة - زعري - خليني نبكي - ويلي ويلي

6)  bonus synth ghaita derdeg

Get it here.