Fatna Bent el Houcine and Ouled Ben Aguida: Deep 'Aita - Moroccan Arab Country Music

The shikhat. Morocco's singing and dancing bards (bard-esses?). Recognized as carriers of a deep folk poetic-musical tradition, but also derided as women of ill repute. Loved and despised.

The aita (lit., "the cry" or "the call"). Rural Arab Moroccan sung folk poetic tradition. One of the main sources for Moroccan mainstream popular (urban) chaabi music. Aita is to chaabi as rural white southern US folk music ("old-time") is to Nashville-produced country music. Ergo: this is the real deal!

The late Fatna Bent el Houcine. Probably the most well-known shikha within Morocco. As the out-of-print CD on Buda calls her, "La Grande Voix d'el Aita". From the coastal city of Safi, one of the hot-spots for this type of music.

For your enjoyment, 2 cassettes from the 1990s featuring Fatna Bent el Houcine with the instrumental ensemble that backed her for years, Ouled ben Aguida, and her group of shikhat, including Shikha Hafida (pictured withe the band on the cassette cover), who has continued to work with the band since Fatna's passing.

One thing I love about the aita is when the shihat take turns singing verses within a song - you get to hear each singer in succession. There's some nice footage of this here, including both Fatna and Hafida, as well as some dancing (the climactic part of 'aita performances) which you won't get on the audio cassette!

For those of you who love odd rhythmic cycles, dig the final track on EN203, "Aita Bidawiya (Kharboucha)", which begins in a 40-beat cycle then progresses to 19- and10-beat cycles before ending up in a final, ecstatic 6/8. Epic, dramatic, sublime, rocking, beautiful stuff.

EN202:
1) Allah Injah Loulad
2) track 2
3) K'hal al-Shousha
4) Ya L-Ghayeb Suwwel
5) 'Aita Jbaliya
6) Sh'aibiya

Get it here.

EN203 (sorry, don't have the j-card for this, but it looked just like the other one anyway...)
1) Habibi Ma Jash
2) 'Ada 'Ada Ya L-Khayl
3) Za'ri
4) 'Aita Bidawiya (Kharboucha)

Get it here.


BTW - I don't mean to diss Moroccan chaabi or Nashville country - both have their joys! I'll share some chaabi down the road a bit...

BTW2 - There's more aita, of a different regional sort, here.

Hassan el-Dariouki & al-Makhloufia - Raw Scratch-and-Buzz Aita from Marrakech

A scratchy viola, a few buzzy hand drums, and some lady vocalists (or men emulating them) who milk 3 or 4 piercing pitches all night long. It's aita haouzia - rural Arabic song from the region of Marrakech. This is some deep, raw country music. No darbuka-s here - just the down-home buzz of the little clay ta'rija and the bendir frame drum.

The vocalist is the late Shikha Makhloufia. I believe she's the main vocalist featured in this clip:



The viola player is Shikh Hassan el Dariouki (I've also seen it written "Darouki"). His troupe Oulad El Haouz is regularly featured at national festivals and on state-run TV to represent this style of music. (On good days I also used to find them on the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech.) Oulad El Haouz is an all-male group, but the men have no trouble singing the same 3 or 4 piercing high pitches that the women sing:



For you lovers of quintuple meter, you'll find a couple of pieces in 5/4 (or 10/8 or whatever) on this tape (tracks 2 & 3).

1) Suwweli f-Riyadu
2) L-Khadem
3) Mul Shi'ba
4) Rouidia

BTW - Track 2 stretched across the break between sides A and B of the cassette. I did my best to merge them into a single track, though the fadeout was a challenge.

Get it here.

Mahmoud Guinia - "First Album" - Live Lila Recording

The cassette seller in Essaouira from whom I purchased this tape told me this was the first commercial recording released by the Gnawi maalem Mahmoud Guinia. I'm guessing that puts it in the late '70s or early '80s.

As I wrote previously, Maalem Mahmoud has released scores of recordings over the years. This one is quite different from all other recordings I've heard by him. It appears to have been recorded at a lila ceremony, and it's a great lila recording. I've had the pleasure of attending a couple of lila-s where Maalem Mahmoud worked, and I thought his playing at the ceremonies was very deep - more interesting than what he does in studio recordings. This tape gets to that place.

No studio production values to be found here - sounds like someone just set up a couple of mics and let them catch the action as it unfolds. The mics are well placed - a strong, punchy guinbri sound, and, importantly, strong qarqaba sound as well. Sometimes in Gnawa recordings the qraqeb get mixed too far down - i prefer it where both are really driving each other to deeper grooving, and that's definitely in effect here.

You get the beginning of the trance portion of the ceremony: the relentless crescendo of the Ftih ar-Rahba, all of the White suite (Salihin), and the beginning of the Multicolored (Bu Derbala)

1) Ftih ar Rahba
2) Hammadi
3) Sala Nabina (Salihin)
4) Jilala
5) Jilali Bualam / Jilali Dawi Hali / Mulay Abdelqader
6) Allah ya Bu Derbala

Get it here

BTW - track titles are mine, not what's written on the j-card.