Category Archives: The Master Musicians Of Joujouka

As requested by Hogon here are The Master Musicians Of Joujouka not to be confused with Master Musicians Of Jajouka. The Master Musicians of Joujouka are an ensemble of Sufi trance musicians most famous for their connections with the Beat Generation and the Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. These original musicians hail from the village of Joujouka, Jajouka, or officially Zahjouka (spelled جوجوكة or جهجوكة in Arabic) near Ksar-el-Kebir in the Ahl Srif mountain range of the southern Rif Mountains in northern Morocco. The Master Musicians of Joujouka adhere to the traditional Sufi trance music of their patron saint passed down for 1200 years. Timothy Leary having visited the village in 1970 wrote an essay on his time with Mohamed Hamri and the master musicians in his 1971 book “Jail Notes” called “The four thousand year old rock’n'roll band”. Leary based his dating on William Burroughs’s belief that the ritual Boujeloud, performed in Jajouka, owes its origin to the Ancient Greek deity Pan. Before the Alaouite dynasty, the masters used to play in medieval times for sultans in their courts, travelling with them and announcing their arrival to villages and cities. Their first exposure to Western audiences came through their introduction to the Beat generation. Painter/folklorist Mohamed Hamri, whose mother was an Attar from the village, led artist Brion Gysin to Jajouka to meet the group. Gysin became fascinated with the group’s music and led writer William Burroughs to the village. Burroughs described it as the world’s oldest music and was the first person to call the musicians a “4000-year-old rock and roll band”. In Tangier, Gysin and Hamri founded the 1001 Nights restaurant, in which the musicians played throughout the 1950s to a largely Western audience in what was then an international zone, the Interzone (book) of William S. Burroughs’ fiction.When Rolling Stones lead guitarist Brian Jones visited Morocco in 1968, Gysin and Hamri took him to the village to record the Master Musicians of Joujouka in the ground-breaking release Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, whose original release featured cover artwork by Hamri before a controversial 1990s redesign which appeared as Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka. Ornette Coleman recorded with the musicians in January 1973 some results of which featured on his LP Dancing In My Head. A second L.P. “Master Musicians of Jajouka” was released in 1974. The Joujouka brotherhood play a form of reed, pipe, and percussion music that relies on drones, improvisation, and complex rhythms, much of which is unique to Joujouka. Their flute is called the lira and is considered the oldest instrument in Jajouka. The double-reed instrument is called the rhaita; it is similar to an oboe, but possessing a louder sound and more penetrating tone. The drum is called the tebel and is made of goat skin and played with two wooden sticks. There is also another goat-skin drum called the tarija which allows for more fast-paced virtuosity. The music itself is considered to be part of the Sufi tradition of Islam. Prior to the colonization of Morocco by France and Spain, master musicians of the village were said to be the royal musicians of the sultans. In past centuries master musicians of the Jajouka village traditionally were excused by the country’s rulers from manual labor, goat-herding, and farming to concentrate on their music because the music’s powerful trance rhythms and droning woodwinds were traditionally considered to have the power to heal the sick. The music of the region has a strong connection to Pan. According to the tale, thousands of years ago a goat-man called “Bou Jeloud” appeared to an Attar ancestor in a cave, and danced to his music. The musicians of the village re-enact this event annually. You can visit them at www.joujouka.net .Recorded Live In France was released on cassette by Staaltape (ST oop) in 19?. As the cassette is completely blank and there is no track list on the cover, I have no idea witch side is A & B.

Tracks:

1. Side A
2. Side B

“Download”

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