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Hypnotic drum beats blend with ancient Sufi tunes in a tent in a Moroccan mountain village, where local musicians reunite once a year when they’re not performing on the world’s top stages.
Drawing on centuries of local tradition, Joujouka’s musical masters have mesmerized the 1950s Beats, the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, and fans around the world with their hypnotic sounds.
Joujouka has performed at top venues around the world, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Glastonbury Festival in the UK.
But every spring they like to perform for a more intimate audience of only about 50 worshippers in their village, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Tangier.
Rolling Stone magazine once called Tribal Trance Festival “the oldest and most unique dance party in the world.”
“The music must never stop echoing in the village,” said Ahmed El Attar, 67, the collective’s leader.
According to local legend, the influence of their music on this area of the Rif Mountains dates back 4,000 years.
The musicians say it also draws on the styles of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam whose saint, Sidi Ahmed Cheikh, came to the village in the 15th century.
The Joujouka Music Masters perform at the annual Joujouka Festival in the village of Jajouka in northern Morocco
“Thanks to the blessing of Sidi Ahmed Čech, our music has reached the world,” Attar said.
– ‘Powerful music’ –
After midnight, the 15 musicians of the orchestra, dressed in woolen robes, began playing in a large carpeted tent set up in a courtyard dotted with olive trees.
Soon, the shrill sound of the Gaeta filled the night sky, and the performance lasted for nearly three hours without a break in the rhythm.
“It’s powerful music,” said John Egan, a former member of the British psychedelic rock band Ozric Tentacles.
Egan noted that because of the wide range of musicians, “having multiple musicians play a tune together is like herding cats.”
One of the highlights was the appearance of three boys dressed in traditional women’s clothing, which, according to local belief, heralded the arrival of Boujloud, a mythical half-man, half-goat creature.
The lights went out and a creature appeared before the roaring flames, dancing and waving branches, bringing blessings and fertility.
In the 1950s, Moroccan artist Mohamed Hamri, who was born in the village, played a key role in bringing Joujouka music to the attention of foreign artists.
Early fans included the English-Canadian writer, painter and sound poet Brian Gissing, and his friend, Beat Generation legend William Burroughs, who wrote Naked Lunch in Tangier.
– ‘Ancient spiritual connection’ –
Joujouka’s global fame is partly due to Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, who traveled to Morocco in the summer of 1968 to escape tensions with band members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
There he recorded an album of Joujouka musicians, using a Hamri painting on the cover, which was released posthumously in 1971 as Brian Jones Plays Pan’s Flute in Joujouka.
As their fame grew, the group of Moroccan artists traveled around the world, but due to disagreements, the band split in the early 1990s and formed an independent group called “Jajouka Master Musicians”, led by Bachir Attar.
Master musicians of the Joujouka Ensemble perform at the annual Joujouka Festival in the village of Jajouka in northern Morocco
Abdessalam Rrtoubi, a 64-year-old guetar player, said the ensemble’s patron saint, a Sufi saint who gave music the power to “heal the soul,” is buried in the village.
One of the band’s fans is Japanese musician Haitaro Hanamura, who said he had returned for a sixth time and praised the group not only for its music but also for its healing properties.
“Last year, I had back pain,” said the 57-year-old. “The leader gave me a massage in the sanctuary and it really relieved my pain.”
Due to overwhelming demand, this year’s event will be held over two days.
Frank Lane, an Irishman who founded the Joujouka festival in 2008, said the music “keeps something alive, allowing people to see it as an ancient spiritual connection.” – AFP
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