The Master Musicians of Joujouka are a collective of
Jbala
The Jebala ( ar, جبالة, Jbāla}) or Jebala are a tribal confederation inhabiting an area in north-west Morocco from the town of Ketema to the west. The Jbala region (from Moroccan Arabic ''jbāl'' (pl.) (جبال ‘mountains’) thus occupie ...
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition.
The collective was first documented by Western journalists in the early 1950s,
and was brought to widespread international attention by
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
in 1969.
They have collaborated with many Western rock and jazz musicians.
The collective includes more than 50 musicians from the village of
Jajouka
Jajouka, Jahejouka or Zahjoukah (In Tifinagh: ⵣⴰⵀⵊⵓⴽⴰ) (جوجوكة or جهجوكة) is a village in the Ahl-Srif mountains in the southern end of the Rif Mountains, Morocco. The mountains are named after the Ahl-Srif tribe who po ...
(sometimes spelled as Joujouka or Zahjouka), in the
Rif Mountains
The Rif or Riff (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterrane ...
of northern
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
. All members are the sons of previous members, and adopt the surname ''Attar'' ("perfume maker").
In the 1990s, the collective split into two factions, with the other currently known as
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (sometimes written as ...featuring Bachir Attar) are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective includes m ...
.
History
The Master Musicians of Joujouka perform a variety of
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
music that is believed to be more than one thousand years old. The collective became an item of interest for members of the
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
in the 1950s, when Moroccan folklorist
Mohamed Hamri
Mohamed Hamri (August 27, 1932 – August 29, 2000), commonly known as Hamri, was a Moroccan painter and author. Self-described as "The painter of Morocco," Hamri was one of the few Moroccans to participate in the Tangier Beat scene.
He was bo ...
informed European colleagues about the group's music.
Hamri operated a restaurant in
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
that was frequented by European musicians and artists, and the Master Musicians often played there.
Brion Gysin
Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices.
He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...
,
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
, and
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
all wrote about the group and one of them may have coined the name "The Master Musicians of Joujouka" during this period.
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
famously, but erroneously, described the group and its music as "4000 years old", which has been repeated in many sources. The figure actually applies to previous Sufi traditions and not to the group or its music specifically.
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
visited the collective many times while traveling in Morocco and in 1969 became the first Western musician to record with them. The album ''
Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka
''Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka'' is an album produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The album was a recording of the Moroccan group the Master Musicians of Joujouka, in performance on 29 July 1968 in the village of J ...
'' was released in 1971 after Jones's death. The collective played on the 1973 album ''
Dancing in Your Head
''Dancing in Your Head'' is a studio album by jazz artist Ornette Coleman, released in 1977 by Horizon Records.
Recording
"Theme from a Symphony" was the first recording to feature Coleman's electric band, which later became known as Prime ...
'' by
Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...
. Arnold Stahl oversaw recording of the double album ''Tribe Ahl Serif: Master Musicians of Jajouka'' in 1974.
In the early 1990s, the collective split into two factions, as first reported by visiting musician
Lee Ranaldo
Lee Mark Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth (guitar and vocals). In 2004, ''Rolling ...
.
The faction fostered by Mohamed Hamri, and led by Ahmed Attar, retained the name "The Master Musicians of Joujouka". Meanwhile, another faction led by Bachir Attar, whose father had led the group during the Brian Jones period, took on the name "
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar
The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (sometimes written as ...featuring Bachir Attar) are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance musicians, serving as a modern representation of a centuries-old music tradition. The collective includes m ...
". The second group attracted protests at concerts in the United Kingdom, and international journalists noted that the schism created discord in the collective's home village. Other journalists and fans conceded that both groups were working to preserve their ancient musical heritage.
The collective retaining the original name, and led by Ahmed Attar, resumed recording in the 1990s, releasing the album ''
Joujouka Black Eyes
Joujouka Black Eyes is a CD by Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka. It was released in May 1995 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne and includes the song "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" written by Jouj ...
'' in 1995. They appeared on the various-artists albums ''Sufi: Moroccan Trance II'' in 1996 and ''10%: File under Burroughs'' (a tribute to early supporter William S. Burroughs) the same year. Their most recent studio album is ''
Boujeloud
''Boujeloud'' is a CD by the Moroccan Sufi musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka.
Album details
It was released in September 2006 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne under the direction of Mohamed Hamri
Mohamed Hamri (Augus ...
,'' released in 2006. In 2011 they made a guest appearance on the album ''
The Great Escape Artist
''The Great Escape Artist'' is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, released October 18, 2011 on Capitol Records. The album was the band's first since its 2003 release '' Strays'' and features TV on the Radio ...
'' by
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands from t ...
.
The group frequently appears at music festivals in Europe, and made an acclaimed live appearance at the
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
, hosted by
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...
, in 2017. The same year the group toured Japan headlining Festival de Frue.
In April 2019 they collaborated with
The Orb
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...
to create the live sound for the
Dior
Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...
Cruise Show in Marrakesh under the musical direction of Michel Gaubert. They continue to operate out of their home village of Jajouka, where they also host an annual festival that is limited to 50 invited guests.
Discography
;Albums
*''
Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka
''Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka'' is an album produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The album was a recording of the Moroccan group the Master Musicians of Joujouka, in performance on 29 July 1968 in the village of J ...
'' (1971)
*''Tribe Ahl Serif: Master Musicians of Jajouka'' (1974)
* ''
Joujouka Black Eyes
Joujouka Black Eyes is a CD by Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka. It was released in May 1995 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne and includes the song "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" written by Jouj ...
'' (1995)
*''
Boujeloud
''Boujeloud'' is a CD by the Moroccan Sufi musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka.
Album details
It was released in September 2006 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne under the direction of Mohamed Hamri
Mohamed Hamri (Augus ...
'' (2006)
*''Into the Ahl Srif: Master Musicians of Joujouka'' (2015)
*''Live in Paris: The Master Musicians of Joujouka'' 2x vinyl (2021)
References
Further reading
* Hamri, Mohamed (1975), ''
Tales of Joujouka
''Tales of Joujouka'' is a book by the Moroccan painter Mohamed Hamri (1932–2000) containing eight stories featuring the legends, folklore and Sufi origins myths and rituals of the Master Musicians of Joujouka. These are the stories and legends o ...
''. Capra Press.
*Gysin, Brion, ''The Process''.
* Schuyler, Philip (2000
"Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjoukah – Moroccan Music and Euro-American Imagination" in Armbrust, Walter, editor. "Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond". Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
* Strauss, Neil (12 October 1995). "The Pop Life: To Save Jajouka, How About a Mercedes in the Village?". ''The New York Times''.
* Davis, Stephen (1993). ''Jajouka Rolling Stone: A Fable of Gods and Heroes.'' Random House.
* Palmer, Robert (14 October 1971). ''Jajouka: Up the Mountain''. Rolling Stone..
* Davis, Stephen (2001). ''Old Gods Almost Dead''. Broadway Books, 135–37, 172, 195–201, 227; 233–34, 248–53, 270, 354, 504–505, 508.
* Trynka, Paul (2014) ''Brian Jones: The Making of The Rolling Stones'' Random House.
* Sword, Harry (2021). ''Monolithic Undertoe'' White Rabbit Books.
External links
Master Musicians of Joujouka. Official site of the Sufi Brotherhood living in Joujouka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Master Musicians Of Joujouka
Berber music
Moroccan musical groups
Performers of Sufi music
Jajouka
Trance music groups
Sub Rosa Records artists