World Music Features

A Varied Landscape

Morocco’s music is as enchanting and varied as its landscape. From the refined classical music of Andalusian Spain to soulful Berber songs, from hypnotic Gnawan chants to the music of the Sephardic Jewish community, the music of Morocco is truly a mosaic. Whether performed on a festival stage or amidst the colorful whirl of a moussem, or religious festival, Maghrebi music is a potent symbol of its country’s multicultural, vibrantly diverse history and people.

Morocco has intrigued Westerners for centuries. From Eugène Delacroix’s images of the country to Edith Wharton’s travel writings, many travelers to Morocco have sent home images of a tantalizing, mysterious, and certainly exotic land. (The accuracy and sensitivity of those depictions, of course, may be something else altogether.) The fascination with Morocco reached a peak with the popularity of writer Paul Bowles’ Morocco stories [see Endtrack, page 66] and the influx of Beat authors exploring the country (and especially the infamous city of Tangiers).

In 1950, author Bowles and painter/inventor Brion Gysin first heard a group of musicians from the foothills of the Rif Mountains known as the Master Musicians of Jajouka; for centuries, the forefathers of these players had been the courtly musicians for Morocco’s sultans, but their wild music (to which many attributed healing powers) were virtually unknown in the West. That all changed in 1968, when Gysin’s friend Brian Jones, the then-guitarist for the Rolling Stones, traveled to Morocco and heard these legendary players and the roiling, awesomely loud sounds of their oboe-like ghaita pipes. Jones went on to record an album with the Jajouka musicians, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka (spelled Joujouka on the original LP release). In the wake of that record release in 1971, scores of other musicians followed in Jones’ footsteps to Jajouka, among them, the groundbreaking jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman.

Although Hadj Abdessalam Attar (the Jajouka musicians’ leader at the time of the Jones recording) passed away in 1982, his legacy and talent for blending old and new has carried on through his son and successor, Bachir Attar. Under his leadership, the group has performed and recorded with such trendsetters as beat master Talvin Singh and globetrotting guitarist and producer Bill Laswell.

The influence and impact of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka is hard to overestimate; for quite some time, it was the only “Moroccan” album available in the West. Thankfully, the last decade has seen an enormous upswing in the availability of Moroccan music abroad and increased opportunities for Moroccan musicians to present themselves without the scrim of foreigners’ perceptions. And with this burst of recording has come a panoply of voices, underscoring the fact that there is no single Moroccan style. Rather, whether their music is traditional, contemporary, religious, or secular, these artists are making their voices heard in a larger marketplace.

Some of the Moroccan artists who are best known internationally are solo vocalists. Perhaps the best-known is the singer and instrumentalist Hassan Hakmoun, who learned his craft at the Jmaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech’s famed square, and has arguably done more than any other artist to promote the artistry of the Gnawa community. (The Gnawans are a religious fraternity made up of descendants of slaves from West Africa who were brought across the desert. Music is an integral part of their Gnawan ceremonies—see the separate feature story in this issue, on page 30)

Strumming the gimbri, an African lute that produces a distinctively buzzy sound, Hakmoun has melded together modern pop music and Gnawan tradition. “What has really shaped my music,” says Hakmoun, “are the unique sounds of Morocco, even though I now work and live in California. All the different peoples in Morocco, including the Berbers and Arabs and Gnawans, come to the Jmaa el-Fnaa. What you hear when you are young shapes you, and the atmosphere of the Jmaa el-Fnaa—where you will find storytellers, musicians, dancers, and even fire eaters and acrobats—is etched into my own work.”

The singer Najat Aatabou has also had enormous impact among contemporary artists. A longtime resident of Casablanca, this Berber singer (born in the town of Khemisset) makes her heritage both a point of pride and a base of reference in her music. Although she often sings in French or Arabic, her compositions often utilize traditional Berber rhythms, and she is well known for lyrics that elucidate societal inequalities (often in the realm of gender inequality), as well as for poignant love songs. Whether her songs employ simply an oud and bendir drum or a full array of amplified instruments, Aatabou’s recordings are great favorites in Morocco, and her 20-plus albums are found in cassette sellers’ stalls across the nation.

A rising star on the international circuit is the Moroccan Jewish cantor Emil Zrihan. Born in Rabat, Zrihan now makes his home in Israel. Zrihan’s artistry captures the variety of Moroccan musical experience; he performs both sacred and secular music from the Judeo-Andalusian tradition, a style that stretches back to the Jews’ expulsion from Spain in 1492. Performing in both Arabic and Hebrew, Zrihan is also known for his extremely powerful mawal, the virtuosic vocal improvisations known across North Africa and the Middle East. The vocalist describes mawal as “a beautiful, elongated carpet that leads to the doors or the gates of a mode. You admire the colors and patterns in the rug, and understand that this carpet gives a taste of what lies beyond the closed door.”

In performance and conversation, Zrihan underscores the connections between the Jewish cantorial repertoire and classical Andalusian music. “Jewish, Muslim, we are all the children of Abraham,” says Zrihan emphatically. “And there are so many stylistic connections between these musical traditions, which are particularly clear to see when you understand that they developed and were performed side-by-side, such as in Morocco.” 

Françoise Atlan, a French-based vocalist whose own roots lie in the Jewish and Berber communities, also explores the blurred lines between Morocco’s various religious and ethnic communities. But in her estimation, that rich legacy has unfortunately become something of a tribute to a vanished era, rather than a living tradition. The Jewish population in Morocco has dwindled to less than 5,000 mostly elderly members; in 1948, the Jewish community in Morocco was approximately 250,000 strong. “The Moroccan Jewish community is very fragile,” the singer commented in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I wanted to make something as a testament to it.”

But it’s not just the soloists who are getting attention—an increasing number of vocal groups are beginning to tour internationally. One such ensemble is B’Net Marrakech (the Women of Marrakesh), an all-female Berber group from the villages near Taroudant (southeast of Marrakech) who appeared at New York’s prestigious Lincoln Center Festival in 2002 alongside French-Algerian raï icon Rachid Taha and have also performed at a number of European festivals. Anyone expecting a passel of demure damsels would be shocked by the rather rowdy women of B’Net Marrakech; they’re not afraid to shimmy their hips, grab their own breasts lustily mid-song, or dance with trays of lit candles on their heads while they sing and play with ferocious energy. As they told an interviewer from the globalvillageidiot.net web site, “We're women who love the night time. Something to smoke, something to drink, and we can play for hours.”

B’Net Marrakech isn’t the only women’s group becoming known on global stages, however; perhaps a more representative ensemble is the Taroudant Women’s Ensemble of Morocco. This group exemplifies the traditional role of female singers and musicians, who are a staple of Moroccan tradition. These types of ensembles, known as la’abat (from the Arabic word meaning “to play”) perform a significant role at women’s celebratory gatherings, including weddings, births and other special occasions as well as during religious festivals and during periods of mourning.

But it is not just folk or popular music that makes Morocco stand out; the art or classical music of the Maghreb has its roots in at least the 12th century. The music of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain and North Africa), combining elements of European courtly music, high Arab and Jewish traditions, and local styles, was and remains a potent cultural force in Morocco. A Baghdadi musician named Zyriab who worked in Córdoba, Spain is given much of the credit for this early form of fusion. Zyriab is thought to have codified the disparate elements of Arab poetic traditions of qasidah, muwashshah and zajal, as well as the Jewish style of piyyutim, into a structured system of song cycles known as the nubat. (Each nuba was associated with a particular set of emotions.)

In the 18th century, a scholar from the Moroccan city of Tetouan named Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Hayik made a famous compilation of song texts for the nubat. There are several prominent Moroccan orchestras dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Andalusian classical music; chief among these is the Orchestra of Fes, which was founded in 1946 by Abdelkrim Rais. Currently led by Mohamed Briouel—the director of Fes’ Conservatoire de Musique—the ensemble has performed widely internationally and has collaborated with non-Moroccan musicians, including the noted early music specialist Joel Cohen and his Boston Camerata. Recently, members of the Orchestra of Fes accompanied French vocalist Françoise Atlan (whose roots lie in the Jewish and Berber communities) during the opening festivities of Carnegie Hall’s newest venue, Zankel Hall.

From Morocco to the World

One of the most exciting developments in the contemporary Moroccan music scene is its position as a true nexus of world music. The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music is now entering its tenth year. Since its founding, it has become not just one of the highlights of the world music calendar, but it has also provided a model to which other festivals aspire. Founded by anthropologist Dr. Faouzi Skali, the festival attracts artists and concertgoers not just from Morocco and other North African nations, but indeed representatives from around the world. And that’s precisely the festival’s mission: to create a meeting ground at which myriad cultures and religious traditions can interact, find common ground and to explore differences as well. Admirably, the festival organizers are decidedly uninterested in creating a fuzzy, feel-good (and yet meaningless) multicultural soup; rather, Fes emphasizes dynamic, engaging, and challenging cross-cultural encounters and dialogues.

There are longstanding and deep-running reasons to hold this kind of gathering in Fes. For centuries, Fes was not just the political capital of Morocco, but also its intellectual and religious center as well—indeed, its Qaraouine University, founded in the ninth century, is one of the oldest centers of higher learning in the world. Sufis of the region refer to Fes as az-Zawia, “The Sanctuary,” but over the centuries it has attracted many non-Muslims alike. Pope Sylvester II, whose reign lasted from 999 to 1003, studied in Fes (and is said thereafter to have introduced Arabic numerals to Europe); the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides taught at the university. The city also became the refuge for Muslims and large numbers of Jews once they had been expelled from Spain in 1492. (Though the Mellah, or Jewish quarter, is now almost completely empty of Jews who have left for Israel, France and elsewhere, the Mellah is still home to some fascinating sites, including gorgeously ornate synagogues and a large Jewish cemetery.)

That attitude attracts top-drawer artists from across the globe. Last year’s festival headliners included Brazilian legend (and current Minister of Culture) Gilberto Gil, Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo, and three of today’s foremost Iranian musicians: kemencheh player Kayhan Kalhor, singer Mohamed Reza Shajarian, and tar player Hossein Alizadeh. As the Fes festival’s name suggests, many artists invited to Fes, such as the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus, work in an overtly sacred context; other Fes musicians and dancers blend elements of both the sacred and profane.

Last year, performers included Odissi dance legend Guru Kelucheran Mohapatra and noted performer Madhavi Mudgal and their troupe, performing sacred temple dance and more purely artistic work from the eastern region of Orissa, India. Another group crisscrossing the sacred/secular line was Ulali, who perform Native American music (primarily from the Tuscarora Nation). As one of the group’s singers, Jennifer Kreisberg, observed on the flight home, “Our people have had so much of our culture taken away from us already. So when we perform for non-Native audiences, we perform social music—work songs, lullabies, things like that.”

Concerts during the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music are held at three extraordinary historical sites. Afternoon concerts take place at the courtyard of a 19th century palace that now houses the Batha Museum; the stage is set right in front of a lush garden of roses and orange trees heavy with fruit. Evening performances occur at the Bab Makina, a magnificently tiled gate that used to serve as the main entry to the king’s palace. The 5,000-strong audience is seated in the courtyard, situated between massive defense walls leading up to this gate. And for one day each year, the festival’s participants and spectators drive 40 kilometers away from Fes to the splendid ruins of Volubilis, a remarkably well-preserved site that marks the southernmost major city of the Roman Empire.

The Fes festival has created a prototype for tourism that is being copied across the country. “Certainly, cultural tourism presents a real opportunity for us,” says Morocco’s Minister of Tourism, Adil Douiri. “And it creates a renewal of interest in our cities. We have very successful beach and golf resorts, but we want to attract visitors to our important historical sites as well,” he adds. “For example, Fez’s medina, or old city, has been on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites since 1981, and yet Fez is still the poorest city in the country. The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music has been instrumental in increasing the numbers of visitors. And now we’re seeing more music festivals being created across the country in Fes’ wake, such as the Gnawan festival in Essaouira and the Rabat Festival in the capital.”

Plans for the 2004 festival—the tenth anniversary event—are already well underway, and the lineup promises to be as exciting as in previous years. As GLOBAL RHYTHM goes to press, artists scheduled to appear in this year’s celebrations (May 29-June 5) include Senegalese pop superstar Youssou N’Dour, Tibet’s Monk Dancers, and the distinguished English vocal quartet the Hilliard Ensemble, performing with their longtime collaborator, the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Also scheduled to appear are Lebanese singer Majda Rumi; the Egyptian Sufi vocalist Sheikh Ahmed Al Tuni; the Bajra Sandhi Children’s Gamelan and Dancers from Bali, Indonesia; Shahram Nazeri, one of Iran’s foremost singers; the Whirling Dervishes of Konya, Turkey; and New York’s Arc Gospel Choir. The Fes Festival of World Sacred Music always places special emphasis on local artists, and so a number of Moroccan musicians and ensembles have been invited to perform as well. This year’s lineup includes Moroccan countertenor Ben Adessalam; Ait Ichbaken, a Berber group from the High Atlas mountains; and Rabbi Haim Louk, a Casablanca native who will sing Sephardic Jewish music accompanied by a Moroccan orchestra.

“As we come upon our tenth year,” says Zeyba Rahman, the Fes Festival’s Director of Organizational Development and North America, “we are deeply committed to peace-building through the music, the daytime colloquia, educational programs in which we send the artists into local schools for lecture-demonstrations, and our international programming. These kinds of face-to-face exchanges have been really transformative for all who participate,” Rahman adds.  She cites the example of the Ilyas Malayev Ensemble, a New York City-based group of Jewish musicians originally from Bukhara, Uzbekistan. “They had been really quite fearful about their first trip to Fes this past year,” notes Rahman, “since the festival was just a few weeks after the terrorist bombings in Casablanca which were targeted at Jews.” 

The Malayev musicians did not perform any explicitly Jewish repertoire in their performance, and they asked that they not be identified as Jews. In addition, they asked for a special security team in Fes, and had the streets surrounding the Batha blockaded during the afternoon of the concert.

“When they returned to New York,” Rahman continues, “they promptly called me up to express their astonishment about how warmly they had been welcomed in a Muslim city. They have already asked to come back to Fes for a future festival, and they have promised to go into the Bukharan diaspora communities to do outreach for the festival and for Morocco.”

It’s a joy to see the cross-cultural encounters that occur during the festival not just as Dr. Skali imagined in organized events, but in the more mundane aspects of visiting the city as well.  During the 2003 festival, a colleague and I encountered the renowned Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo one sunny morning as we were wandering through Fes’ medina, the area known as “Fes al-Bali” (“Old Fes”). This neighborhood is the oldest part of the city, where low-slung souks and narrow alleys crowd together, centuries away from the broad, tree-lined boulevards built in the Ville Nouvelle (“New City”) by the French during their occupation of Morocco.

Fes al-Bali’s bustling markets saturate the senses, from the dazzling wedding ensembles displayed in jewelers’ windows to the smells of freshly killed animals at the butchers’ stands to the clangs of metalsmiths hammering away at their work. Young and old alike stopped their tasks to take in the lovely vision of Yungchen, her silky hair cascading down her back, as she serenely strolled up and down paths, munching on some juicy cherries she had stopped to purchase at one of the fruit vendors. She paused occasionally to share her fruit with children who gathered near, or to ask questions. Soon, our little group came upon a small instrument shop, and the owner pulled a sintir, the Gnawan plucked lute, off the wall to demonstrate its sound. And it wasn’t long before Yungchen was singing along, improvising a Tibetan-sounding melody as the gentleman strummed and sang.

The cross-cultural interactions continue nearly 24 hours a day during the Fes Festival. Beginning at 11 PM each night, the festival hosts intimate sama’a in the courtyard of the Dar Tazi, another elegant palace built in 1900. These sama’a, or musical gatherings, are a vital component of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. Regardless of whether or not the audience knows Arabic or has a Muslim background, the combination of chorus and solo singing, pounding drums and other instruments draw listener into a near-hypnotic realm in which the divine seems very close indeed regardless of one’s own religious tradition or proclivity. These Muslim gatherings are part of the festival’s local outreach effort; as with various afternoon concerts during the festival known as the Festival in the City, the sama’a are free events that draw many Fes residents. “During those gatherings,” recalls Rahman, “I spotted officials from the World Bank sitting on the courtyard patio floor right next to local shopkeepers and taxi drivers.”

As well as featuring stellar performances, it’s that atmosphere of openness and sharing pleasure in one another’s traditions that makes the Fes Festival one of the most highly anticipated world music events of the year. But you don’t have to sojourn all the way to North Africa to get a taste of that feeling. For the first time, the festival’s organizers are arranging a 20-city U.S. tour this spring of artists who have appeared at the Fes Festival. Dubbed “The Spirit of Fes,” the performers include vocalist Françoise Atlan, the Taroudant Women’s Ensemble of Morocco, Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo and North Carolina’s gospel sensations the Anointed Jackson Sisters. In this way, organizers hope, Fes’ message will reach audiences even if they never venture to the Maghreb themselves—or, better yet, that the performances may inspire them to make their own spiritual journey to Morocco.