40 THE BEAT VOL. 27 #4, 2008

Tlection (Six Degrees 2003). A cover version of“Ya Rayah” that I’ve grown quite fond of is bythe Portuguese Roma group Ciganos d’Ouro onits 2001 album Maktoub (Farol 2001).

If you want to dip back into the musical wellfrom which Dahmane Harrachi was drawing, AbdelHadi Halo & the El Gusto Orchestra of Algiersisn’t a bad place to start (Honest Jons HJRCD32).Reminiscent of the Buena Vista Social Club, the2006 recording reunites musicians active inAlgiers during the 1950s and 1960s. Applying theblues metaphor here would be quite a stretch butit’s a great recording of classic Algerian cha’abi,an urban pop genre developed by the master, HadjMohamed el Anka during the 1920s (the musicaldirector Abdel Hadi Halo is el Anka’s son).

Now back to the blues metaphor. Sometimes,it works—catches a mood, describes a real musi-cal connection—and metaphor is all we have whenwe want to describe a sound in words. One ex-ample of when the blues metaphor works is itsuse to describe the emergence of “Malian blues”or “desert blues” in the music press that startedwith a search for words to describe the music ofMalian superstar Ali Farke Touré to a Westernaudience. Direct historical connections betweenMalian music and the blues may be a subject ofsome dispute in academic circles but the sharedaural characteristics are unmistakable. They arealso clearly both branches of the great Africanmusical river that crossed the Atlantic but don’tforget that river always flowed both ways and theinterchanges sped up considerably with the dawn-ing of the 20th century. Afro-Cuban son influencedthe development of Congolese pop music duringthe ’20s, jazz made a mark throughout the conti-nent, salsa hit West Africa in the ’60s, reggae fol-lowed in the ’70s, and so on.

Ali Farke Touré loved r&b and the blues, par-ticularly the riff-driven urban blues of John LeeHooker, which he blended with the traditionalMalian songs that he had learned as an adoles-cent on the ngoni (four-string lute) before discov-ering the guitar. The blues and rock influences onhis sound made Touré a star in the world musiccircuit when the European and American audi-ence discovered him in the 1980s. He became amajor force in world music, introducing theSahraoui guitar sound that had developed aroundthe western perimeter of the Sahara—in Mali,Niger, Mauritania, Western Sahara and Morocco.Little known outside of their home countries, simi-lar sounds were being developed by other musi-cians who moved traditional melodies from thengoni and its close cousins (tidnit, tiznet…) ontothe electric guitar and played them in ensembles

piece of work worth checking out but think aboutwhat you’re listening to.

Sharing musical elements with the blues (orWest African roots) is not a prerequisite to usingthe blues metaphor to describe a musical genre.After World War II, a more melancholy style ofAlgerian cha’abi developed among the North Af-rican immigrant population in France—remem-ber one of the recurrent blues themes is hardshipcaused by separation (due to slavery, flight, cir-cumstance…)—and, by the 1960s, the blues meta-phor was frequently used to describe the mood ofthis style. Dahmane el Harrachi, who createdmelancholy but humorous songs that describedthe hardships of the immigrant experience, wasconsidered the bluesyest of these cha’abi singers.With a gravelly voice (thanks to years of ciga-rettes and alcohol) and spare, expressive accom-paniment on banjo or ‘ud, comparisons ofHarrachi to blues singers popped up early (as didcomparisons to French chansonier CharlesAznevour). It may not be blues but Harrachi cre-ated some pretty amazing music.

Harrachi died in an automobile accident in1980 but left a significant number of recordings.Check out whatever is available but a good placeto start is with Le Chaabi, Vol. One (CL.DU.037), which includes Harrachi’s best-known song“Ya Rayah.” The number of covers of “Ya Rayah”is one indication of Harrachi’s continuing influ-ence on musicians in North Africa and beyond.The best-known cover is undoubtedly RachidTaha’s version on his roots album Diwan (Poly-gram 539953) but the song has been covered bya dizzying array of artists from North Africa, theBalkans, the Iberian Peninsula and the MiddleEast, including a version in Hebrew I stumbledacross on YouTube. And, of course, there are theinevitable techno remixes (for a loopy example,check out Arabian Travels: A Six Degrees Col-

M o r o c c a n R o l l

The Blues MetaphorBy Jeffrey Callen

he liner notes from the new cdGnawa Home Songs (AccordsCroisés AC117) emphasize theconnection of Gnawa music to theblues and the descriptive blurb on

the package describes the tracks as “blues-likesongs.” That got me wondering about the use ofthe blues metaphor to describe a wide variety ofgenres of music from around the world. Many ofthese genres have only a tenuous connection, ifany, to the blues. Still, whether it’s Portuguesefado, Greek rembetika or even the songs of EdithPiaf, the blues metaphor has been used for decadesas a way to bring in new audiences by shiftingexpectations to make the music seem familiar,authentic and alluring. But slapping the blues labelonto any music that seems sad, mournful or soulful(not in the sense of soul music, God help us!) orshares some West African musical elements notonly simplifies and flattens things, it also coversup real connections and interchanges that makemusic in the modern world so fascinating.

Back to what started this rant, Gnawa HomeSongs is a recording of “intimate” performancesby some highly regarded Gnawa mâalems (mas-ters), including Hamid Kasri, Abdelkader Amliland H’mida Boussou. Recorded in 2006, duringthe yearly Gnawa pilgrimage to the village ofTamesloht (near Marrakech), Gnawa Home Songsis a very satisfying recording and some of the per-formances are quite beautiful. Still, it’s a little dis-concerting to hear the aural resculpting that wentinto the recording to create what the liner notescall “this blues-like music.” The melodies are“stripped down” and performed without the typi-cal accompaniment of qaraqebs (large metal handcymbals or castanets); the lyrics are also strippeddown, reducing the number of references to thedjinns (spirits), and the acceleration of tempo sotypical of Gnawa performances is toned down.However, the most significant aural change ismade in the sound of the sentir (bass lute), thesound that establishes the blues bona fides of thisrecording. Gone are the rattles or buzzes that manymâalems favor and the heavy percussive sound asthe thumb hits the string. The recording (micplacement is a powerful tool) and mixing (don’tforget the EQ) have also smoothed out the sentir’ssound so it more closely resembles a stand-upbass—more bluesy for sure but what is the point?If it’s to show the common West African roots ofblues and Gnawa music, it really wasn’t neces-sary. If it’s for marketing purposes that’s a differ-ent story—but what is gained by presentingGnawa music as simultaneously a wellspring oftradition and a subset of the blues? Still, it’s a nice

THE BEAT VOL. 27 #4, 2008 41

that included traditional instruments and instruments (guitar, bass, keyboards)new to their traditions. Without doubt, Touré’s genius was an influence onmany of these musicians but for some it wasn’t the blues but rock or itsinfluence as heard in the work of African pop artists that helped frame thenew sounds they were developing. A few new or relatively new releases thathave crossed my desk and digital turntable illustrate the eclecticism and ex-quisite musicality of some of the Sahraoui groups (and the depth of the Malianor desert blues if you feel compelled to call it that).

Niger’s Etran Finatawa’s new Desert Crossroads (Riverboat TUGCD1048) is a followup to their debut album Introducing Etran Finatawa(World Music Network INTRO 105CD). The band’s name translates as “Starsof Tradition” and both cds are excellent recordings that capture EtranFinatawa’s electric traditional music drawn from Wodabe and Touareg tradi-tions that mixes electric guitars and basses with tendé drums and calabashes.Both cds are excellent but Introducing is the stronger work. The efforts of theproducer on Desert Crossroads to incorporate atmospheric, ethnographicelements seem a bit pretentious and unnecessary but as such things go arepretty minimal. Another Sahraoui recording worth checking out is Abacabok(Crammed Discs CRAW 34). Tartit, a Touareg band from Mali moves thesound a little bit to the rock side but uses all traditional instruments (drums,lutes and fiddles) except for the electric guitar (and bass on two tracks). AmanIman: Water Is Life (World Village 468067), the new release by Tinariwin,moves us straight into rock territory without losing the connection to Touaregmusical tradition. An outstanding recording but my sentimental favorite isstill 2001’s Radio Tisdas Sessions (World Village 468010) because it cap-tures the sound of the band live—at least the show I saw a couple of yearsago at Yoshi’s in Oakland—the best rock show I’ve seen in years!

One final note on the blues metaphor: Avoid the new release Desert Blues3: Entre Dunes et Savanes (Network 495122). The “desert blues” fran-chise, never that strong to begin with, has stretched the metaphor to itsbreaking point. There are some great performances but the recording doesn’thold together, at least as a blues sampler—some tracks, like Souad Massi’sbeautiful “Raoui” are incredibly out of place. Pick it up if you see it in thecutout bin and then track down cds by the artists who catch your ear. Fur-

ther exploration of theblues metaphor must waitfor later—it’s not goingaway—but a few closingnotes and updates areworth making.

For great North Africanrock that spans the lastthree decades, check outRock el Casbah (WrasseWRASS 215), RachidTaha’s new best-of collec-tion. Taha’s career hascovered a wide variety ofstyles from straight-aheadrai-influenced rock todance club and technotracks to North Africanand Middle Eastern roots

music and a touch of French pop. All are represented on Rock el Casbah.And don’t forget his cover of the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah”—Luce Strum-mer stated that Rachid is a kindred spirit of her late husband Joe (not a badendorsement). Taha even makes the old chestnut “Habina,” a hit by Leba-nese pop star Farid el Attrache in the early ’50s, sound fresh. If you don’talready have the Rachid Taha catalog in hand, Rock el Casbah is a goodinvestment and not a bad one if you do.

My feel-good discovery of the summer is Amarg Fusion, a TaselheitAmazigh group from Agadir in southern Morocco. I’d been impressed by a

M o r o c c a n R o l l

rachid taha rocks the casbah.

Continued on page 50