Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Master Musicians of Joujouka Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival July 2008 link to photos

Images by Marc English

Master Musicians of Joujouka Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival July 2008 took place on the anniversary of Brian Jones recocording the seminal "Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka".
In 2009 the Master Musicians second annual festival in their home village continued this intersting event which allows people to explore Joujouka/Jajouka and see what life is actually like there away from the histronics of commercialised versions of their music.  The festival was moved from late July as the Fete du Throne of Mohamed VI the king of Morocco takes places in the last week of July and the musicians are annually called on to play as representitives of their region.

link to photos and reports from Brain Jones 40th Anniversary festival on the Master Musicians of Joujouka Myspace

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=58849694&blogID=422214485

The 2010 Festival takes place from 4-6 June and is booking now
http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-now-for-master-musicians-of.html

Monday, February 1, 2010

Réservez dès à présent pour le festival des Master Musicians of Joujouka, 4 et 5 juin 2010 (nuit supplémentaire le 6 juin en option)

Festival des Master Musicians of Joujouka, 4 et 5 juin 2010 avec nuit supplémentaire du 6 juin en option
A : Joujouka (Jajouka), Maroc
Réservations : site officiel Master Musicians of Joujouka  website ou voir plus bas



Boujeloud dansant au Festival célébrant le 40ème anniversaire de la visite de Brain Jones à Joujouka, 
Joujouka, Maroc, Juillet 2008. Photo Jill Furmanovsky/Rock Archive


Les Master Musicians of Joujouka sont heureux d’annoncer leur festival d’été, du 4 au 6 juin, qui se tiendra dans leur village au Maroc. Les festivaliers seront hébergés par les musiciens et leurs familles et participeront à trois jours et trois nuits de musique Sufi rituelle dans son environnement d’origine. Toute la nuit du samedi 5 juin, les musiciens célébreront le rituel de Boujeloud sur la place du village.

En juillet 2008, les Master Musicians of Joujouka ont fêté le 40ème anniversaire de la visite de Brian Jones dans leur village logé au sein des montagnes du Rif au nord du Maroc. Au jour près, ce festival fêtait le 40ème anniversaire de l’enregistrement du LP légendaire Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan à Joujouka (Rolling Stones Records 1971). Le festival a regroupé les familles des anciens Masters maintenant disparus et un groupe de visiteurs venus de l’étranger, dont de nombreux amis du fondateur des Rolling Stones, Brian Jones.



Pour sa seconde édition en 2009, le festival a été déplacé au mois de juin, car la température au mois du juillet peut aisément dépasser les 40°C. Son succès a alors fait l’objet d’un article publié dans le Wire Magazine du mois d’octobre 2009.



Les festivaliers participeront à la vie au village, hébergés par les musiciens et leurs familles au sein de leur village isolé. Les Masters joueront lors de nombreuses sessions improvisées autour de leur madrassa/école. La fête du rituel de Boujeloud sur la place du village sera le point culminant du festival.



Les billets donnant accès au festival sont strictement limités dû aux possibilités d’hébergement par les familles du village. Les organisateurs du festival accueilleront les festivaliers dans la ville la plus proche, Ksar El Kebir, les conduiront au village, puis les raccompagneront à la gare après le festival. Les festivaliers seront reçus en pension complète. Les repas seront préparés de manière traditionnelle par les villageois et seront constitués de nourriture locale. Le village de Joujouka est une communauté agricole qui est aussi connue pour ses merveilleuses olives et son huile d’olive.



Vous pouvez réserver dès à présent :

Pour les deux jours du festival, les 4 et 5 juin : 250 €.

Pour trois jours (4, 5 et 6 juin) : 300 €.



Les organisateurs accueilleront les festivaliers à la gare de Moulay El Medhi à Ksar El Kebir le 4 juin, les conduiront jusqu’à Joujouka et les raccompagneront à la gare après le festival. Horaires : www.oncf.ma



Pension complète : 4 juin, déjeuner et dîner

Petit-déjeuner, déjeuner et festin traditionnel marocain le samedi 5 juin

Petit-déjeuner (pout tous), puis déjeuner et dîner le dimanche 6 juin pour les réservations 3 jours.

Réservez dès maintenant ici : Master Musicians of Joujouka Web Site, ou voir plus bas.

Pour un paiement par virement, contactez les organisateurs à l’adresse suivante : joujouka@gmail.com

Le nombre de places est limité à 75.

Pour toute question, contactez : joujouka@gmail.com





Joujouka 2 jours : 250 €, 4-5 juin 2010




Joujouka 3 jours : 300 €, 4-6 juin 2010








Preview of film on Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival dir. Daragh McCarthy.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The Surreal Sounds: Sound Unbound DJ Spooky remixes Master Musicians of Joujouka, Marcel Duchamp and Hans Arp

In his seminal remix Cd based on the archives of the Sub Rosa label, the label home of the Master Musicians of Joujouka since 1995, DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid aka Paul D. Miller  melded the  Master Musicians of Joujouka drumming from their 2006 Bouljeloud CD with archival recording by Marcel Duchamp on Marcel Duchamp/The Master Musicians of Joujouka/RadioMentale, "The Creative Act/Interview with George Heard Hamilton/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/I Could Never Make That Music Again"and a further track with the Dada artist Jean Arp  aka  Hans Arp. The Master Musicians of Joujouka/Hans Arp, "Mali Mal Hal M'Halmaz/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/Dada-Sprüche".

This is a fitting blending for  many of you may not know that it was Mohamed Hamri, (1932-2000), the Moroccan painter who brought his family, the Master Musicians and his home village of Joujouka/Jajouka and  to world attention firstly through the Beat Generation/post-modern and one time  Surrealist painter Brion Gysin then through the writing of  William Burroughs and later with the musicial intervention of  Rolling Stones's Brian Jones and in 1973 with the free jazz supremo Ornette Coleman to the attention of the western artistic community and beyond. Hamri's uncle was leader of the Master Musicians of Joujouka when he was a youth and his mother's Attar family, have often been the elected leaders of the Master Musicians before and since see http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2009/08/statement-from-ahmed-attar-master.html.
Mohamed Hamri 1955 one of the works  displayed at the Clan Gallery in Madrid in 1955

Mohamed Hamri oil on canvas 1956 Private Collection all rights reserved For enquiries contact email joujouka@gmail.com

However, as early as 1955 Hamri had  established himself as1956 an international painter, exhibiting  at the  Clan Gallery in Madrid which contemporaniously hosted shows by Picasso and Miro. His paintings which have a life and appriciation perhaps broader than the music of his home village have earned him the name the Picasso of Morocco. see The Guardian 22 April 2008   page 3 of article
see DJ Spooky's  website for this project http://www.soundunbound.com/

The CD Sounds Unbound
accompanies the book from M.I.T. Press



Sound Unbound
Sampling Digital Music and Culture
Edited by Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid
Foreword by Cory Doctorow
Introduction by Steve Reich

Table of Contents and Sample Chapters

The groundbreaking mix CD that accompanies this book features Nam Jun Paik, the Dada Movement, John Cage, Sonic Youth, and many other examples of avant-garde music. Most of the CD's content comes from the archives of Sub Rosa, a legendary record label that has been the benchmark for archival sounds since the beginnings of electronic music. (For a complete list of audio credits, see below.)

If Rhythm Science was about the flow of things, Sound Unbound is about the remix—how music, art, and literature have blurred the lines between what an artist can do and what a composer can create. In Sound Unbound, Rhythm Science author Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid asks artists to describe their work and compositional strategies in their own words. These are reports from the front lines on the role of sound and digital media in an information-based society. The topics are as diverse as the contributors: composer Steve Reich offers a memoir of his life with technology, from tape loops to video opera; Miller himself considers sampling and civilization; novelist Jonathan Lethem writes about appropriation and plagiarism; science fiction writer Bruce Sterling looks at dead media; Ron Eglash examines racial signifiers in electrical engineering; media activist Naeem Mohaiemen explores the influence of Islam on hip hop; rapper Chuck D contributes "Three Pieces"; musician Brian Eno explores the sound and history of bells; Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno interview composer-conductor Pierre Boulez; and much more. "Press 'play,'" Miller writes, "and this anthology says 'here goes.'"

Contributors: David Allenby, Pierre Boulez, Catherine Corman, Chuck D, Erik Davis, Scott De Lahunta, Manuel DeLanda, Cory Doctorow, Eveline Domnitch, Frances Dyson, Ron Eglash, Brian Eno, Dmitry Gelfand, Dick Hebdige, Lee Hirsch, Vijay Iyer, Ken Jordan, Douglas Kahn, Daphne Keller, Beryl Korot, Jaron Lanier, Joseph Lanza, Jonathan Lethem, Carlo McCormick, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Moby, Naeem Mohaiemen, Alondra Nelson, Keith and Mendi Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pauline Oliveros, Philippe Parreno, Ibrahim Quraishi, Steve Reich, Simon Reynolds, Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud, Nadine Robinson, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Alex Steinweiss, Bruce Sterling, Lucy Walker, Saul Williams, Jeff E. Winner.

On the CD:

1. RadioMentale and Matthew Herbert, "Cool Noises"
2. Martyn Bates/Allen Ginsberg, "Once Loved/A Footnote to 'Howl' (DJ Spooky Remix)"
3. Jean Cocteau, "Le buste (DJ Spooky Remix)"
4. Sun Ra, "Imagination"
5. Mikhail/Gertrude Stein, "Untitled in CoF Minor/A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson (DJ Spooky Remix)"
6. DJ Spooky vs. Rob Swift, "Scratch Battle"
7. Marcel Duchamp/The Master Musicians of Joujouka/RadioMentale, "The Creative Act/Interview with George Heard Hamilton/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/I Could Never Make That Music Again"
8. Raymond Scott, "The Paperwork Explosion"
9. Alter Echo/Pamela Z, "Perpetual Next/Pop Titles 'You'"*
10. Liam Gillick/ RadioMentale and Aphex Twin, "Sarah (Los Angeles Soundtrack)/I Could Never Make That Music Again"
11. James Joyce/Erik Satie, "Eolian Episode/Gnossiene (DJ Spooky Dub Version)"
12. Steve Reich, "Reed Phase"
13. Shukar/RadioMentale/Raoul Hausmann, "Cika-Laka/Cool Noises/Bbb"
14. Augustos de Campos/Bill Laswell/To Rococo Rot, "Dias Dias Dias (Spoken by Caetano Veloso)/Above the Earth/Contacte"
15. John Cage, "Rozart Mix"
16. Antonin Artaud, "Pour Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (To Have Done with God's Judgment) (DJ Spooky Remix)"
17. DJ Spooky, "One Laptop Theme"
18. Susan Deyhim, "The Spilled Cup (DJ Spooky Remix)"
19. Raymond Scott, "General Motors: Futurama (Interstitial)"
20. Marcel Duchamp/George Lewis and Aki Takase, "Erratum Musical (Score for Three Voices)/Voyage for Three"
21. Bill Laswell/René Magritte, "Ghost Dub/Le Surréalisme et les Questions"
22. Anthony Braxton and Evan Parker/Pauline Oliveros, "The First Set— Area 4 (Solo)/A Little Noise in the System (Moog System)"
23. Bora Yoon, "// (DJ Spooky Remix)"
24. Pierre Schaeffer, "Cinqétudes de bruits: Étude violette"
25. Daniel Bernard Roumain and Ryuichi Sakamoto, "The Need to Be"**
26. Phillip Glass, "Music in Fifths"
27. Edgard Varèse, "Poème électronique"
28. Iannis Xenakis, "Concret PH"
29. Ryoji Ikeda, "One Minute"
30. Sonic Youth, "Audience (DJ Spooky Remix)"
31. Alter Echo/Ge-te Do-pe, "Aftermath of Creations Dub (in Three Parts)/Dong Lim"
32. Terry Riley/Alter Echo, "Dorian Reeds/Aftermath of Creations Dub (in Three Parts)"
33. Luigi Russolo/DJ Spooky, "Corale/FTP > Bundle/Conduit 23"
34. Fanfare Savale/Vladimir Mayakovsky, "Rumba Lu Georgel/I Know the Power of Words"
35. Droma/Trilok Gurtu and Bill Laswell, "Pilgrim's Song (Trala Shepa)/Kala"
36. Nam Jun Paik, "Hommage à John Cage"
37. Morton Subotnick/DJ Spooky, "Mandolin/Acid Bassline"
38. The Master Musicians of Joujouka/Hans Arp, "Mali Mal Hal M'Halmaz/Boujeloud (Solo Drums)/Dada-Sprüche"
39. Sub Swara/Kurt Schwitters, "Koli Stance/Anna Blume"
40. Walter Ruttmann/Troupe from Taschingang, "Week End/Ache Lhamo"
41. Raymond Scott, "Bendix 1: The Tomorrow People"
42. Martyn Bates/Trinlem, "I Can't Look for You/The Palaces of Gesar's Family (DJ Spooky Remix)"
43. Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky, "Incantation for Tape"
44. Carsten Nicolai, "Time ... Dot(3)"
45. William S. Burroughs and Iggy Pop with Techno Animal, "The Western Land"



*From Pamela Z's A Delay Is Better CD released by Starkland (www.starkland.com).
**"The Need to Be" is from DBR's album etudes4violin&electronix released on Thirsty Ear Recordings.

Special thanks for Editorial Assistance to Roy Christopher.

About the Editor

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid is a conceptual artist, writer, and musician living and working in New York City. His artwork has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennale for Architecture, the Andy Warhol Museum, and many other venues. His written work has appeared in such publications as the Village Voice and Artforum. He is an editor of the magazine 21c (www.21cmagazine.com) and the author of Rhythm Science (MIT Press, 2004).


For all those wishing to visit Joujouka for The Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-6 June 2010 booking now on Matser Musicians official site  www.joujouka.net 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Book Now for Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-5 June with optional extra night 6th June 2010

Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-5 June 2010 with optional extra night 6th June 2010
Place: Joujouka, (Jajouka), Morocco.
Booking  Master Musicians of Joujouka website   or below.


Boujeloud dances at the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival, 
Joujouka, Morocco July 2008. Photo Jill Furmanovsky/Rock Archive


The Master Musicians announce their summer festival will be held 4-6June 2010 in their village in Morocco. Guests will stay with the musicians and their families and experience three days and nights of ritual Sufi music in its natural setting. On Saturday 5 June the musicians will perform the Boujeloud ritual in the village square through the night. In July 2008 the Master Musicians of Joujouka hosted the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival in their village in the southern Rif Mountains of Northern Morocco. The festival was a celebration of fortieth anniversary of Brian Jones’ recording the iconic LP Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka (Rolling Stones Records 1971). The festival brought the families of old Masters now passed on and a group of visitors from abroad including old friends of the errant Rolling Stone.


In 2009 the Master Musicians festival moved to June as the tempreture at the end of July can be above 40C. The festival was a great success and was reported on in The Wire magazine  October, 2009.


Guests will experience life in Joujouka staying with the musicians and their families in their isolated village. The Master Musicians of Joujouka will play in intimate sessions around their madrassa/school. The highlight of the festival wwill be the village’s celebration of the Boujeloud ritual in the village square.


Places at the festival are strictly limited as due to accommodation limitations with the families in Joujouka/Jajouka. Guests will be collected from Ksar El Kebir the nearest town to Joujouka on Friday 5th June and will be brought to the village. Full board will be provided. Food will be prepared in traditional Joujouka fashion from locally sourced produced. Joujouka is a framing community well as Sufi trance music the village is famous for its beautiful olives and olive oil.


The festival is booking now. The price for the main two days of the festival 4-5 June is €250 euro.
Accommodation for 4, 5, and 6 June is €300 (Euro)


Guests will be collected at Moulay El Mehdi train station in Ksar El Kebir on June 4th and transported to Joujouka or by arrangement . For Moroccan trains see www.oncf.ma


Full board lunch and evening meal on Friday 4 June
Breakfast, Lunch and traditional Moroccan mountain feast on Saturday 5
Breakfast (all guests) plus  lunch, and evening meal on Sunday 6th (for those with three day bookings)
Booking now on Master Musicians of Joujouka Web Site or below
For payment by credit transfer please email me for details joujouka@gmail.com
Places are limited to 75.
If you have any questions please do get in touch. joujouka@gmail.com 

Joujouka 2-day EUR 250, 4-5 June 2010


Click link below to pay with paypal account or credit cards. Secure payments by Paypal.




Joujouka 3-day EUR 300 4-6 June 2010
Click link below to pay with paypal account or credit cards. Secure payments by Paypal.







Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Re Mallim Ali Abdelslam El Attar

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the posting stating that Mallim Ali had passed was incorrect. Mallim Ali is ill but thankfully still with us in the country of Sidi Ahmed Sheich and all our prayers and blessings are with him and his family.

Tickets for Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 2010 will be available from tomorrow

Tickets for the Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-5 June, 2010, Joujouka/Jajouka, Morocco go on sale tomorrow on joujouka.net.

There will be an option of a third night on 6 June.
Bookings paid in full by 31 December will recieve a free copy of the Master Musicians of Joujouka "Joujouka Black Eyes" CD or "Boujeloud " CD.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The National on Tangier Beat scene and art today Interview Mohamed Arbi the son of Hamri

There is a nice article in yesterday's National by Faisal al Yafai

called "The beat moves on". He talks to Hamri's son and Mohamed Mrabet about how Tangier has changed.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091017/TRAVEL/710169885/1258/MAGAZINE

Monday, October 12, 2009

Destroy All Rational Thought documentary in Polish Film Festival

The documentary Destroy All Rational Thought which is a film about the Here To Go Show , Dublin in 1992 is being shown from next weekend at

BWA Wrocław - Galerie Sztuki Współczesnej
ul. Wita Stwosza 32
PL 50-149 Wrocław
tel. 071/790-25-82
e-mail: info@bwa.wroc.pl

The film features the Master Musicians of Joujouka in performance at the first art show to feature the paintings of Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. The documnetary also feature music by Bill laswell, Material and includes a special tribute to Brion Gysin by William Burroughs, film by Antony Balch and Phauss and more................
http://www.magia.gildia.pl/news/2009/10/interzone_pokazy_filmow
http://www.bwa.wroc.pl/index.php?l=pl&id=345&b=4&w=1

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Guardian report on the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival in Joujouka. Join the Master Musicians in 2010. Festival 4/5 June Booking opening

Join the Master Musicians of Joujouka in thier home village for 2 days of music. Stay in the homes of the Sufi masters and enjoy the pure trance of Joujouka.
For the third year in a row the Master Musicians of Joujouka are holding a summer festival to allow people the chance to come and see for themselves what life and culture is like in their famous village.

Enjoy informal and formal sessions under a starry sky in Morocco's Ahl Srif Mountains.
Witness Boujeloud dance in the flames. Hear the wild sounds of rhiata and the hypnotic drums with the people and musicians of Joujouka. all food is sourced locally and cooked by the people of the village. All proceeds go directly to the Master Musicians of Joujouka and all supplies are sourced in the community.
Tickets on sale here soon.

For advance booking
email joujouka@gmail.com
As with the Master Musicians website www.joujouka.net CD and book sales the master Musicians of Joujouka Festival is an ethical event organised by the Master Musicians of Joujouka.



Take me into insanity

In the Moroccan mountains, village musicians gather each year to worship the goat-man Boujeloud ... and Brian Jones. Mark Paytress joins in the wild party


* Mark Paytress
* The Guardian, Friday 29 May 2009
* Article history

Joujouka, a village nestled in the foothills of the Rif mountains in northern Morocco, has been attracting enlightenment-chasing subversives and sonic novelty-seekers for decades. They are drawn by its Sufi trance music, played by the Master Musicians of Joujouka on a pipe called the rhaita and a drum called the tebel. In the 50s, Paul Bowles and William Burroughs visited, and the latter concluded: "We need more diabolic music everywhere." Timothy Leary proclaimed the Master Musicians to be "a 4,000-year-old rock'n'roll band". And in July 1968, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones dropped in to record the village's Boujeloud - or Rites of Pan - festival.

That gruellingly intense annual night of music, magic and fertility still takes place every year, though the village has changed since Jones's visit: it now has electricity and a mobile phone mast that dwarfs the minaret of the mosque. Much, however, remains medieval: there is no running water, and the climate and landscape still dictate how life is lived.

When Jones's recordings were released posthumously in 1971, as The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, the village gained a new level of fame - the guitarist was followed by more musicians, including Ornette Coleman - and Jones himself gained a new status in the village as a near-saint. Last July, I was among 40 or so westerners who went to Joujouka to mark the 40th anniversary of his visit. I often heard the Master Musicians chanting "Ah, Brahim Jones, really stones" as they worked through a rhythm.

The idea to commemorate Jones's trip came from Frank Rynne, a frequent visitor to Joujouka since he stumbled on its music at a Burroughs-related event in Dublin in 1992. "Brian Jones is so revered here that I felt the anniversary of his visit should be marked," Rynne says.

However, the festival long predates Jones. Its origins lie in the legend of the goat-man Boujeloud bestowing the gift of music on the village in return for the hand of one of its women. Every year, the festival pays homage to Boujeloud in order to guarantee the village healthy crops and purposeful procreation. Much has been made of the magic and transcendence associated with this ancient fertility rite, but its real purpose is to heal. "Yes, the music makes people go into a trance," Master Musician Mohamed el Attar tells me, "but it also heals souls. Psychopaths get better when they hear it. That is the secret of this place."

As the ceremony begins, I follow the nine magnificently attired Masters - resplendent in yellow hats, white collarless shirts and dark, one-shoulder robes - as they make their way down a long, dusty track to a gently lit corner of the village square, where some 120 villagers and visitors are gathered. Without realising it, I perch upon the same rock Jones sat on 40 years ago, as the Masters hit their transcendent stride.

A group of watching youths, some dressed in baseball caps and logo-emblazoned T-shirts, bounce boisterously in front of the bonfire. Women huddle in the shadows. When the rhaitas, sounding something like a herd of aroused elephants, nudge up a semitone, the tingle factor really kicks in. A trick long favoured by a generation of superstar DJs is, it seems, as old as time itself.

Then out hops the sprite-like Boujeloud. Hours ago, he was the soberly attired master of the house where I slept. Now, this apparition in a straw hat and goat-skin is mad-eyed and rubber-necked; he thrashes me with a pair of olive branches. My fertility apparently secured, at least for another year, I leap to my feet and join in this primal scream of a party. For five long hours, these rhythms and rituals play out against a backdrop of spitting bonfires, screams and the endless high-jinks of Boujeloud. At about five in the morning, it winds down. "Boujeloud" is back in his bum-freezer jacket and handing out cups of mint tea to the small handful of us who have survived this exhilarating, extraordinary but exhausting musical endurance test.

When Brian Jones returned to London in August 1968, he spent hours in the studio doctoring his tapes with psychedelic effects (mainly phasing), in an attempt to accentuate the far-outness of an experience he likened to "an incantation to those of another plane". Many later sonic adventurers, working in jazz or rock or experimental music, have drawn inspiration from the music of Joujouka. Even the Stones milked what Mick Jagger admitted was "a tenuous musical connection" by using the Master Musicians on their 1989 Steel Wheels album.

Since that time, artists from the village have travelled to the west - drawn as much by the financial as the spiritual rewards - to perform music from Joujouka and the surrounding region. As we drive off at dawn the following morning, the first of the day's five calls to prayer ringing in our ears, I wonder whether I have just witnessed a long, loud, final blast of a tradition that's now staring extinction in the face. But Rynne is more optimistic. He says the event has brought enough money and supplies to the village to keep the place thriving until the winter - and that's before the cash from a planned CD/DVD release rolls in.

"You saw the young men last night," he smiles, referring to the mass outbreak of Boujeloud-inspired mayhem. "It's impossible to my mind that those boys, growing up in the houses of musicians, won't one day be picking up drums themselves."

Maybe so. But whether they'll stay put in Joujouka rather than try their luck on the international stage is, of course, another matter.


Monday, October 5, 2009

Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 2010, Joujouka/Jajouka, Morocco, Dates Announced 4/5 June 2010


Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Joiner Image by Jill Furmanovsky/Rock Archives

The 3rd annual Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival will take place Friday 4 and Saturday 5 June, 2010. Spend a weekend of music, food and Sufi hospitality in the village and stay in the homes of the Master Musician of Joujouka. Breakfast, lunch and dinner provided. Arrive Friday noon and depart Sunday afternoon/evening. Impromptu and formal music performances in the natural setting with the Masters and people of Joujouka/Jajouka.

Started in 2008 with the Master Musicians of Joujouka Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival on July 29 and 3O. The festival moved to June in 2009 as the dates in July coincide with the Fete de Throne of King Mohamed VI which the Master Musicians attend and perform at every year. The June date also ensures a more temperate climate in Joujouka/Jajouka rather than the typical 38 C at the end of July.

The dates allow for visitors to Morocco to also attend events at the Festival of Sacred Music in Fes.


Booking will be available here soon but anyone who wants to reserve a place should email joujouka@gmail.com

Short clip from the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival from a film currently in production below.



Visitors will stay in the homes of The Master Musicians of Joujouka in their home village and enjoy a weekend of life in the Sufi village in the Ahl Srif Mountains near Ksar El Kebir, Morocco.

Info and advance bookings contact joujouka@gmail.com

See The October 2009 issue of The Wire for Lise Blanning's report on the 2009 Festival.
Download 10min MP3 in exclusive with The Wire http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3035/

Mark Paytress reported on the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival in The Guardian and Mojo see
Guardian

Take me into insanity

In the Moroccan mountains, village musicians gather each year to worship the goat-man Boujeloud ... and Brian Jones. Mark Paytress joins in the wild party

.........


As the ceremony begins, I follow the nine magnificently attired Masters - resplendent in yellow hats, white collarless shirts and dark, one-shoulder robes - as they make their way down a long, dusty track to a gently lit corner of the village square, where some 120 villagers and visitors are gathered. Without realising it, I perch upon the same rock Jones sat on 40 years ago, as the Masters hit their transcendent stride.

A group of watching youths, some dressed in baseball caps and logo-emblazoned T-shirts, bounce boisterously in front of the bonfire. Women huddle in the shadows. When the rhaitas, sounding something like a herd of aroused elephants, nudge up a semitone, the tingle factor really kicks in. A trick long favoured by a generation of superstar DJs is, it seems, as old as time itself.

Then out hops the sprite-like Boujeloud. Hours ago, he was the soberly attired master of the house where I slept. Now, this apparition in a straw hat and goat-skin is mad-eyed and rubber-necked; he thrashes me with a pair of olive branches. My fertility apparently secured, at least for another year, I leap to my feet and join in this primal scream of a party. For five long hours, these rhythms and rituals play out against a backdrop of spitting bonfires, screams and the endless high-jinks of Boujeloud. At about five in the morning, it winds down. "Boujeloud" is back in his bum-freezer jacket and handing out cups of mint tea to the small handful of us who have survived this exhilarating, extraordinary but exhausting musical endurance test..........

Read More http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/29/master-musicians-joujouka-festival-morocco


Mojo October 2008 PDF http://media.mind2hands.com/insom/MJMM01.pdf

Further Info advance booking email joujouka@gmail.com