Paul Trynka, former editor of Mojo and Q and author of the definitive biographies of David Bowie, Iggy Pop and now Brian Jones has written a major feature review on the Beat in Morocco featuring his experiences at The Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival.
As evening falls, the musicians walk into the tent in formal, almost military robes. From the first beat the music is arresting, melodies carried by seven or eight rhaita, oboe-like pipes – the pipes of Pan – flanked by five or six drummers playing tbel, primitive military-style drums. Pipers play a call and response; over the next five or six hours, then three successive nights, I hear hundreds of melodies, some surely blues or folk, some impossibly alien, while the drums boom out relentlessly hypnotic polyrhythms. The volume is overwhelming – your ears ring, your brain shakes, your teeth rattle. I've lost all consciousness of time, when suddenly a new energy fills the air – a goat-skinned apparition leaps on stage and the pipes distort into a rush of noise, like a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo. Bou Jeloud dances across the tent, shaking his hips in front of the musicians, who sweat with the intensity of their work. The little goat-skinned creature taunts musicians and crowd, brandishing olive branches, swiping young women and occasional unwary men.
The house where Brian Jones stayed in Joujouka. Photo by Paul Trynka. It's a provocative, powerful performance. But it's fragile and endangered, too. "
Booking for the Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 5-7 June 2015 with drop off on the morning of the 8th June is open at http://www.joujouka.org/the-festival/"Morocco: Follow the sound of the Beats" by Paul Trynka published in The Independent UK 6 Sept 2014 online version 5 Sept 2014 Paul Trynka Morocco: Follow the sound of the Beats
Booking for a special Burroughs 100 night on 15 November , food accomadation and a full performence of Boujeloud in advance of the European Beat Networks Conference 17-19 Nov Hotel Chellah Tangier celebrating Burroughs is open at
http://www.brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.fr/2014/08/joujouka-boujeloud-before-european-beat.html
The full program for the European Beat Studies Network Conference in Tangier 17-19 Nov at Hotel Chellah is available on their website http://ebsn.eu/ebsn-conference-2014-tangier-morocco/
Paul Trynka whose new biography of Brian Jones 'Sympathy For The Devil' (Transworld) costs £20 (trynka.net)
Master Musicians of Joujouka on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Master-Musicians-of-Joujouka/105892372781794
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