The Source

Bachir Attar, last descendant of the Masters Musicians of Jajouka, is directly connected to the highest muslim tradition. Recognised internationally, Jajouka goes back up to the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones, across his collaboration of 1968 (having introduced on his disc " Brian Jones presents: the pan pipes of Jajouka "), but also to Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, and William S.Burroughs which had already established their residences for some years together with these musicians of the mountains of Rif. Their name comes from a small village in the north of Morocco, located about 150 Kms in the south of Tangier, where is perpetuated for more than 2000 years a musical and magical tradition based on the Rituals of Section. Their art, in which they allocate virtues of healing, is ancestral, and takes its source in the traditions of the ancient Persian. Nagging and mysterious, the music of the Master Musicians of Jajouka is based on repetitive, inspiring and intriguing modulations. Jajouka, its village, its musicians and consequently its festival, was and remains a source of inspirations, so seeing marching the main protagonists Beat Generation, and music jazz and rock, of Timothy Leary (the theoretician of the LSD and the prophet of the psychedelism) to the creator of the free jazz Ornette Coleman, by way of Archie Shepp, Billy Corgan or else Mick Jagger who in 1989, goes to Morocco to record a title with Master Musicians for the good of Rolling Stones album Steel Wheels. At the end of the nineties, Bachir Attar settle down in New York where he meets and collaborates with so different artists as Sonic Youth, the guitarist Arto Lindsay, and the famous bass player Bill Laswell. So many prestigious artists who will also come to visit the musicians in the mountains of Rif. In June, 2009, the group plays with Patti Smith and Flea in Royal Festival Foyer of London. The same year, their album live " Jajouka Live Vol. 1 " is elected better album of year 2009 by the magazine Wire in the category world music . The album "The Source" from Jajouka s was recorded in Bachir Attar s home. This album, in which they find all essence of the directory of the musicians, includes several music styles interpreted by the traditional instruments which are the Gaitas (oboe), Gimbris (small guitar), Will Read (flute), Kamanjas (violin), Bendirs and Djarbougas (drums). Between Hadra (ritual music invoking mental healing to the Holy founder of the village Sidi Ahmed Sheikh), Boujeloudia (music accompanying the rituals of fecundity of Boudjeloud, comparable to the Pan God), Hamza oua Hamzine (traditional reminding music the time or the musicians of Jajouka plays in front of the King or the lessons of the Sultans before European colonization) and Jibli (inseparable music of holidays of the village), music of " The Souce " manifests the musical and ritual force of a local, influential and endless art.