Master Musicians of Joujouka

Official website of the legendary Sufi brotherhood Master Musicians of Joujouka from Joujouka/Jajouka, Morocco.

Ornette Coleman

The year following the release of the Brian Jones album brought a flood of visitors to the village. That year Hamri arranged an album called The Master Musicians of Jajouka recorded by Joel Rubiner and Ricky Stein. Stein went on to manage Youssou N’Dour.

In January 1973 the free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman arrived in Joujouka with a large retinue and recorded for three days. The results can be heard on the Dancing in Your Head album. This new interest in the music and the influx of young people on the hippy trail caused great problems in the village and drew some musicians away from the traditional music and lifestyle of the Sufi masters.

Among these was Bachir Attar, who moved to New York and formed bands with musicians there. The American author Stephen Davis, who wrote Hammer of the Gods and Reggae Bloodlines, noted in his 2001 history of the Rolling Stones that by the late 1980s the group had fallen out with the young Attar as he was not a “traditionalist”.