Author: Richie Troughton

Legendary music producer’s latest book offers an alternative music history and travelog looking at “how jazz, rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll would never have happened if it weren’t for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon”.

The latest book by legendary music producer Joe Boyd seeks out to explore in great detail the backstories of some of the most “extraordinary” musicians from around the world, including from Joujouka.

In And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, Boyd examines how “personalities, events and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston and Rio are as colourful and momentous as anything that took place in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon or Liverpool”.

Boyd’s global study extends to Morocco, as the book includes a section on the Master Musicians of Joujouka, exploring times when the group performed for sultans in the 1400s, to visits of Brion Gysin and Brian Jones – and most recently to 2023’s Glastonbury festival opening set, “before Elton John, Lana Del Ray and Guns n’ Roses took their turns on stage”.

Boyd muses on the “music and ritual” of Joujouka and how the group’s sounds could be the closest thing to “knowing what a days-long party sounded like in Athens in the fifth century BCE”.

The book was recently launched in London with an In Conversation event at Foyles with Brian Eno talking to Boyd.

Eno said: “I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”

At the event Boyd said: “A lot of the book is about connections. It’s about the way the music travels across oceans and across borders, in many, many different ways.”

Artists produced by Boyd include Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Taj Mahal and Fairport Convention, with many of these experiences detailed in his previous book, the 2005 memoir White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. As a film producer, his credits include Amazing Grace, Scandal, and Jimi Hendrix.

And the Roots of Rhythm Remain (published in the UK by Faber & Faber and in the US by Ze Books) is available now in all good bookshops

Moving Music – The Memoirs of Rikki Stein available now.

Former Master Musicians of Joujouka manager Rikki Stein has published his memoirs, including his time spent living and working with the group in their village in Morocco.

Moving Music – The Memoirs of Rikki Stein is published this month by Wordville.

Rikki lived in Joujouka for a time during the early 1970s, including the period when Ornette Coleman visited the village to make recordings later released on the album, Dancing In Your Head (1977).

In 1980 Rikki organised a 30-date tour of Europe for the Master Musicians of Joujouka, taking a 30-strong ensemble on the road, that included a show in Glastonbury.

In 2011, Rikki renewed his relationship with the Master Musicians of Joujouka and returned to Glastonbury, working with manager Frank Rynne and the current group, whose leader Ahmed El Attar was part of the 1980 tour. This time the group opened the Glastonbury Festival on the Pyramid Stage – a feat repeated in the summer of 2023.

The press statement for the book release said: “Renowned music manager, Rikki Stein, has spent nearly six decades moving musicians around the world, and this book recounts a lifetime of adventure on the road. Always in the right place at the right time, Rikki was part of the great countercultural moments of the last century, from Woodstock and the Vietnam War Moratorium March to the launch Glastonbury Festival.

“Rikki has toured some of the world’s most iconic musicians and groups, fromThe Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Kinks, The Animals, The Yardbirds , The Moody Blues and the Grateful Dead to managing the Nigerian superstar, Fela Kuti, and many other iconic artists.

“Rikki’s journey is also a spiritual one, forged by his experience of living among the community of the Musicians of Joujouka, Morocco, who remain a key connection in his life to this day.

“Full of extraordinary, sometimes hilarious, stories of life on the road, this book recounts the joys, frustrations and surprises of juggling logistics, local politics and the whims of his creative clients to deliver true moments of moving music.”

In a review of the book forAll About Jazz, Chris May said: “In 1971, after helping mount the legendary free concert the Grateful Dead put on at the Château d’Hérouville in France, Stein moved to Morocco, where he spent much of 1971-73 living with the Master Musicians in Joujouka in the Rif mountains. It was through being in Morocco that he first got to know Brion Gysin, with whom he later formed a closer friendship back in London. In 1980 Stein organized the first of several international tours by the Master Musicians, including a five-night residency at London’s late lamented Commonwealth Institute.”

A book launch event featuring Rikki Stein in conversation with Kunle Olulode MBE will be held at the British Library in London from 6pm on Friday, 21^st June.

Moving Music – The Memoirs of Rikki Stein, published by Wordville, is available to order here

WOMAD founder Mark Kidel reports from the June edition of the festival in the village for The Arts Desk.

A report on the June edition of the Master Musicians of Joujouka festival has been published in The Arts Desk.

“Ancient Sufi music works its eternal magic,” said WOMAD founder Mark Kidel in his report, which can be read in full here.

Kidel writes: “The Master Musicians of Joujouka play music that’s centuries-old, not as folk revivalists, but in a living tradition that offers healing and transformation as well as sublime entertainment.

“For three days in June, the 50 ticket-holders are hosted by the musicians’ families, served delicious home-cooked meals, and welcomed with the warm hospitality typical of the Maghreb.

“As festival organiser Frank Rynne explains, “I don’t tell them when to play. They do it whenever they feel like, and for as long as they like.” For those who like the comfort of a pre-arranged schedule, for music or eating, this can be a little unsettling. But this is the way, as anyone who’s spent any time on Morocco will know. You have to enjoy going with the flow.

“For this is music about letting go, the pre-requisite for good psychological and physical health.

“The Master Musicians produce exquisitely crafted music, as intricate and beautiful as the zelij tilework that runs through Islamic architecture, calibrated to release the mind and body, and ultimately to heal.”

The festival scheduled for 23-25 May 2025 is now sold out. Please email joujouka@gmail.com to be added for waiting list for a potential second festival, or late places if they become available.