‘The 4000 Year Old Rock and Roll Band’ – Melody Maker ad for Brian Jones Presents The Pipes of Pan at Joujouka LP
Last year’s festival
in Joujouka was held in memory of The Rolling Stones founder and lead guitarist
Brian Jones on
the 50th anniversary of his death on 3rd July 1969.
Brian Jones visited Joujouka in 1968 and recorded the LP Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka (released on Rolling Stones Records, 1971).
In his liner notes for the LP Jones said: “I don’t know if I have the stamina to endure the incredible strain of the festival.
“What exists here is a specially chosen representation of the type of music which is played and chanted during the festival.”
A Requiem for Brian Jones was held in Joujouka, Morocco from 5th to 7th July 2019.
The village square and mosque in Joujouka
On the opening afternoon of the festival the Master Musicians of Joujouka performed a set of lira and tebel music
Shiekh Ahmed Talha dancing to the Master Musicians of Joujouka
Brian Jones is said to have sat on this rock to listen to the Master Musicians during his visit to Joujouka
The Master Musicians of Joujouka in full flow on the opening evening of the festival
Master Musicians of Joujouka evening performance
The cave of Boujeloud in the distance and Mohamed El Hatmi surveying the scene over the jibil from inside
Breakfast served to guests at the festival. Sunset in Joujouka looking over the Ahl Srif mountains
Boujeloud dances in front of a bonfire
Marlon Richards, son of The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg, followed in his parent’s footsteps by visiting Joujouka for last year’s festival. Pictured here with Master Musicians of Joujouka manager Frank Rynne
Master Musicians of Joujouka group leader Ahmed El Attar at the tomb of Sidi Ahmed Shiekh in Joujouka explaining the healing powers of their sacred Sufi Trance music the mystic brought to the village
The finale of music on the third night of the festival
To experience
the sounds of the Master Musicians of Joujouka live at the Festival in their
village – check out the Into The Ahl Srif
album – recently released for the first time in digital format.
The 2020 edition of the Master Musicians of Joujouka festival has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the group have been unable to work since March. Proceeds from download sales of the album will be donated to the Master Musicians of Joujouka.
More information about the Into The Ahl Srif album here
For latest news on the 2020 festival and
updates on rescheduled dates when available visit here
Master Musicians of Joujouka and Boujeloud open Glastonbury Festival 2011 on the Pyramid Stage. Photo – Jill Furmanovsky
This weekend was set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival at Worthy Farm.
Like many events on the music calendar this year’s Glastonbury has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We look
back to when the Master Musicians of Joujouka travelled from Morocco to Pilton,
Somerset to open the 2011 festival on the main Pyramid stage.
The Master
Musicians arrived at the festival site on the early hours of Friday morning on 24th
June – and had just a few hours to prepare for their set.
Live on the Pyramid stage
Master Musicians of Joujouka opened
Glastonbury 2011 on the Pyramid Stage. Part 1 of this crowd-filmed footage ends
with the classic ‘Brian Jones Joujoujka Very Stoned’. Part 2 features part of
the Boujeloud Rite which has been likened by Brion Gysin to the Rites of Pan.
The Masters finished their set with a Sufi prayer blessing all the festival
goers and the festival organisers and all the people of the world in troubled
times.
Thanks to murasakiryu on youtube for posting this footage.
Part I
Part II
Live at the Stone Circle
This set was recorded at the megalithic stone circle at Worthy Farm on Saturday 25th June. The video was shot by Joachim Montessuis who collaborates with the Master Musicians for the Joujouka Interzone project.
Report of the Master Musicians of Joujouka at Glastonbury 2011
Access All Areas artist pass and the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury
On arrival to the Pyramid stage – Master Musicians of Joujouka with Manager Frank Rynne Master Musicians of Joujouka backstage at Glastonbury ahead of opening the 2011 festival
When the Master Musicians of Joujouka were asked to perform at Glastonbury 2011, it was an opportunity for Musicians from the village to play to their largest audience to date. Prior to Glastonbury, the Joujouka group had not visited England since 1980 when the then 35-strong pre-split group visited Europe for three months on their first major tour, including a gig at Worthy Farm.
Rikki Stein organised the 1980 tour of Europe – and returned to work with the Master Musicians of Joujouka at Glastonbury
Glastonbury marked a return of sorts for group leader Ahmed El Attar, who had played on that 1980 tour as a young drummer. Several other current Musicians followed in the footsteps of their relatives who had been present on that trip.
Ahmed El Attar, leader of the Master Musicians of Joujouka, pictured left in the 1980 tour brochure and right at Glastonbury in 2011
Opening the main Pyramid stage on the Friday of Glastonbury, the Master Musicians of Joujouka played a head swirling trance set, managing to do their huge repertoire justice within their allotted 40 minutes. The oldest Musician, rhaita player Mohamed Mokchan, 78, weaved up the line, teasing his bandmates with colourful notes from his pipe. Ahmed El Attar, meanwhile, stepped out to the front, banging his tebel/drum in the air, enjoying his moment of rock stardom, proselytising the group’s message to a spellbound audience.
A chaos call halfway through the set signalled the entrance of the dancing dervish, the goat God character himself, Boujeloud. Wrapped in goat skins (not a gorilla outfit as some commentators saw it), wearing a floppy hat and brandishing olive branches, he would rush over to onlookers at the side of the stage, swiping at them with his branches. The Musicians closed their set with a traditional Joujouka sufi Islamic prayer, wishing peace and blessings on festival organisers and everybody watching.
Boujeloud at Glastonbury
Afterwards they led a post-gig celebration, with BB King drummer Tony ‘TC’ Crawford joining them for an all-drumming, all-dancing dressing room jam, followed by eating lunch backstage next to the Wu Tang Clan. Surreal scenes.
Master Musicians of Joujouka with BB King drummer Tony ‘TC’ Crawford
Rhaita reeds and tebel (drum) sticks
Together the Joujouka group are tight, a true brotherhood, who would do anything for each other. At Glastonbury they adjusted one another’s uniform orange turbans, helped each other shave and even tucked each other in at night, huddled away side by side in their tipi. This touching intimacy was extended to the crew, as we sat in for breakfast, and shared lazy lira performances in the mornings with one or two lucky passers-by. Somehow the Musicians even found room to dance in the tiny space among the huddled bodies. As at home, the Musicians play and play, all day long.
Master Musicians of Joujouka take in the sights around Glastonbury Festival
In the build up to the Master Musicians of Joujouka’s appearance at this year’s Glastonbury festival, Frank Rynne described the group as the loudest folk band in the world. His statement is supported by the fact that there are few, if any, acoustic instruments louder than the rhaita double-reed woodwind pipes used by the Masters in their sufi trance mantras. Glastonbury provided the perfect opportunity to see just how voluble this music could be, in an experiment that would surely have delighted early champion of the group Brion Gysin.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka perform up the hill overlooking the festival site
As well as opening the Pyramid Stage, the group were to perform a series of impromptu sets over the course of the weekend in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the annual festival held in Joujouka. They played one particularly iconic set at the highest vantage point overlooking the whole site, lined up in front of Hollywood-style ‘Glastonbury’ lettering and faced with a panoramic patchwork of tents stretching as far as the eye could see. Captured by the group’s exquisite harmolodic ‘sonic jewellery’, bystanders who had been enjoying a peaceful retreat away from the mayhem elsewhere were given no choice but to pay attention, many joining in to dance alongside the Musicians as they walked through the scattering of bodies, like the last gang in town, spreading their ‘baraka’ (spiritual blessings).
“The music flows in streams to nourish and fructify the terraced fields below,” wrote Gysin in his liner notes for the Brian Jones LP.
The spiritual music of Sidi Ahmed Shiekh performed by the Master Musicians of Joujouka at the Stone Circle
High above the rest of the festival site, the Musicians did indeed fill the air with the drone tones of their sacred music, subliminally infiltrating the mass consciousness across the site. The view from up there was reminiscent of the rolling hills surrounding Joujouka, but with a temporary city of tents in place of the green valleys. When the sound travelled out and over, the effect was akin to Gysin’s description: “The great wind drops out of your head and you hear the heavenly music again.”
Boujeloud dancing with crowds at Glastonbury
For a mesmerising half hour the group could be heard across the entire site from hill to hill, until they were abruptly stopped – for drowning out the band on the Park Stage down the hill (where Radiohead and Pulp played their ‘secret’ sets). Grudgingly the Musicians had to down their instruments. Or was that triumphantly? Either way, around 200,000 people had been exposed to the power of Joujouka music.
Live at The Crow’s NestMaster Musicians of Joujouka at Glastonbury 2011 – Mohamed Mokhchan, Mohamed El Attar, Abdeslam Rrtoubi, Mustapha El Attar, El Touhami Talha, Ahmed El Attar, Ali Ezouglali, Ahmed Talha, Abdeslam Boukzhar, El Khalil Radi, Abdellah Ziyat, Mohamed El Hatmi
Words and photos by Richie Troughton. Excerpt text from an article originally published on The Quietus
Into The Ahl Srif features field recordings of the Master Musicians of Joujouka recorded in 2012
Master Musicians of Joujouka live album Into The Ahl Srif is being released as a digital download for the first time today (5th June).
The album was originally released as a limited vinyl LP in 2015 by Ergot Records.
Today (5th June) would have been the opening of the 2020 Master Musicians of Joujouka festival that has been postponed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While we understand many will be disappointed not to make the trip to Morocco to attend the festival in Joujouka it is now possible to experience the sounds of the Master Musicians of Joujouka live in their village – from Adrian Rew’s recordings at the festival in 2012.
Due to the lockdown measures and guidelines around social distance, in Morocco as the rest of the world, the Master Musicians have been unable to work since March.
In an appeal for funds Ergot Records are today releasing Into The Ahl Srif making this previously limited-edition vinyl album available for the first time as a digital download.
Originally a vinyl only release this is a great opportunity to get a digital copy of this beautiful field recording.
By selecting the ‘Name your price’ option at checkout will donate additional funds to the Master Musicians of Joujouka. In addition, on 5th June as Bandcamp are waiving all fees it means your contribution goes directly to the artists.
Recorded live in Joujouka in 2012, Into The Ahl Srif was the first new album of Joujouka material available on vinyl since 1976.
From Ergot Records: “Focusing on the trance-inducing ghiata music of the rites of Boujeloud, Into The Ahl Srif eschews the highly edited, special-effects approach of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka in favor of a raw, untampered transmission. Although preserving the full 90-minute fertility ritual in uninterrupted form would be impossible on any physical sound medium, this LP takes a more thorough look than ever before at this most cacophonous, droning, and deeply psychedelic side of Joujouka’s music.”
The album was recorded and produced by Adrian Rew. Album artwork by Mohamed Hamri.
The cover art was a Hamri painting gifted to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge by Brion Gysin and which was acquired by MMOJ producer and manger, Frank Rynne, from the late great Gen.
The album is available now at the Ergot Records Bandcamp page:
