Author: Richie Troughton

Recent festival in Morocco and UK tour report featured in the latest edition of Songlines.

Fifty years since his first visit to Joujouka in 1973, Robin Denselow returned to Morocco to experience the annual festival in the village – and then followed the Master Musicians of Joujouka on their recent UK tour, including festival opening set at Glastonbury.

The August-September 2023 edition of Songlines magazine features Denselow’s tour diary report of his experiences.

In June, Denselow attended the Master Musicians of Joujouka festival, and then joined the group on the road for their two-night residency at The Forge in Camden, London, ahead of the group’s Pyramid Stage opening set at Glastonbury Festival.

Denselow said: “It’s amazing to be back [in Joujouka], especially as I’m with Rikki Stein, friend and manager of the late, great Fela Kuti. I first met Rikki when I was invited to Joujouka back in 1973. Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman and the writer William S Burroughs were also here, and the musicians played for hours out in the mud square, creating the most extraordinary, intense and trance-inducing sounds I had ever heard.

“Now, it’s more organised. The new generation of musicians have flattened the earth at the top of an olive grove next to their little HQ to provide a stage covered in carpets and a striped awning. Will it be the same intense experience? I shouldn’t have worried.”

Reporting on the Master Musicians of Joujouka’s Glastonbury show Robin Denselow enthused: “They sound as intense, and attacking and as sophisticated as they did in Joujouka. […] They still sound as thrilling, joyful and unique as they did back in their village in Morocco.”

Read the article Moroccan Dance Party in full in the August-September 2023 edition of Songlines available now from all good newsagents and here

The BBC News website has published an extensive feature on the Master Musicians of Joujouka following their appearance at Glastonbury Festival.

A report on the Master Musicians of Joujouka’s recent UK tour has been published by BBC News.

The article Master Musicians of Joujouka: The Moroccan band who wowed Glastonbury is a report by Richard Hamilton, who attended recent concerts in London and Glastonbury Festival with the Master Musicians.

Hamilton wrote: “For hundreds of years the Master Musicians of Joujouka have performed in their local village of the same name in northern Morocco, handing down their unique sounds of drums and pipes from generation to generation.

“But recently they opened the Glastonbury Festival in the south-west of England, one of the world’s biggest open-air music events.”

Hamilton interviewed members of the group and Rikki Stein, whose relationship with the Master Musicians dates back to his time living in Joujouka in 1971. Stein said: “I was so blown away by what I found there, that I tore up my return ticket and stayed in the village for a couple of years.”

Ghaita player Abdeslam Rrtoubi said: “When you play the ghaita, you become part of a great sound. I love seeing people moved by the music. It can also help me to play it on my own, whenever I need to calm myself. The audiences and the support we get from them with their dancing and their happiness is a gift to us.”

Lead drummer Ahmed El Attar added: “The music of Joujouka cannot disappear from here because the children who go to school in the village learn the music and it’s our heritage. If the music stopped in Joujouka, it would be as if there’s no more music in the world.”

Read the article Master Musicians of Joujouka: The Moroccan band who wowed Glastonbury in full here

A special report on the Master Musicians of Joujouka was also featured on the BBC Global News Podcast. Presented by the same reporter Richard Hamilton, the dispatch included live recordings from the Pyramid Stage.

Listen back to the Global News Podcast here

Upcoming events

Joujouka 24 Festival 7-9 June 2024

Tickets limited to just 50 spaces

More information here

*** SOLD OUT *** For more information and to be added to the standby list, email joujouka@gmail.com with the heading ‘Joujouka 24’

Chris May at The Forge in Camden on 21^st June for the second of the Master Musicians’ two-nights in Camden.

The Master Musicians of Joujouka began their UK tour last week with two shows at The Forge in Camden, ahead of their Pyramid Stage opening set at Glastonbury Festival.

Over two nights packed crowds enthusiastically welcomed the Moroccan group playing their first concerts in London since 1980.

A review published in All About Jazz reported on the second night of their London residency.

Writer Chris May said: “The size of the Master Musicians’ lineup is flexible. In Joujouka itself, the ensemble runs into several dozen. At The Forge it was nine musicians and a dancer, the largest number the stage can agreeably accommodate. The intensity was off the scale. Six double-reed rhaita players and three drummers jammed, without a break, for two high-decibel, elemental hours, as measured in earth time. For the last half hour, they were joined by a goatskin-clad shaman channeling Bou Jeloud, a.k.a. Pan, who struck the shoulders of every audience member within reach with a couple of leafy branches. In Joujouka, Bou Jeloud’s touch is believed to transmit fertility.”

There was a link to the organisation of events in 1980. May said: “Frank Rynne, who, together with Rikki Stein, presented tonight’s performance at London’s Forge, the second of two gigs at the club prior to an appearance on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage at the end of the week. Stein is the first promoter to have taken the Master Musicians on tour outside Morocco. He lived in Joujouka from 1971 to 1973, when amongst much else he helped facilitate Ornette Coleman’s visit to the village to make the recordings which later appeared on the album Dancing In Your Head (Horizon, 1977). In 1980 Stein toured the Master Musicians through mainland Europe and Britain, where the itinerary included Glastonbury and five evenings at London’s late lamented Commonwealth Institute. Since then, together and separately, Stein and Rynne have ensured they keep the Joujouka experience authentic.

“Everybody is different, but one way of tuning in to the Master Musicians is to anchor yourself to the resonant beat of the bass drum, keeping it as your rock while the rhaitas morph from riff to riff and the higher pitched drums adjust tempos and displace rhythmic accents. Whatever technique you use, if you are fortunate you will end up feeling cleansed and refreshed. However tonight’s audience members got there, it was clear the message had been received.”

Read the review in full at All About Jazz here

Upcoming events

Joujouka 24 Festival 7-9 June 2024

Tickets limited to just 50 spaces

More information here

*** SOLD OUT *** For more information and to be added to standby list, email joujouka@gmail.com with the heading ‘Joujouka 24′