Master Musicians Of Jajouka Led By Bachir Attar Jajouka Between The Mountains

Myth and legend swirl around The Master Musicians of Jajouka, an all-male
troupe of Sufi musicians from a village in the Rif Mountains of northern
Morocco, and the custodians of a culture with roots in ancient Persia. Passed
down through generations of the same family, the Attars, their trance music is
as complex and melodic as it is spiritual and healing. Delivered on instruments
including lira (flute), gaita (oboe), guimbri (bass lute) and drums beaten with
hands and sticks, it is intensively practised and often played all night.
The Master Musicians had recorded with the Rolling Stones, been declared
“the 4,000-year-old rock’n’roll band” by counterculture guru Timothy Leary
and toured Europe for the first time in a decade when, in 1995, led by Bachir
Attar, they pitched up at Real World during Recording Week. Captured live
before a small rapt audience, this performance of three long-playing tracks
bottles all the deeply felt passion of musicians in the moment, merging voices
and instruments in ways guaranteed to transport. Each composition is distinct:
‘My God My Love Has Come’ favours strings. ‘The Real Long Night in Jajouka’
is heavy on flute. In ‘Boujeloudia’ the focus is on the oboe-like ghaita. But the
fever builds and burns throughout.