Paul Bowles' Library of Congress Moroccan Tape Stash Is On YouTube

In 1959, noted American author and composer Paul Bowles made several trips around Morocco recording as many strains of Moroccan traditional music as he could capture. Bowles curated some of these recordings for release on a 1972 2-LP set "Music of Morocco" issued by the Library of Congress.

Bowles recounts some of the experiences of the 1959 recording project in the essay "The Rif, to Music" in his essay collection "Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue". For a deep dive into Bowles' musical upbringing and aesthetics and how these inform his recording project, it's well worth seeking out Philip Schuyler's essay "Music of Morocco: The Paul Bowles Collection", included in the 4-CD reissue and expansion of the Library of Congress album, released in 2016 by Dust to Digital. This release is one of the most beautiful artifacts in my own stash - from the ornate box to the leatherette-bound booklet down to the track selection, sequencing, and notes, everything was done with great care, thought, and taste.

If you can't find the box set, the album is available to purchase digitally at Bandcamp, including a pdf of the booklet. The album is also available to stream online through various platforms, though of course without the reading materials:

I had meant to post something about this back in 2016, but did not manage to do so. While scrolling through Twitter last week, I stumbled across a YouTube clip of a Gnawa recording I'd not heard before, originating from the Bowles' collection, but not issued as part of the LP or CD sets. The video was uploaded by Archnet, a digital resource sponsored by MIT and the Agha Khan Trust for Culture.

It turns out that Archnet has made the entire collection available online in YouTube form! 60 reels of tape! As Michael Toler of Archnet explains on his blog, these clips are raw transfers of the original tapes, so do not expect them to sound like the versions on Dust to Digital's release, which were nicely mastered to improve sound quality.

Still, what an amazing gift to be able to hear these tapes! As an additional gift, Archnet has uploaded a scan of Bowles' own typed notes on the recordings, which accompanied their submission to the Library of Congress: http://archnet.org/publications/10093. Excerpts from these notes appear in the Dust to Digital booklet, but you can now see the whole set.

I found the Archnet website difficult to navigate, and the way they have named the YouTube videoclips is inconsistent and often incomplete. So for my own benefit and yours, I have grouped the clips into YouTube playlists, which I hope are easier to navigate. The playlists are linked below. I generally named them by recording date, artist name/style and location. A small number of things listed by Archnet or in Bowles' notes are missing or mislabeled, but the links below will get you to nearly everything he recorded for the Library of Congress from August to December of 1959:

• 1956-08 Gnawa Tangier - This recording was submitted by Bowles to the LOC as a supplement to the 1959 recordings. It was made with "inferior equipment", but he deemed it to be important enough to submit. 
• 1959-08-01 & 02 Cheikha Fatoma Bent Kaddour (Beni Mguild), Aïn Diab
• 1959-08-01 Moha ben Driss and Ensemble (Beni Mtir), Aïn Diab
• 1959-08-01 & 02 - Various Groups at the Moussem of Sidi Abderrahmane, Aïn Diab
• 1959-08-06 Hazan Semtob Knafo, Synagogue Elkahal, Essaouira
• 1959-08-06 Gnawa of Tamanar - Miloud Ben Barka Ensemble, Essaouira - Bowles lists 2 tracks for this group: 2B.1 and 2B.2. On YouTube I could only find 2B.2, but 2B.1 exists on Archnet's site here.
  
• 1959-08-08 Raïs Mahamed Ben Mohammed Ensemble (Beni Haha), Essaouira - Bowles recorded 3 reels of this group: 3B, 4B, and 7A. Archnet uploaded a video for 4B, but it contains the audio for 5B (Moha ben Driss Ensemble), so this playlist contains only 2 clips.
  
• 1959-08-12 El Ferqa dial Guedra Goulimine
• 1959-08-13 Amarg Tiznit - Rais Ahmed ben Bakrim and Group, Essaouira 
• 1959-08-15 Ahouache Tafraoute - Maalem Ahmed and Ensemble, Tafraoute
• 1959-08-21, 08-24, and 06-XX - Muezzins, Tangier, Ain el Hayani
• 1959-08-27 Music of the Jbala - Maalem Abdeslam Sarsri el Mahet Arzila and Ensemble, Asilah
• 1959-09-04 Café Music of Tetuan - Bachir bel Hadj Hassan Bacali and group, Qahoua d’l Nadjah, Tetouan 
• 1959-09-05 - Rais Mohammed el Khemissi and Ensemble (Rhmara Tribe), Tetouan - 7 tracks are listed on Archnet's site, but the YouTube link for the 4th clip is broken. However, it can be accessed via the download link at http://archnet.org/media_contents/116862
  
• 1959-09-09/10 Music of the Beni Ouriaghel Tribe, Einzoren, Rif
• 1959-09-15 Cheikh Hamed bel Hadj Hamadi ben Allal and Ensemble (Beni Bouifrour Tribe), Segangan
• 1959-09-20 Festival Music of Taza - Allal ben Mohammed Kaaoui and Ensemble, Taza
• 1959-09-21 Cheikh Ayyad ou Haddou and Ensemble (Beni Ouaraine Tribe, Middle Atlas), Tahala 
• 1959-09-25 Andaluz Music of Fez - Abdelkrim·Rais, director (and rebab), Fez, Musée du Batha - Bowles' notes indicate that 2 reels of music were captured from the group: 26B and 27A. However, Archnet's link to 26B is broken, and their video for 27A contains the music from 27B (Taqtoqa Jabaliya).
• 1959-09-25 Taqtoqa Jabaliya - Maalem Mohammed Rhiati and Ensemble, Fez
• 1959-09-29 Andaluz and Melhoun - Members of the Family of the Chorfa of Ouezzane, Ouezzane
• 1959-10-18 Melhoun - Maalem El Hocein and Ensemble, Meknes - The third clip is labeled on YouTube as "32B", but the video itself contains the music and contextual information from "31A".
  
• 1959-10-19 Music of the Hamatcha - Valley of the Oued Boufekrane (near Meknes) 
• 1959-10-20 Cheikha Haddouj bent Fatma Rohou and Ensemble (Zaiane Tribe, Middle Atlas), Khenifra 
• 1959-10-24 Mohammed bel Hassan and group (Ait Bou Guemmaz Tribe), Ait Mohammed
• 1959-10-27 & 10-31 Guennaoua - Si Mohammed Bel Hassan Soudani, Marrakech
• 1959-10-28 & 10-31 Haouziya without and with cheikhat - Maalem Taieb ben Mbarek and Ensemble, Marrakech - Archet's site lists 7 clips. The 1st clip "39B" does exist on YouTube, but contains no audio. so I have omitted it from this playlist.
  
• 1959-10-28 Unknown Aouada player, Marrakech, Djemaa el Fna
• 1959-11-01 Embarek ben Mohammed (guinbri & voice), Melhoun and more, Marrakech
• 1959-11-04 Ahouache Misfioua - Maalem Ahmed Gacha (leader), Ait Ourir
• 1959-11-05 Ahouache Guidmioua - Larbi bel Hocein Nait ou Nasr (Moqaddem), Amizmiz
• 1959-11-25 Ahouache Ait Ouaouzguite - Maalem Hma M'barek (leader), Ouarzazate
• 1959-11-27 Music of the Draaoua - Moqaddem Mohammed ben Salem (leader), Zagora 
• 1959-12-10 Muezzins, Fez, Bab Jamai
• 1959-12-12, 12-13, and 12-14 Jewish Devotional and Religious songs - ft. Hazan Isaac Ouanounou, Meknes, Synagogue Benamara and Talmud Thora School
• 1959-12-13 Chanson Moderne - Mohammed Mohiyeddine and his Orchestra, Meknes - Bowles calls this "chaabiya" in his liner notes. Perhaps it was described to him as "chaabi" or "popular", but it's not what we would call chaabi today, but rather âsri or chanson moderne. Also, Archnet has mislabeled 57A as 57B, and vice versa.
  
• 1959-12-18 Music of the Souassa - Rais el Hussein and his Ensemble, Marrakech

If time permits, I'll comment on some of the individual tapes in future posts. I'm of course loving the additional Gnawa material, in particular the hour's worth of material from 1956 (the first playlist above). Until then, there's plenty for you to explore!

More thoughts on Mustapha Baqbou in Jil Jilala

 
I've been revisiting the Jil Jilala albums featuring the Gnawi mâalem Mustapha Baqbou. It's an interesting group of recording.

Baqbou joined the group in the mid-1980s following the departure of Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri (who was originally with Nass el Ghiwane in the early '70s before Paco joined that group). Despite playing guinbri in Nass el Ghiwane, Tahiri was not a specialist in Gnawa music but rather in melhun, a stately old Moroccan sung poetry tradition. With Jil Jilala, Tahiri brought brought a modern, youthful exuberance to old melhun classics like "Chamâa" and "Lotfya", endearing these songs to a new, young audience.

After Tahiri's departure, the group, naturally, took a different direction, with the addition of Mustapha Baqbou. Baqbou had performed in the Netherlands-based folk-revival band Tiq Maya, but was also deeply rooted in the Gnawa ritual tradition. In the 1980s-90s, Mustapha appeared on at least the following albums:

• Hada Wa'dek ya Meskine (Disques Gam GB.85.86) Moroccan Tape Stash or Yala
• Lqalb Lmeskun (Disques Gam GB.87.88) pictured above/see below
• Nour al Anwar (Sawt Errbi' cassette) Awesome Tapes
• Kouna wa Kentou (Edition Sonya Disque E.S.D. 303) [c. 1993] Yala
• La Taiesse (Edition Sonya Disque E.S.D. 500) [c. 1994] Yala or Amazon

I featured "Hada Wa'dek ya Meskine" in a recent post and I called it "the most Gnawa-influenced" Jil Jilala album. Today's offering, "Lqalb Lmeskun", is perhaps the most Ghiwani of their albums. That is, it comes closest (to my ear) to the sound and feel of Nass el Ghiwane. That ain't necessarily a bad thing - it's a great sound. But it does seem an odd direction for Jil Jilala to take so many years into the its history, and at a time when Nass el Ghiwane's style was going out of fashion. On the other hand, when you have a great Gnawi guinbri player in the group, why wouldn't you use that to its greatest effect and play up the Gnawa influence as Nass el Ghiwane did.

Apparently, these albums were not very successful commercially, and the group changed their approach for the final 3 albums listed above. The most comprehensive and concise biography I could find on the group (in English) was in a post by Smangal at rateyourmusic.com. Regarding this period, he writes:

"In a desperate move to salvage their name, they tried to modernize their sound a little bit by introducing a drum machine to play all their percussive sounds. As a consequence, albums La Tayess and Nour el Anouar sounded processed and mechanical, even if they had good song writing. They tried to follow the trends but failed to gain any noticeable attention, and this made Mohamed Derhem amicably leave the band in 1995."

The use of the drum machine is pretty weird. And even weirder that they would use a synthesized bass to play lines clearly designed for the guinbri, as here, in "Dib el Ghaba", a track from "La Taiesse":



Weird, but it does have a certain charm, and it clearly represents a (perhaps jarring) break from the folky/Ghiwani sound. You can hear it on the latter 3 albums listed above, as well as on Mohamed Derhem's solo album. The album Nour al Anwar in particular features some great songs.

While their albums featured these mechanical sounds, I believe their live performances always featured the organic, acoustic instruments of the ensemble. Check out this live version of Dib el Ghaba - BAQBOU'S GUINBRI RIFFING IS UNBELIEVABLY GROOVY:



My copy of Lqalb Lmeskun is a cassette dub of someone else's cassette. I don't have the album art, so am using Yala's copy of the art from the CD.

Jil Jilala - Lqalb Lmeskun (Disques Gam GB.87.88)
01 Lqalb Lmeskun
02 El Laymin (excerpt below)

03 Massab
04 Qallat Zadi
 

256 | FLAC

And again, if you want more pristine (though at lower bitrate) digital versions of these tunes, Yala's got 'em here. 

El Madad Ya Rasul Allah - El Haj Muhammad Bouzoubaa

Here's some nice religious chaâbi-amdah for ya from Muhammad Bouzoubaa (b.1940, Fes). Bouzoubaa grew up in the milhun tradition and his chaâbi stylings stay toward the classical Andalusian and milhun end of the spectrum. He's particularly known for his religious odes (amdah), 3 of which are included here. I found this out-of-print (outside of Morocco, at least) Tichkaphone CD in Berkeley!

There's more nice Bouzoubaa over at Yala.
And Toukadime recently uploaded some sweet vintage Bouzoubaa vinyl rips to YouTube.
And head over to Bouzoubaa's Facebook page to find a 2-part video biography (in Arabic) from Moroccan television.

Ramadan Mubarak to those celebrating, and best wishes and blessings to all!

Hajj Muhammad Bouzoubaa - El Madad Ya Rasul Allah

1) El Madad Ya Rasul Allah (excerpt below)

2) Ala M'habtek Ya Rasul Allah
3) Ya Jenna Ya Naïma

Get it here.