Nass El Ghiwane 2.0 - Falastiniyat

This post looks at the short but seminal period of Nass el Ghiwane 2.0, from the time Abderrahmane Paco replaces Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri until the untimely death of Boujemiî Hgour in October 1974.  

Nass el Ghiwane 2.0: Exit Tahiri, Enter Paco

At some point in 1973 or early '74, Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri left Nass el Ghiwane. Larbi Batma wrote in his memoir ar-Rahil [1] that Tahiri's leaving was a function of interpersonal matters related to an unnamed person from Marrakech, not a function of any musical or creative differences.

Although the narrative of Nass el Ghiwane's formative days centers on the creative duo of Boujemiî and Batma, Tahiri's creative contribution to NG 1.0 should not be discounted. In addition to being musically proficient on various instruments and fluent in various styles, he was absolutely committed to the project of creating a new type of modern Moroccan song anchored in traditional forms. Batma notes that Tahiri contributed to the group's songwriting in those early days. Memorably, his solo guinbri opens the Disque D'or album's opening track "El Madi Fate (The Past is Gone)", and he sings the vocal lead in the song's opening verses. 

Despite Tahiri's early departure from the group, the Ghiwanis would find a more than competent replacement in Abderrahmane Kirouch "Paco". Paco would come to be one of the primary creative drivers of the group from that time forward, adding substantially to the group's already rich poetic and musical tapestry.

Like Tahiri, Paco was not native to Casablanca. Tahiri came from Marrakech and Paco came from Essaouira. Also, like Tahiri and the other Ghiwanis, Paco had some experience in unconventional theatre, but of a very different type. In the summer of 1969, the experimental American theatre troupe The Living Theatre took up residence in Essaouira, which was at that time a renowned destination for hippie and other anti-establishment seekers. Jimi Hendrix visited Essaouira that summer, and Paco claims to have performed a lila ceremony that Hendrix attended there [2]. Critically for his artistic itinerary, Paco participated with The Living Theatre in a local production in Essaouira wherein he played the guinbri and sang wordless melodies [3]. This is likely the origin of the "sonorous Gnaoua chant from Morocco" that runs throughout The Living Theatre's production "Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism". 

Paco's experience with Living Theatre and their deconstruction of foregoing theatrical conventions must have resonated with the other Ghiwanis' experience with Tayeb Saddiki's troupe - i.e., openness to the idea that music and performance could be deployed in the service of transformative experiences beyond the confines of the proscenium stage. And of course Paco also had practical experience of these transformative possibilities through Gnawa musical-ritual practice.

Before Paco joined Nass el Ghiwane, however, he spent time as a member of Morocco's other top group working in the new style. The Marrakech-based group Jil Jilala wanted to add a guinbri player to their ranks. Members went looking for Baqbou in Marrakech but were told he had gone to Essaouira. They set off for Essaouira and were unable to find Baqbou, but someone pointed them in the direction of Paco, who liked the idea and joined the group.

From what I can surmise from the online resources, Paco is featured on two pairs of 7-inch singles released by Jil Jilala, both containing the same songs in different versions, for the Atlassiphone and Casaphone labels. YouTube user Ismael Abo Salma (well worth following) has put together an excellent chronological playlist of Jil Jilala's recordings, and he dates these singles to 1972, making them the earliest of the group's recordings. He lists the Atlassiphone singles as being the initial recordings, and the Casaphone singles being subsequent re-recordings of the same songs:

• Jilala جيلالة (Atlassiphone ATL 555) (Discogs, YouTube)
• Klam Lmrassah الكلام المرصع / Ha Lâar A Bouya  ها العار أبويا (Atlassiphone ATL 556) (Discogs)
• Jilala جيلالة (Casaphone CSP 5084) (Discogs , YouTube - I think this is the Casaphone recording - you can clearly hear Paco's solo voice and guinbri at the beginning of this track, and the image is from the back of the Casaphone sleeve)
• Klam Lmrassah الكلام المرصع / Ha Lâar A Bouya  ها العار أبويا (Casaphone ???) (YouTube)

Despite Paco's participation in these early successes of the group, it was apparently not an ideal musical fit as far as Paco was concerned. The story goes that he was in a recording session with the group and got into an argument about the rhythm of the song being recorded. Frustrated, he walked out and never returned [4]. Fortuitously, this coincided with Tahiri's departure from Nass el Ghiwane, and soon thereafter Paco joined the Ghiwanis.

Nass el Ghiwane 2.0: Recordings - Falastiniyat

The recorded output of Nass el Ghiwane 2.0 while they were together consists of 3 singles comprising a total of 4 songs, 3 of which were included on their second LP. Each of the three singles features the word "فلسطينيات (Falastiniyat)" in the top right of the sleeve. I don't detect any explicit references to Palestine in the lyrics of these songs, so I'm not sure what is the significance of the moniker "Falastiniyat" here.

	Song: Ghir Khoudouni (Hammouda)  غير خذوني (حمودة) Polydor 2225036 Date: assuming 1974 Appears on 2nd album  Discogs link YouTube link
	Song: Ya Sah  يا صاح Polydor 22 25041 Date: ℗ © 1974 non-LP Discogs link YouTube link
	Songs:   Lahmami لهمامي Mezzine M'Dihek مزين أمديحك Polydor 2225045 Date: ℗ © 1974 Appear on 2nd album  Discogs link YouTube link
	LP contains the 1st and 3rd single above, plus the final 2 songs recorded by Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 (Youm Malkak and Al Hassada) Polydor 2944008 Date: ℗ © 1974 Discogs link YouTube link

Along with his powerful singing voice and muscular guinbri playing, Paco brought to the Ghiwane his experiences with both the ritualistic performance art theater aesthetic of the Living Theatre and the ritual mise-en-scène of the Gnawa lila ceremony, where music is the element that structures time. Adding this powerful force brought the group's already rich compositional and performance mix to a new level, making good on the idea of New Dervich.

Although the recorded output of this lineup is small, it lays the course of the group for the next 20 years with the addition of the Gnawa element. Specifically here, the songs "Lahmami" and "Ghir Khoudouni" incorporate melodies, structures, and symbolism from the Gnawa ritual repertoire.

"Lahmami", which kicks off the 2nd LP, contains a whole opening section that the group seems to have dropped in future re-recordings and performances of the song ("La la la la lal ya oueddi lal"). The familiar, energetic Lahmami section of the track takes much of its melody and structure from the Gnawa song "Baba Laghami" [5]. Nass el Ghiwane transform it from a sort of saint's invocation song to something secular and quotidian, with lyrics evoking rural beauty as well as the imperative of departure and the impermanence of life, yet retaining the driving urgency of Gnawa ritual musical structures.

There is so much going on in "Ghir Khoudouni" that I'm planning to devote a separate post to a musical analysis of the song. Suffice it to say here that to this day (2026) I know of no song that has so sophisticatedly, sympathetically, and meaningfully transformed musical material from Gnawa ritual in a way that approaches the rich web of signification that drives Gnawa ritual practice.

A couple of additional subjective takes on the 2nd Nass el Ghiwane LP: 

• The Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 songs included on this LP are remarkable. Youm Malkak (aka Ah Ya Ouine) sounds like nothing else recorded by the group and really shows off for the first time the haunting quality Omar Sayed could bring to a plaintive melody. Al Hassada brings the rural influence to the forefront. The celebratory short call/response phrases that structure the song, the driving rhythmic punctuations, and the ecstatic singing make this one of the most joyful tracks the group ever recorded.
• Side 2 of the LP juxtaposes the celebratory Al Hassada with the existential despair and defiant hope of Ghir Khoudouni. Boujemiî's unexpected death before or shortly after the release of this LP makes this juxtaposition all the more devastating and heartbreaking. 

Please enjoy the Ya Sah single and the 2nd LP, remastered from my vinyl rips.

Nass el Ghiwane ناس الغيوان
Ya Sah 7" يا صاح
Polydor 2.225.041
1974

01 Ya Sah يا صاح 

Nass el Ghiwane ناس الغيوان
Polydor LP 2.944 008
1974

A1 Lahmami لهمامي
A2 Mazine M'Dihek مزين امديحك
A3 Youm Malkak يوم ملقاك
B1 El Hassada الحصادة
B2 Ghir Khoudouni غير خدوني 

FLAC | 320 

NOTES/SOURCES CITED: 

[1] Larbi Batma. Ar-Rahil: Sira Dhatiya. Casablanca: Manshurat al-Rabita, 1995. p. 168.

[2] Abderrahmane Paco, interviewed in Abderrahmane Kirouj (Paco), episode of Nostalgia, dir: Rachid Nini, 2003

[3] Hassan Habibi, interviewed in Abderrahmane Paco, episode of Fi Adhakihra, dir: Imane Tadouat, Jahan Inouaoui.

[4] Larbi Riad, interviewed in Abderrahmane Paco, episode of Fi Adhakihra, dir: Imane Tadouat, Jahan Inouaoui.

[5] L-Ghmami is one of the cohort of mluk entities known as the Bawwab that includes Sidi Mimoun the Gnawi, Lalla Mimouna, L-Ghmami, Sidi Mimoun Ganga, Baba Siyaf, etc. We've shared a version of this song as recorded by the late great maalem Hmida Boussou (blogpost, youtube). Also, here's a weird version by Mahmoud Guinia with synth drum and electric guitar.

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 Initial Singles are Non-LP Versions (My Bad)

Whoops - this is a correction to my previous post about the recordings of Nass el Ghiwane 1.0. I incorrectly assumed that the first two Nass el Ghiwane 7-inch singles (1972) contained the same version of "Siniya", "Ya Bani El Insane" and "Al Madi Fate" that appeared on their first LP Disque d'Or (1973). I was mistaken. I commend to you the outstanding YouTube channel of Ismael Abo Salma, who has put together chronological playlists of most of the great Moroccan Ghiwani groups. His Nass el Ghiwane playlist starts off with these two singles, and indeed they are different recordings of these groundbreaking songs!

Here is a corrected version of my discography of Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 released while they were together, now with YouTube links:

	Song: Sinya الصينية (1972 version) Polydor 2225008 Date: assuming 1972 Non-LP (Later re-recorded for 1st album) Discogs link YouTube link
	Songs:  Ya Bani Al Insane يا بني الإنسان (1972 version)  Al Madi Fate الماضي فات (1972 version) Polydor 2225010 Date: ℗ 1972 Non-LP (Later re-recorded for 1st album) Discogs link YouTube link
	Songs:   Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya (live) فين غادي بى خويا Wach Hna Houma Hna (live) واش احنا هما احنا Polydor 2225014 Date: assuming 1972 Record sleeve reads في سهرة عمومية, indicating that it is a live recording Non-LP (The songs appear on the 1st album in studio versions) Discogs link YouTube link
	Songs: El Madi Fate الماضي فات (1973 version) Sinya الصينية (1973 version) Dane Dany (Allah Ya Moulana) أدَانْ دَاني - الله يَا مُولانَادة Ya Bani El Insane وايّى يابني الإنسان (1973 version)  Yamna (Joudi Berdak) جودي برضاك Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya (studio version) فين غادي بي خويا Wach Hna Houma Hna (studio version) واش احنا هما احنا Polydor 2.944.007 Date: ℗ © 1973 Discogs link YouTube link
	Song: [Ah Ya Ouine] Youm Malqaq آه يا وين اوين - يوم ملقاك Polydor 2225021 Date: assuming 1973 Appears on 2nd album  Discogs link YouTube link
	Songs: Al Hassada  الحصادة Joudi Berdak  جودي برضاك Polydor 2225023 Date: ℗ © 1973 Al Hassada appears on 2nd album, Joudi Berdak (aka "Yamna") appeared previously on 1st album. Discogs link YouTube link

To atone for my research error, I have obtained a copy of one of these early singles and am sharing a remastered version from my vinyl rip here.

These 1972 studio versions are actually quite different from the 1973 versions. The recording quality is not as good, and the band improved as a unit between 1972 and 1973. By the time they re-recorded these songs for the LP, the arrangements were much tighter. String players Allal Yaala and Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri are supporting the vocals with more sensitivity and playing off of each other more. The 1972 arrangement of "Siniya" is a bit different, including an additional rubato section in the second half of the song. In all, it's fascinating to hear these early versions of the songs. I prefer the 1973 remakes, but these initial sides were what catapulted the group to success.

Nass el Ghiwane ناس الغيوان
<<new dervich>>
Polydor 7" 2225010
℗ 1972 

A) Ya Bani El Insane يا بني الإنسان
B) Al Madi Fate الماضي فات 

FLAC | 320 

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0: Origins and Recordings

Nass el Ghiwane - the game changers. Bursting onto the Moroccan musical scene in 1972 out of the slums of Hay Mohammadi in Casablanca, they changed what was possible in modern Moroccan music. Drawing musical and lyrical inspiration from the deep roots of Moroccan art, folk, and religious traditions, Nass el Ghiwane composed and performed new songs that felt traditionally Moroccan but spoke to modern experiences and discontents. It is said that hundreds, perhaps thousands of musical groups were launched across North Africa in their wake by young people who found the Ghiwanian expressive mode potent, timely, and accessible.

I've shared a bit of Nass el Ghiwane's music on this blog, but not a whole lot. I have written about them quite a bit here over the years, often when sharing or discussing the music of other artists. This post is intended as the first of several posts focusing directly on the group and some of the many recordings they released on vinyl and tape from 1972 to the present. This is my attempt to sketch some of the early history of the group leading up to the first recordings of the group for the Polydor label. I'll call the quintet featured on those recordings Nass el Ghiwane 1.0. And I'm delighted to share here my vinyl rip and remaster of their first LP. I think it sounds better than any of the digital versions I've heard streaming around out there on the webs and tubes.

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0: Origins 

According to Larbi Batma's memoir Ar-Rahil [1], the initial core of the group was the trio of Batma, Boujmiî Hgour, and Omar Sayed. The three had participated first in neighborhood amateur theater groups and later as actors and singers in Tayyeb Saddiki's professional troupe. Filmmaker Ahmed Maanouni (director of the Nass el Ghiwane documentary film "Trances") says that Saddiki had a grant from a trade union to produce plays using young actors from the poor neighborhoods of Casablanca [2]. By the time the young Ghiwanis were working with Saddiki, he had established a new style of Moroccan theatre that drew themes and inspiration from old literary and oral sources like melhoun poetry and the Sufi poetry of Sidi Abderrahmane al Majdoub. This new theatre movement also drew inspiration from folk performance aesthetics, specifically the halqa circles that form around street performers in places like Djemaa el Fna plaza in Marrakech, interactive circles in which the audience is as much a part of the performance as the performers. The plays were not, however, simple recreations of archaic or folk forms, but dynamic vehicles using deeply held cultural resonances to create new and modern experiences in a new postcolonial era.

Boujmiî Hgour, then Larbi Batma, singing vocal solos in the play "Al Harraz":

Omar Sayed and Boujmiî Hgour singing a duet in the play "Al Harraz":

During their tenure with Saddiki's troupe, Batma and Boujmiî began writing their own original songs and the trio began performing these as a short opening act before the start of the plays. Like Saddiki's plays, these songs drew on archaic, folk, and religious song styles, forms, and lyrics, and wove into them themes that spoke to the lives of their contemporaries. Adding to this tapestry of sources is the fact that the group's neighborhood, Hay Mohammadi, was home to migrants from every corner of Morocco. Omar Sayed has characterized the neighborhood as Morocco in miniature [3]. Thus while he and the other group members from the neighborhood grew up in close proximity, they were raised with linguistic and musical vernaculars from very different regions: Batma from Chaouia, Boujmiî from Tata, and Omar from Aït Baha in the Souss [4].

In addition to their warmup spot at the Theatre Municipale, the trio began performing their songs in cafes and other venues. Eventually they were able to record a performance for broadcast on Moroccan TV, where they made quite a splash, being absolutely different from anything seen before them. 

The group's lineup was shifting around in these early days. Allal Yaâla was known to them from their neighborhood as a top-notch musician and music teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of Moroccan styles as well as a quick learner of songs. Allal accompanied the group on oud for its initial TV appearance, but he did not join them permanently at that time [5]. The earliest photos of the group show the founding trio along with musician Mahmoud Saadi (also an early member of Jil Jilala) playing the bouzouki and Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri playing the sintir (the Gnawa guinbri). 

Nass el Ghiwane 0.9
L-R: Omar Sayed, Larbi Batma, Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri, Mahmoud Saadi, Boujmiî Hgour

Unlike the rest of the group, Tahiri, whom we've profiled here before, hailed from Marrakech. He did two years of study at the prestigious Conservatoire National de Musique, de Danse, et d'Art Dramatique in Rabat, after which he returned to Marrakech and worked with several local theatre troupes [6]. 

I believe Tahiri relocated to Casablanca due to his Marrakech theatre work. He had played the role of Mahmoud in the Wafa troupe's production of Abdeslam Chraibi's "Al Harraz". That play was later produced in Casablanca by Tayeb Saddiki (see video embedded above). I read somewhere that Tahiri helped Saddiki's troupe with the melhun vocal styles used in the production. It was here that the Ghiwane group got to know Tahiri and appreciate his talents.

By sometime in 1972, Mahmoud Saadi had left the group [7] and they reached out to Allal Yaâla to join. The addition of Tahiri and Allal increased the group's scope exponentially on the strength of the stringed instruments they could bring to the songs as well as percussion and vocals. Both musicians were steeped in the melhun tradition and various other styles. It is this quintet that we hear on the group's first recordings, pictured here on the back of their first album:

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0

Left to right: 
Allal Yaala - banjo (snitra), vocals
Omar Sayed - percussion, vocals
Larbi Batma - percussion, vocals
Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri - sintir, percussion, vocals
Boujmiî Hgour (aka Boujemaa Ibrahim) - percussion, vocals

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0: Recordings 

Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 existed from 1971 or '72 to 1973 or early '74. As far as I can tell from the world wide web in 2026, they released five 7-inch singles and one 12-inch LP during 1972 and 1973. Two songs from the 1973 singles also appear on the second Nass el Ghiwane album in 1974. By the time that album was released, Tahiri had left the group and Abderrahmane Paco had joined to begin the brief era of Nass el Ghiwane 2.0. 

Here is a detail of the releases by NG 1.0 while they were together:

NOTE 3/22/2026: I subsequently found some errors in the discography below. For details, see here.

	Song: Sinya الصينية Polydor 2225008 Date: assuming 1972 Appears on 1st album  Discogs link
	Songs:  Ya Bani Al Insane يا بني الإنسان  Al Madi Fate الماضي فات Polydor 2225010 Date: ℗ 1972 Appear on 1st album  Discogs link
	Songs:   Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya (live) فين غادي بى خويا Wach Hna Houma Hna (live) واش احنا هما احنا Polydor 2225014 Date: assuming 1972 Record sleeve reads في سهرة عمومية, indicating that it is a live recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYgimz7pkA Non-LP (The songs appear on the 1st album in studio versions) Discogs link
	LP including heretofore unreleased songs: Dane Dany (Allah Ya Moulana) أدَانْ دَاني - الله يَا مُولانَادة Yamna (Joudi Berdak) جودي برضاك Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya (studio version) فين غادي بي خويا Wach Hna Houma Hna (studio version) واش احنا هما احنا Polydor 2.944.007 Date: ℗ © 1973 Discogs link
	Song: [Ah Ya Ouine] Youm Malqaq آه يا وين اوين - يوم ملقاك Polydor 2225021 Date: assuming 1973 Appears on 2nd album  Discogs link
	Songs: Al Hassada  الحصادة Joudi Berdak  جودي برضاك Polydor 2225023 Date: ℗ © 1973 Al Hassada appears on 2nd album, Joudi Berdak (aka "Yamna") appeared previously on 1st album. Discogs link

Some concert recordings of Nass el Ghiwane 1.0 were released commercially in the 1980s. I have not included them in this list, but I am planning to devote a blogpost to them sometime this year.

Disque D'or: A spurious album title, but golden nonetheless

The album cover for the first Nass el Ghiwane LP reads prominently "Disque D'or 1973". In his memoir, Larbi Batma writes that this gold record award was announced by the record company Phillips (I think he means Polydor) but the group never saw or received an actual prize. He eventually asked someone about it and was told that the record company just wrote Gold Record on the album for publicity [8]. Despite this unawarded award, the record will always be gold in my book. It's a collection of groundbreaking, classic songs with inventive arrangements, sung passionately and with an urgency that leaps off the record over 50 years later. Here are a few of my subjective takes and random thoughts:

• El Madi Fate (The Past is Gone) - leading off the album with a bold, anti-nostalgic declaration of a new (cultural) moment. 
• As Siniya (The Tea Tray), the group's first single and probably their most well-loved song, a complaint sung to a tea tray, the tea tray being the physical artifact around which a ritual of sociality and belonging is enacted - the preparing and sharing of tea. A complaint about the state of the singer's tea glass among other glasses on the tray. Language evocative - unspecific about what has brought on this condition, but universally resonant in Morocco by virtue of its imagery. And with a rousing refrain declaring departure and that "bahr al ghiwane ma dkhaltu bil3ani بَحْرَ الْغِيوَانْ مَا دْخْلْتُ بَلْعَانِي" - the ocean of Ghiwane - I didn't enter it intentionally. The cryptic term "Ghiwane" which of course became synonymous with the group itself - Nass el Ghiwane = People of Ghiwane - something to do with song, something archaic, something that one does not simply walk into by design but that one falls into. The references to trance were here from the very beginning of the group, even before the Gnawi Abderrahmane Paco joined them. (See also the name of the group in English on their first 2 singles: New Dervish.) 
• Allah ya Moulana - cooling down with a heartfelt supplication to God and the Prophet ﷺ in the form of a legitimate earworm, complete with an unforgettable wordless singalong wo-wo-wo melody before the Dan-Dani part of the song. 
• Side two expands the discourse to more philosophical and ethical matters, leading off with Ya Bani Al Insane (Oh Children of Man) - my condition, my promise, today pushes me, I want to pose a question and say it in the tongue of Ghiwane, Oh Children of Man, why are we enemies?. 
• An ecstatic, quick paean to love and beauty in Yamna/Joudi Berdak with terrific long held high vocal notes from Omar while Allal goes wild on the banjo. 
• Then finishing up with two more philosophical questions: Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya (Where are you taking me, brother) on individual connection and blame in a time of social and cultural rupture - with an eerie ethereal vocal harmony placed a fourth above the main melodic line, and Wach Hna Houma Hna (Are We Still Us?) on the existential effect of greed and inequity on society and humanity as a whole.

I'm so happy to be able to share this good sounding vinyl rip. My copy of the LP is far from the cleanest in the world, but the recent addition of stem splitter capabilities to Logic Pro X allowed me to isolate vocals on one track while the pops and clicks got shunted onto another track, which I could then mute during the a capella passages. TLDR - it sounds really clean where it counts the most. And it sounds better than any streaming digital version I've heard. 

I am of course conflicted about the use of AI tools in this work and in general. They are resource-hungry, and as much as we are being told we will not lose jobs, we will definitely lose jobs, which is terrifying in a society where existing rips and tears in our social safety nets are being widened in order to make oligarchs imperial again. I hope my limited use of these tools to restore a work of beauty does not exacerbate the situation. I'm sure a professional could do a better job at this than I have done, but until that happens, please enjoy this new version of this historic LP. 

Nass el Ghiwane ناس الغيوان
Disque D'or 1973 نال اسطوانة الذهب السنة
Polydor 2.944.007
1973

A1 El Madi Fate الماضي فات
A2 As Siniya الصّينية
A3 Dane Dany (Allah Ya Moulana) أدَانْ دَاني - الله يَا مُولانَا
B1 Ya Bani El Insane وايّى يابني الإنسان
B2 Yamna جودي برضاك
B3 Fin Ghadi Bya Khouya فين غادي بي خويا
B4 Wach Hna Houma Hna واش احنا هما احنا

FLAC | 320

NOTES/SOURCES CITED: 

[1] Larbi Batma. Ar-Rahil. This book has not been translated from Arabic, but there is a monograph in English that examines the work in depth: Lhoussain Simour's 2016 book Larbi Batma, Nass el-Ghiwane and Postcolonial Music in Morocco. To date, this is probably the best source in English about Nass el Ghiwane, but keep your eyes open for the results of research in progress by Alessandra Ciucci.

[2] Ahmed El Maanouni. “Transes”: The Resonance of Nass el Ghiwane in Morocco and Beyond. Presentation in conversation with Alessandra Ciucci, Columbia University, New York, March 9, 2023. 

[3] Omar Sayed, interviewed in ناس الغيوان - الجزء الأول (Nass el Ghiwane - Part 1), Al Jazeera Documentary. Directed by عمر كاملي بن حمو Omar Kamli Benhamou, 2010.

[4] Simour, p. 115. 

[5] Batma, p. 158-9. 

[6] Omar EL ANOUARI. "Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri : Pourquoi la chanson marocaine n'est pas exportable ?". La Gazette du Maroc, 2006-07-31. 

[7] In his memoir (p. 168) Batma refers obliquely to some interpersonal conflicts stoked by an unnamed person from Marrakech, ostensibly someone from Jil Jilala or their circle.

[8] Batma, p. 171