Here's a tape by a young Jamal Eddine Said Elhouate, known commonly these days as Said Ould El Houate. The singer and viola player was born in 1968 in Casablanca. His real name is Jamal Eddine Said, and he was nicknamed ould el houate (son of the fishmonger) because his father worked at the port [1]. He rose to fame in the 2000s and 2010s with a chaabi style rooted in aita.
This album dates from the mid 1990s, and it benefits from the simple production values of the time. This is the simple and satisfying combination of a scratchy viola, a couple of tightly strung bendirs, Said's lead vocal, and some shikhate singing response vocals. Most recordings you find of Said Ould El Houate date from the 2000s and later, when it becomes hard to find chaabi recordings without a keyboard bass. This older style is refreshing, sort of in the vein of Abdelaziz Stati. Like Stati, Said appears to be an aficionado of aita. He has spent time in Safi learning and reviving old songs from the Abda variety of aita [1].
I was surprised to see the song title "Koubaily Baba" on this cassette. The name is reminiscent of Gnawa songs "Koubaily Bala" and "Koubaily Mama". Said's song does not sound like either of those songs, but the lyrics explicitly reference possession, Gnawa and Baba Mimoun. The music evokes Jilala trance music, with the bendirs playing a very syncopated pattern where drum strokes rarely coincide with the beat. So this track is a chaâbi evocation of a Jilala approach to Gnawa spirits.
Said Ould El Houate remains active and popular today. You can stream many of his albums at Ournia and a few on Spotify. And you can find lots of content on his Youtube channel.
Jamal Eddine Said Elhouate جمال الدين سعيد الحوات Sawt Ennachat cassette صوط النشاط mid 1990s
1) Essamra Qilini - السمرة قيليني 2) Mal Ezzine Tghayer - مال الزين اتغير 3) Ma Bin Lila ou Nhar Lhubb Tghayer - ما بين ليلة و نهار الحب اتغير 4) Daq Alhal - داق الحال Koubaili Baba - كبيلي بابا 5) Moulay Abdellah Ben Lhoucine - مولاي عبد الله بن لحسين
Some good websites exist for streaming Moroccan music. For Berber music, there's a great selection at https://www.izlanzik.org/. For Arab stuff, my previous go-to site was yala.fm, but lately the search function seems to be broken. More recently, I've been turning to http://www.ournia.co/, which has a large selection of Moroccan music (and other Arab/North African music). For some artists, one can find nearly comprehensive discographies. For others, especially those who have released albums on several different labels and over many years, the selection will be more spotty.
Case in point: the late, great âita singer Fatna Bent Lhoucine (1935-2005). When I first visited Morocco, she was on TV all the time - a real household name. However, her vast recorded output seems to have been primarily on 45s and on a variety of local cassette labels, many of which remain unreleased in digital format.
Ournia actually has a decent selection of recordings of Fatna Bent Lhoucine. Some of them appear to be reissues of vintage recordings, others are possibly recordings from late in her career. Even with album art available, it's often unclear whether the images are representative of the original album art (in the case of CD reissues of cassettes), or whether vintage photos accompany more recent recordings (or vice versa).
Another great online source of Moroccan recordings, specifically of âita recordings, is Settatbladi.org, a non-commercial online digital collection started by âita aficionados in 2007. They recently migrated the entire collection to the Internet Archive. There's an ocean of material there (over 2000 songs). Whereas Ournia seems to feature material that has been commercially issued in digital format, Settatbladi's curators have digitized their private collections of 45s, LPs, cassettes, and CDs. It's not always possible to match audio files with corresponding cover art (which is housed in a separate archive), and I don't see information there about the dates of the recordings. Still, it's a remarkable collection, and well worth swimming its seas of sound! Naturally, they have plenty of recordings of Fatna Bent Lhoucine.
Over here at Moroccan Tape Stash, I can't be very comprehensive about artist discographies - all I can do is offer copies of things that happened to fall into my hands over the years. Maybe mp3 downloads are going the way of the cassette tape and compact disc. Perhaps I should turn these into streaming versions, or put them all on YouTube to make them more accessible to all.
For now, though, we'll keep on with present format, and offer up a couple of tapes of Fatna Bent Lhoucine with her longtime collaborators the Ouled ben Aguida. These are on the label Sawt Lahbak. Neither are perfect in terms of audio, but the music on them is great.
The tape for which I actually have a j-card (V.L. 69) lists 6 songs, but only 3 appear on the 40 minute cassette. The audio quality is a bit warbly.
The other tape features 2 songs. (There were three tracks on the tape, but the third was just the beginning of the 1st song again.) The playback on the tape sounded way too slow (tempo) and low (pitch). I sped up the tempo/raised the pitch in Logic, and it sounds more natural now. The overall audio quality is better than on the 1st tape.
Ouled Ben Aguida & Fatna Bent Lhoucine - اولاد بن عگيدة و فاطنة بنت الحسين Sawt Lahbaq (صوت لحباق) cassette V.L. 69
1) Rouisi Chab (رويسي شاب)
2) Lhouaouia (لهواوية)
3) Lfraq S3ib (لفراق صعيب)
—
Ouled Ben Aguida & Fatna Bent Lhoucine - اولاد بن عگيدة و فاطنة بنت الحسين Sawt Lahbaq (صوت لحباق) cassette
1) El 3aloua
2) Za3eriya
Get em all here.
More Fatna Bent Lhoucine in the Stash here.
Here's a fantastic Stati tape that Lalla Hafida brought me in 2016. Down deep in the âita groove, this is some great stuff. I wish I knew the identity of the shikha singer featured here along with Stati - she's fabulous.
The music and the photo are clearly much older than 2016. The cassette number 20/2000 indicates that it was released in the year 2000, but I suspect it's a reissue of an earlier album. (He looks very young in the photo.)
For those of you observing Ramadan (starting at the end of this week), here's wishing you a month of peace, blessing, and remembrance.
Stati (Al Fannan Abdelaziz Stati) - الفنان عبد العزيز الستاتي Sawt Chaouia cassette 20/2000
1) La Tghib 3lia - لله لا تغيب علي
2) Lawah Ya Lebnia - لواه يا لبنية
3) Raqsa - رقصة
4) Jayeb Rou7i Lik Hdia - جايب روحي ليك هدية
5) Za3eri - زعري / Raqsa 3la Lqa3da - رقصة على القعدة
The Arab Tunes blog recently shared some excellent 45s by the great shikha Fatima Zehafa. I have one 45 of hers too, and I'm pretty crazy about it, so I'm sharing that one here. Hope you enjoy it!
Fatima Zehafa (فاطمة الزحافة) - Ya Lghadi Ou Ljai (Moussaouiphone 2848 AB)
1) Ya Lghadi Ou Ljai
2) Al Khadem
Well whaddya know? The Stash yields another Tagada tape! This dates from around 1992, when Mohamed Louz was still a member of the group. (For some historical info on the group, see our previous Tagada post.)
I wrote previously that Tagada's folk-revival approach was rooted in the âita. This album stretches things a bit, while maintaining a core texture of viola driving the melody, male group or antiphonal vocals and a bendir-driven percussion section.
"Lalla Lgada" leads things off in a typical âita mode, though with what sounds like scissors hearkening back to the âbidat errma. The strange "Ach Ngoul Lik" leads off with a pentatonic viola solo somewhat evoking the amarg tradition of the Soussi rwayes, but then the rhythm enters, featuring a Gnawaguinbri (and some faint qraqeb, I think). It sounds sort of Nass el Ghiwan-ish, except for the continued presence of the viola, which pulls the sound in a different direction. "Âyyitini" goes full Soussi, adding a banjo or lotar and naqqus for that rwayes vibe, though the singing is in Arabic, not Tachelhit.
Finally "Hada Hali" returns viola and bendir to the center of the texture with a real deep âita feel - angular bendir-s, alternating solo vocals evoking shikha song, sliding eventually into trance-based and trance-evoking lyrics, idiomatic viola riffing recalling the sweaty middle-of-the-night when the âita groove gets so heavy and REAL that it crosses over into that zone where all one can do is call prayers upon the Prophet and the saints, hope for deliverance and submit to the groove. At this point in the song, Tagada incorporate the guinbri and qraqeb again. This sounds nothing like Gnawa music, though, resembling much more the saken trance songs of theâitatradition. But with Gnawa signifiers added for intensification? Mixing these elements together is a weird, improbable idea, to which I'm sort of opposed on principle, and yet somehow... it kind of works! Well played, Tagada, well played!
Tagada (تگدة) Edition Hassania cassette EH 1462
01 Lalla Lgada (لالة الگادة)
02 Ach Ngoul Lik (اش نگول ليك)
03 Âyyitini (عيتني)
04 Hada Hali (هذا حالي)
More of that good âita zaêriya from Shikh el Moutchou. Check here for an earlier post with some info about him (courtesy of Hammer's comments) and about the âita genre (courtesy of Ahmed Aydoun's book). And check below for a sample. Grab the whole thing to hear the bitchin' 9/8 opening track. It's on Production Hicham al Atlas, so you know it's rocks!
Shikh al Moutchou and Ibrahim - Jaîdan (Hicham al Atlas 52/10)
01 Jaîdan
02 Zaêri
03 Saken
04 Ya Chabba Ya Khumriya
05 Alawah Alawah 06 Ben Mousa Saken
I noticed recently that an old post of mine on Shikh El Houcine el Khouribgui was getting a lot of hits recently. I also noticed that Moroccan TV (الاولى) had broadcast a documentary on Shikh el Houcine. (I wandered into the living room one evening and found his scratchy viola and distinctive face coming thru the TV!) I wonder if the broadcast led to web searches that led to the stash!
I was able to find the documentary on YouTube. It's all in Moroccan Arabic, including interviews with musicians that worked with Shikh El Houcine, but there are some nice performance clips as well that non-Arabic speakers may enjoy. No live clips of Shikh El Houcine, but clips of other artists performing songs associated with him, including Ould Mbarek Khribgui, Abderrahim Meskini (heard in the stash here), and Stati Abdelaziz.
I thought I had another tape of Shikh El Houcine in the stash, but alas, there were no more to be found. I did, however, find a fine tape by Shikh Mohammed al Khirani Khribgui, who was featured in a post about a year back. This tape, again from the fabulous Production Hicham El Atlas, is a great recording featuring a side-long zaêri performance, couplets following couplets, with slow, groovy riffing alternating with ta'rija-punctuated rhythmic rave-ups for shimmying. I never get tired of this stuff. Hope you enjoy it too!
PS - thanks to those who have taken the time to leave comments. I apologize for not responding recently. I'm hoping to sit down soon and write back - I do appreciate the encouragement, feedback, and conversation!
El Khirani Mohamed - Production Hicham El Atlas cassette 2001
Track 2 (excerpt) of 4
Here's an odd tape I picked up in Beni Mellal in 1992. It's a ghaita ensemble, but one that seems unusual to me for a number of reasons.
The ghaita is a loud piercing oboe/shawm, typically used in outdoor processions, accompanied by tbola (barrel drums). Outdoor procession music usually incorporates any and all popular songs. Tbel players may sing, but singing isn't usually that important. The main purpose of these groups is to be heard outdoors (thus the loud ghaita) and to provide tunes that keep people moving and dancing in the streets. (We've got some northern tbel and ghaitaelsewhere in the Stash.)
In some ways, the music on this tape sounds like a Beni Mellal wedding procession - the tunes are familiar and the ghaita-led ensemble strings them together one after another. Also, the sketchy production values in the recording remind me of some of my own field recordings of street processions - bad balance between instruments, ambient noise, tape speeding up and slowing down, (OK, I never actually had that problem), etc.
In other ways, though, this differs from a typical tbel and ghaita ensemble. First, there are no tbola drums, only some bnader (frame drums). The groups I've seen around Beni Mellal usually use a combination of tbola and bnader, but usually there will be at least one tbel. Second, this recording seems to feature a designated group of female singers. This is quite unusual. Women sometimes do sing in wedding processions, but I've only ever seen that happen when no professional musical group is hired for the procession, and guests and family do the drumming and singing. Here the women, of course, are part of the professional ensemble hired for the recording. And Track 5 sounds to me like an âita zaêriya, so these could actually be shikhat.
It's a strange combination. Âita is a pretty far cry (ha ha) from tbel and ghaita processional music. But here, you basically have what could be an âita/chaâbi group with the viola being replaced by the ghaita.
The only information I found online about the artist, Hassan al Faryati, is a listing for his performance at the Aita Festival in Asfi in 2008. He is listed on a program of âita haouziya, and the listing states that he is from Kelâat Es-Sraghna (between Beni Mellal and Marrakech).
I don't know if al Faryati is a ghaita player or if he's a drummer. I believe I bought 2 tapes by this artist, but only one appears to remain, and I'm not sure whether it belongs to the j-card pictured above or the one below. At any rate, enjoy this oddity from the ragged corners of the stash.
Hassan al Faryati (Edition al Khair cassette)
Track 3 (of 7)
Ramadan Mubarak, and prayers for the bereaved in Iraq, Syria, Palestine/Israel, the relatives of those lost over the skies of Ukraine, and all those suffering around our blue warming sphere.
Another âita tape, however great, may seem a distraction in these troubled days. I'm offering it in hopes that it warms the heart and reaffirms humanity for a moment.
It's another vintage recording of Shikh El Houcine El Khouribgui, who has been featured here before, and it's on the great label Production Hicham El Atlas. Plucked new off the shelf in 2012 around Beni Mellal, it's definitely a reissue of an older recording. The tape begins by announcing "Istwanat Markikphone toukadime Shikh El Houcine el Khouribui" (Markikphone Records presents...). The great website settatbladi.org has this image of a cassette reissue of Shikh El Houcine on Markikphone (I assume it's a reissue because the j-card reads in Arabic "the late Shikh El Houcine...):
The centerpiece of the album is the opening piece "Dami", a long form âita with a great 10/8 rhythmic cycle. The j-card lists the titles "Lli Bgha Hbibou" and "Lehsab", but neither track 2 nor 3 sound like other versions of those songs that I know. I labeled track 2 "Nghadrou Kissane" because it shares lyrics with Bouchaib el Bidaoui's track of the same name, and I left track 3 as "Lli Bgha Hbibou", cause I hear the word habibi a lot. Whatever the correct titles may be, I hope you enjoy the old scratchy groove!
Some more great Âita Zaêriya for ya, straight outta Khouribga, served up by Production Hicham Atlas. Couldn't find any info on Shikh Mohammed on the interwebs. Nevertheless, these performances sound like seasoned old-school veterans, rocking out Zaêri-style.
I was gonna drop 2 albums on ya. After transferring them both, however, I realized that these two tapes actually included the same recordings with merely differing fade-ins and fade-outs. Track 3 combines pieces from both tapes.
You want this tape! Long, sweaty tracks of âita zaêriya, just right for that we-can-do-this-all-night-long summer wedding vibe. The sound quality indicates a professional studio recording, but throughout the whole tape one can hear people having conversations, clapping along, ululating, encouraging the dancers and musicians, dancing on the qaâda perhaps? Maybe it's a good recording from a very rocking wedding? Whatever the source may be, it's a noisy, raucous, lively one that will do you right! Another winner from Production Hicham Atlas.
I don't know anything about the artist El Khirani Charki, though a few clips of his performances are available on YouTube. I picked up the cassette in 2012 in or around Beni Mellal.
By the way, I don't know what is the deal with the nutty taârija player in this video clip. I just saw him on Moroccan TV the other night, doing the same shtick. It's especially weird when, as here, sultry shikhat are vying for one's gaze. Perhaps he is the equivalent of the pickled ginger eaten with sushi to cleanse the (here, visual) palate, making one appreciate the shikhat even more...
El Khirani Charki - El Khadem (Hicham Atlas 1100)
01) El Khadem
I've referred to Âita with frequency in my posts, and with good reason. It's among the most important genres of Arab music in Morocco. It's well-loved in its own right and it serves as the basis for much of Moroccan chaâbi music. I wish I could give a better overall description of the genre and its variants. For those interested, I translated below a few paragraphs from Ahmed Aydoun's Musiques du Maroc to give some basic musical dimensions of âita and a few interesting tidbits of information. For a deeper analysis of the aesthetics and powerful association held between âita and regional identity, check out the work of ethnomusicologist Alessandra Ciucci.
Today's post features yet another cassette from the Hicham Atlas imprint, this time featuring a violist called Shikh al-Moutcho. I didn't find much info on him web-wise. Settatbladi.com lists an Ahmed Al Moucho, but most of the tunes with his name feature the ghaita oboe rather than the viola. (These tracks are worth checking out though - âita with ghaita is pretty unusual!)
The centerpiece of this tape (for me at least) is the 12 minute "Hsab Zaêri". I love pieces like this - short vocal couplets alternate with long passages of doing-it-to-death viola riffing, and are punctuated by syncopated accents on the bendir. In comments on a previous post, Hammer dissertated on âita zaêriya and described the practice called "Hisab Al-Za'ari" as a competition between singers.
(Hammer - hoping you may weigh in with some info on Shikh al-Moutcho - I notice that you mentioned his name in the aforementioned comments - any info is, as always, greatly appreciated!)
Unfortunately the shikhat singers featured on this recording are unidentified, and I can't tell how old these recordings may be. I picked up the tape in 2012 in Kasba Tadla or Beni Mellal. Hope you enjoy, and Happy Father's Day!
UPDATE: Forgot to mention - Track 2 "Bâd Menni" features the same melody as Najat Aâtabou's famous "Shouffi Ghirou" (as featured here). I wonder if it's a traditional melody that Najat borrowed or if this track borrows from Najat...
-----------------------
From Ahmed Aydoun's Musiques du Maroc, Casablanca: Editions EDDIF, 1992, pp. 108-109, my translation:
It is primarily in the plains bordering the Atlantic where al 'âita
is most appreciated. Specifically, the genre is practiced in the
regions of Shawiya, Dukkala and 'Abda, that is to say, in the
Casablanca-Safi axis. Al 'âita is also found in the plains of Z'ayer, in
Beni Mellal and in the Hawz, for which variants are named. The term
'âita is also used to refer the song of the Jbala, incorrectly referred
to by the name taqtüqa jabaliya. Finally we have found the term in the
hadra of the Hmadsha of Essaouira, where it refers simply to the
instrumental part that introduces the trance.
Two
different interpretations can be made of the word 'âita. According to
the first, it would be a derivation of the verb 'ayyat (to call, in
dialectical Arabic). According to the second, it would be a deformation
of ghayta (folk oboe). We prefer the first version since it is
effectively a call - nearly all of the 'âitas begin with the invocation
of Allah and the saints. The act of calling has several other
connotations - anticipating, searching, asking for inspiration.
Al
'âita takes different qualificative names by region; it is Marsawiya
along the coast, Za'riya, Mellaliya and Jabaliya. In addition to these
principal variants, there exists at Safi a special 'âita called Haçba,
its repertoire limited to several examples of the genre.
With
the exception of Za'riya, which is monorhythmic, all of the 'ayût
feature changes of rhythm, usually in three progressively faster
sections.
The 'ayüt are often sung by a group of mixed
men and women. In cases where the latter are absent, one of the men of
the group wears women's clothes and imitates women's voice and dance.
The 'âita of Wlad Hmar is a good example of this.
During
the second half of the 19th century the 'âita had its hours of glory
with the Qaîd 'Îsa ben 'Umâr al 'Abdi who was, it seems, a
connoisseur. His house attracted the best musicians and singers whose
performances were graciously rewarded.
According to
Mohamed Abu Hamid, the 'âita genre grew from its simplest form of
expression, al muqlâ' (the distich), to become over time an elaborate
composition best exemplified by the Marsawi variant.
The Marsawi is composed of two parts of contrasting rhythm and character.
Each part is comprised of strophes (qatibât) linked by cadences and
poetic transitions (hatta). The 'âita ends with a sadda, that is, a
final cadence.
The first part is slow and is called lafrâsh (literally: the bed, the bottom sheet). It begins with a
musical introduction that prepares the entry of singing. Often the
introduction is a taqsîm, then an exposition of the sung theme without
strict rhythm. The principal phrase of the song is repeated from start
to finish; in the second part, it undergoes only small changes.
The
fast-paced second section is called ghta (blanket). Here, the
rollicking rhythm drives the dance. The latter is regular, calculated -
for this reason it is called hsâb (literally: calculation). The
youngest of the chikhât performs before the audience sensual dances
(play of the belly and hips, undulating and quivering of the body,
swinging of the hair…), then the singing restarts with a dialogue
between the main chikha and the rest of the chikhat and musicians.
Moroccan chaabi music sounds great with a drum kit. Hi-hat gives you the bright jingle of a tar tambourine, a nice loose snare drum gives you the buzz of the bendir, and tom and bass drum give you a nice variety of low tones for the all-important dummmm.
Here's a nice old school chaabi tape with some in-the-pocket drum kit playing. I don't know who the performers are, but the tape is from the Sawt el Mounadi label out of Marrakech, so you know it's gonna be good like this and this!
Chaabi is a pretty wide genre. My fave chaabi keeps it close to rural forms and textures, and that's what you get here - one viola, heavy on the percussion (drum kit and darbuka), lots of call & response singing, one male lead singer and two or three shikhat-styled backup singer. Track 3 mixes it up a bit with a naqqus clanging out a Berber rhythm. Song titles are best-guess cribs from the lyrics.
The shikhat. Morocco's singing and dancing bards (bard-esses?). Recognized as carriers of a deep folk poetic-musical tradition, but also derided as women of ill repute. Loved and despised.
The aita (lit., "the cry" or "the call"). Rural Arab Moroccan sung folk poetic tradition. One of the main sources for Moroccan mainstream popular (urban) chaabi music. Aita is to chaabi as rural white southern US folk music ("old-time") is to Nashville-produced country music. Ergo: this is the real deal!
The late Fatna Bent el Houcine. Probably the most well-known shikha within Morocco. As the out-of-print CD on Buda calls her, "La Grande Voix d'el Aita". From the coastal city of Safi, one of the hot-spots for this type of music.
For your enjoyment, 2 cassettes from the 1990s featuring Fatna Bent el Houcine with the instrumental ensemble that backed her for years, Ouled ben Aguida, and her group of shikhat, including Shikha Hafida (pictured withe the band on the cassette cover), who has continued to work with the band since Fatna's passing.
One thing I love about the aita is when the shihat take turns singing verses within a song - you get to hear each singer in succession. There's some nice footage of this here, including both Fatna and Hafida, as well as some dancing (the climactic part of 'aita performances) which you won't get on the audio cassette!
For those of you who love odd rhythmic cycles, dig the final track on EN203, "Aita Bidawiya (Kharboucha)", which begins in a 40-beat cycle then progresses to 19- and10-beat cycles before ending up in a final, ecstatic 6/8. Epic, dramatic, sublime, rocking, beautiful stuff.
EN202:
1) Allah Injah Loulad
2) track 2
3) K'hal al-Shousha
4) Ya L-Ghayeb Suwwel
5) 'Aita Jbaliya
6) Sh'aibiya
EN203 (sorry, don't have the j-card for this, but it looked just like the other one anyway...)
1) Habibi Ma Jash
2) 'Ada 'Ada Ya L-Khayl
3) Za'ri
4) 'Aita Bidawiya (Kharboucha)
A scratchy viola, a few buzzy hand drums, and some lady vocalists (or men emulating them) who milk 3 or 4 piercing pitches all night long. It's aita haouzia - rural Arabic song from the region of Marrakech. This is some deep, raw country music. No darbuka-s here - just the down-home buzz of the little clay ta'rija and the bendir frame drum.
The vocalist is the late Shikha Makhloufia. I believe she's the main vocalist featured in this clip:
The viola player is Shikh Hassan el Dariouki (I've also seen it written "Darouki"). His troupe Oulad El Haouz is regularly featured at national festivals and on state-run TV to represent this style of music. (On good days I also used to find them on the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech.) Oulad El Haouz is an all-male group, but the men have no trouble singing the same 3 or 4 piercing high pitches that the women sing:
For you lovers of quintuple meter, you'll find a couple of pieces in 5/4 (or 10/8 or whatever) on this tape (tracks 2 & 3).
1) Suwweli f-Riyadu
2) L-Khadem
3) Mul Shi'ba
4) Rouidia
BTW - Track 2 stretched across the break between sides A and B of the cassette. I did my best to merge them into a single track, though the fadeout was a challenge.
First off, this is NOT the cassette sleeve that originally went with this tape. It is the same artist, though, and the cassette that went with this sleeve went missing years ago, so this is the best I can do.
Listening to Moulay Ahmed Elhassani got me thinking about Moroccan guitars, so I dug out this tape. This is straight-up aita, the most deeply-rooted and beloved rural Arab genre of Morocco. Like the Elhassani tape, this uses an electric guitar in place of a traditional instrument - here, it would normally be a violin (kamanja) - and a drum kit to augment bendir and ta'rija hand drums.
Aita recordings usually feature the name of the lead female singer (shikha) and/or the leader(s) of the musical ensemble (Sheikh so-and-so, or Ouled such-and-such). Noujoum El Haouz ("Stars of the Haouz") gives no names, and features only a picture of the guitar player on the j-card. An unusual configuration.
Though a bit of an oddity, the tape has a great feel to it. The alternating female lead vocals are great, and I love the way that fills on the drum kit punctuate the ends of phrases. Also, it's great to hear the violin riffing of the aita transposed to an electric guitar! Gives it a different rhythmic impulse. I'll try and get some trad aita up here in the near future.
BTW - this is a digital transfer of a tape that I dubbed from a well-loved tape that was lying around someone's house in Marrakech in '92. Side 1 sounds better than side 2. But you get a nice verité at the beginning of track 3 where someone in the house pressed record instead of play and recorded over part of the track. I wonder why Moroccan commercial cassettes were never sold with the tabs punched out to prevent recording over them.
BTW2 - notice again here extra frets added to the guitar for the quarter-tone intervals.