Category: Uncategorized

Tune in to Worldwide FM this weekend to hear excerpts from the Master Musicians of Joujouka’s new LP Live in Paris.

From Friday, 26^th March to Sunday, 28^th March the Beat Hotel will be taking over the airwaves with a Morocco Special on Worldwide FM.

Moroccan music will be featured on three special shows over three days this weekend, including excerpts from the upcoming LP from the Master Musicians of Joujouka – Live in Paris.

The Master Musicians of Joujouka will be featured on the Beat Hotel x WWFM Weekender on Sunday, 28^th March – to be broadcast from 3pm to 7pm (BST).

A statement from the Beat Hotel said: “Sufi trance troupe, Master Musicians of Joujouka are descendants of Burroughs’ in-house band at Cafe 1001 in Tangiers in the 1950s. We’re excited to share an excerpt from their forthcoming live album.”

They added: “Remember when March meant gathering poolside, between the prickly pears, for a weekend of ritual celebration? Our chance to dance under the rose-red desert sky?

“To mark the moment, we’ve joined forces with our friends at Worldwide FM, to take you on a trip back south.

“Three shows over three days, celebrating the sounds of Morocco and beyond…”

The series of broadcasts includes sets from Gilles Peterson selecting music by Moroccan artists from his collection, plus live sets from Moulay Ahmed El Hassani, Coco Em and Esa & Mim Suleiman.

Beat Hotel x WWFM Weekender – More information on the Beat Hotel website

The radio show follows the Master Musicians of Joujouka appearance at the 2019 Beat Hotel Festival in Marrakesh.

The roots of the Beat Hotel also have close connections with the Master Musicians – named for the famed 9 Git-Le-Couer address Paris base of Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs in the 1950s and 60s following their time spent in Morocco working with the Master Musicians.

Before moving to Paris, Gysin opened The 1001 Nights restaurant in Tangier, where the Master Musicians of Joujouka held a residency as the house band.

This incarnation of the Beat Hotel was launched at Glastonbury Festival in the UK in 2011 – the same year the Master Musicians of Joujouka opened the festival on the Pyramid Stage. At their first event in Morocco, the Beat Hotel continued the literary and artistic creativity associated with its namesake.

Tune in at www.worldwidefm.net from 9.15am (BST) on Friday, 26th March

Photo gallery from the Master Musicians of Joujouka appearance at the 2019 Beat Hotel Festival in Marrakesh here

Listen to ‘Jahjouka I Calihone’ from Live in Paris here

Live in Paris is released on 23^rd April by Unlistenable Records

Live in Paris available to pre-order digitally now on Unlistenable Records.

The new double vinyl LP from The Master Musicians of Joujouka Live in Paris will be released on 23rd April.

The album was recorded at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2016 and will be available as a 2xLP.

‘Jahjouka I Calihone’ is available now as a preview – visit the Unlistenable Records Bandcamp page.

Live in Paris is available to pre-order for download and digital streaming. 

News on the double vinyl release to follow.

For more information visit the Unlistenable Records Bandcamp page

To mark 50 years since the release of Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka an in-depth article examines the events that led to the recordings made by The Rolling Stones lead guitarist and founder in the village.

‘Brian Jones in Morocco & in the studio’ by David Holzer is featured in issue #55 of Ugly Things – available now.

The article looks at the circumstances of Jones’ life around the time of his trip to Morocco that included his visit to Joujouka and the legacy of the “talismanic” album five decades since it was originally released.

Brian Jones, who would have turned 79 today (28^th February 1942 – 3^rd July 1969), visited Morocco in August 1968, where he recorded the Master Musicians of Joujouka.

The tapes were later edited and mixed for what became the Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka album released on Rolling Stones Records in 1971.

Holzer wrote: “Produced by Brian, the album was his attempt to promote the music to an audience outside Morocco.”

He added: “Brian Jones Presents… would never have happened if it wasn’t for him meeting Brion Gysin and his friend Mohamed Hamri in Tangier. Gysin contributed sleeve notes to the album. The cover features a painting of the Master Musicians by Hamri.

“According to Gysin, the most portentious moment of Brian’s trip to Joujouka was when a goat was led past him on its way to slaughter. Gysin later claimed that the goat was pure white and that Brian “leapt to his feet and said ‘That’s me!’””

The article includes new interviews with Master Musicians of Joujouka manager Frank Rynne and Rikki Stein, who lived in the village in the 1970s and organised the group’s 1980 tour of Europe.

Rynne suggests a hitherto unexamined theory that Jones may have employed cut-up editing techniques, as used by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs in their collaborations, in his mix of the recordings from Joujouka.

Rynne said: “No one’s ever spotted the fact that Brian took two sometimes three songs and layered them. People writing about the album have missed it because they have no clue what Joujouka music is. Listen to the women singing with flute and drum underneath them, that’s two songs playing at the same time. That’s why Brian deserves to have his name on the cover. He was making a cut-up of the music to recreate what he felt there.”

Dave Field, who designed the album artwork, is also interviewed, with additional insights from music writers Paul Trynka and Kris Needs.

Read Brian Jones in Morocco & in the studio published in Ugly Things

Article reproduced with kind permission from the author David Holzer, and Mike Stax at Ugly Things

Ugly Things #55 is available to order here