Saturday, April 4, 2009

Master Musicians of Joujouka jajouka Ireland 1980 film



This footage was shot by Bob Quinn for his Atlantean documentary series.
Quinn broke new ground in his exploration of the connections between North African and Islamic culture and the Celtic musical and artistic traditions and folkloric traditions.
Here we see the Master Musicians of Joujouka /jajouka performing in Castlebar Co. Mayo in the remote west of Ireland.
In 1994 Frank Rynne producer of The Master Musicians of Joujouka talked to the then 82 year Mujehid Mujdoubie in Joujouka.

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"After a few meetings Mujehid asks where I am from. Mohamed Attar, known as Ansari, had been to Dublin for The Here to Go Show and said Dub..Linn. I said Ireland. Mujehid started laughing.
"I've been to Ireland with Rickki (Stein)."

Hamri asks some questions. After Mujehid has talked a while Hamri asks me "
What's this swimming pool full of milk Mujehid says he saw in Ireland."
I am baffled but then I discover this pool was on a big farm and made of aluminium. "
That's just the storage cooler for the milk that all big farms would have, to keep it cool before it's collected."

Mujehid says, "no, it was too much milk for that, millions of litros."

" But that's how much milk a few hundred cows would give a day. Ireland is a big dairy producer."
" The cows here in Joujouka, if you were lucky would give you half a cup a day at this time of the year, this is why he can't believe you. " said hamri
The milk is soon forgotten as Mujehid has remembered a big deficiency he had noted in the Irish. It turned out that one day the Masters Musicians of Joujouka went to a big estate somewhere in the west of the country to help heal a young girl with their music. The musicians duly played the Rites Of Boujeloud and the healing music of Sidi Achmed Sheich and an improvement was noticed in the girl. The next day the girl's father took Mujehid to the town and bought him a goat for the musicians to kill and eat. Mujehid set off alone towards the big house holding the goat. He was not given to carrying goats in his arms. In Joujouka you simply walk behind them and they generally behave. Where would they go to ? He set the goat down. This Irish goat, full of the spirit of rebellion, took off down the road like a bullet. Mujehid chased it back into town. He eventually lost sight of the musician's dinner. He came up to some of the natives but soon discovered that not one of them had a word of Magrebi, not a single word. Mujehid tried to mime what had happened making horns on his head with his fingers, but no one could work out what he wanted and he never got his goat back. Years later in Joujouka he wants to know one thing, How come those Irish people couldn't speak Magrebi? http://www.thehandstand.org/archive/j...
Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 2009, Joujouka, Jajouka, Morocco. June 5-7 2009 Booking Now on
http://www.joujouka.net