Saturday, August 22, 2009

EDDIE WOODS BACK IN NO TIME: Jajouka, Bou Jeloud and the Moroccan Magic of Brion Gysin



Brion Gysin Boujeloud at Joujouka 1958

BACK IN NO TIME: Jajouka, Bou Jeloud and the Moroccan Magic of Brion Gysin
By EDDIE WOODS

“I'm not here to put anyone down. I'd just like to make a few suggestions.”
Ira Cohen

Dear Eddie,

I first heard the Master Musicians of Jajouka in 1950. It was at a festival outside of Tangier on the beach, a small harbor that went back to Phoenician times... I was there with Paul Bowles. Paul, of course, was an established composer before making his name as a writer and also an archivist of North African music. Anyway, it was Paul’s idea that I go to Morocco, he had bought a little house there and all. And I heard some music at that festival and was so taken by it, so enchanted, that I said to Paul, “I want to hear that music every day for the rest of my life. I want to hear it every day all day long.”

For sure, there were many other kinds of extraordinary music offered to one, mostly of the Ecstatic Brotherhoods who enter into trance, such as Jilala. But above all of that I had heard this funny little music, and I said, “Ah! That’s my music! I must find out where it comes from.” So I stayed and within a year I found that it came from Jajouka, a village in the Rif mountains where on several occasions during the year, whenever a festival comes round, the entire population of the Ahl Serif valley pours across the fields and wends its way, in procession, up the mountainside.

I mean, there would always be (and still is) a small group of the Masters traveling somewhere in the valley to animate a wedding or to honor some visiting dignitary. And my restaurant, The 1001 Nights, came about entirely because of them, it was their idea, as a way for me to stay in Morocco, hear their music all the time and earn my living. They said, “Why don’t you open a cafĂ© or something in Tangier? Then we’ll come down, make the music and we can split the money.” Which is how it worked until 1956, when Moroccan independence wiped me out practically overnight... But I knew the Musicians for nearly 35 years, right up till the end, many of them in intimate daily contact.

Now in Jajouka when they play, and those things go on for seven days and nights, blue kif smoke rises and drops in veils and the air is flooded with this marvelous music, very magical, tirelessly executed by the Master Musicians, more than twenty strong. Each night they play 10-hour nonstop sessions as a cloud of dancing boys shimmers and sashays around a huge bonfire. The crowd whoops and hollers approval, while the women, all of them dressed in white, are heaped up on a hillside, their heads thrown back and mouths open, ululating to the heavens.

At some point a sense of urgency enters the music: the drums thunder and the shrill, almost bagpipe-sounding blare of the rhaitas (a double reed oboe-like instrument, similar to the Indian shanai) becomes like sheet lightning in the minds of the spectators. Higher and higher goes the music, heralding the appearance of a young man dressed in goat skins with a huge straw hat tied around his blackened face and carrying long sycamore branches. Chosen for the task since childhood, he is suddenly transformed, a young villager no longer. Bou Jeloud is there, the Great God Pan.

Oh, there are many confirmed stories of the Musicians on tour, even in Europe, picking off (as it were) unsuspecting members of the audience and--using only their horns, their Pipes of Pan--making these people dance, literally forcing them to, controlling them. But when Bou Jeloud dances alone in Jajouka, his Musicians blow a sound like the earth sloughing off its skin. When you shiver like someone just walked on your grave, that’s him; that’s Bou Jeloud, the Father of Fear, the Father of Skins, Pan...

If you want to disappear, come round for private lessons. Remember? OK, you’ve just had yours. Back in no time.

Love,
Brion

This particular presentation of Jajouka music is from a live performance in France and comes in cassette form. Published by Staaltape (Amsterdam), it is in some ways well done and in other respects a most unprofessional job. The nicely-printed cassette cover gives no information at all about the Musicians, the performance...nada. The cassette itself is unlabeled and has its tabs intact; not only does it look like a blank cassette, it can easily be recorded over by accident. Ditto for the accompanying cassette, an interesting but incomplete 40-odd minute interview with Brion that also tells nothing of Jajouka (there is a brief 'reference in passing,' bas) and which is recorded on only one side, the other side being (in)conveniently empty. Ah, and no times are given for the music tape, although my stopwatch assures me it’s 54 minutes. Both cassettes (+ plastic covers, thank goodness) come in a plain wooden box with a slide-off top, along with a well made hardbound book, Back In No Time: Some aspects of Brion Gysin and suggestions for use, by A.M. McKenzie. The title phrase is from a small sign Brion used to hang on the outside of his door whenever he left the house, whether for five minutes or five weeks. The whole shebang (this is a limited edition of 500 copies, by the way) was selling for the equivalent of ca. €18.00 when first released in 1989.

Brion Gysin, who died on July 13th 1986, discovered the cut-up method of writing. Indeed, he introduced William Burroughs to the technique. The above letter (from Brion) was received by this reviewer on May 8th 1989. Back in no time. Get it?
Full size image here
THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JOUJOUKA (Staaltape documentary series)
(Office) Staalplaat, P.O. Box 11453, 1001 GL Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(Shop) Staalplaat, Flughafenstrasse 38, D-12053, Berlin, Germany
(Tel.) +49 30 2005 4697
(Website) http://www.staalplaat.com/
front left to right Miles, Frank Rynne, Eddie Woods reading 9 Rue Git le Couer by Harold Norse at the William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch @50 celebrations outside the Beat Hotel, 9 Rue Git le Couer , Paris, July 1 2009.

Text and Brion Gysin letter © Eddie Woods
Music © Master Musicians of Joujouka
The above review and letter were published at the time the staalplaat 2 cassette set was published in 1989. the 2 cassette limited edition of 500 was presented in a wooden box. special thanks to our friends Eddie Woods and Andrew McKenzie.

Master Musicians of Joujouka live in Paris 1980 download


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Jack Sargeant ¨Who Let The Mice In?¨interview with Master Musicians and more

Who Let The Mice In?

A variant of this appeared in the Fortean Times in 2007.

“THE GREAT GOD PAN IS NOT DEAD BUT ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN THE LITTLE HILLS OF MOROCCO” – Brion Gysin
The Master Musicians of Joujouka are steeped in mythology. Introduced to the west through the artist, writer and beat affiliate Brion Gysin, who saw in their music an accompaniment to his ethereal paintings and the spinning hypnogogic magic of the Dreammachine. The music adding to the multi-coloured flashes that played across his eyelids as he sat facing the spinning Dreammachine - the only piece of art you look at with your eyes closed - the patterns transforming into shapes, the music taking him across oceans, to other worlds and transformed realities.

Lost Rolling Stone Brian Jones famously recorded the Master Musicians and in the ensuing years musicians ranging from Ornette Coleman to Bill Lazwell to the Islamic Diggers have collaborated with the villagers.
The Master Musicians’ music echoes back through generations, intimately linked to the village community, culture, and their saint the Sufi mystic Sidi Achmed Scheich, who one-thousand years ago heard in their music and circular breathing techniques melodies that could cure illness. As Master Musician Abdelslam Eertoubi states, "Joujouka has the sanctuaries of four saints. If you have a bad back or sore bones you visit Sidi Ghari's tomb and lie on the stonewall. This will help. My family are descended from Sidi Achmed Schiech who founded the village a long time ago. This is his land. He is the Cultivator with Lions and Healer of Crazy Minds. He used a lion to plough the land. People still come if they are disturbed in the mind and we play music of Sidi Achmed Schiech for them. They sit in his sanctuary and it helps them.”
Read Full piece on Jack´s Blog Here

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Naked Lunch @50 special event in Chicago in support the new documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within directed by Yony Leyser

Please support this important event.

Please join Academy Award Nominee, actor Peter Weller for an evening of art, readings, happenings and performances to support the new documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within directed by Yony Leyser. It will feature a rare exhibition of William Burroughs' paintings and drawings on paper, and a special preview screening of the documentary trailer.

5:30 pm to 9:30 pmFriday, August 28, 2009 TH!NKART SALON 1530 N. Paulina, Suite F, Chicago, IL Map it!


Live music by Maya Jensen Sumptuous cuisine catered by Chef Daniel Mejia

Open bar serving Burroughs' special elixirs
FEATURING LIVE PERFORMANCES AND READINGS BY: -

Peter Weller Star of David Cronenberg's film Naked Lunch (1991) -
Penny Arcade Andy Warhol Superstar, Writer and Performance Artist
-
Anne Waldman Poet & Co-Founder (with Allen Ginsberg) of The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
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Hal Willner Musical Director, Saturday Nigh Live,
recorded Burroughs, Dead City Radio (1990) -
James Grauerholz William S. Burroughs Estate Executor-
John Girono Poet, Giorno Poetry Systems -
John Long Author, Drugs and the Beats -
Kurt Henner Author, Encyclopedia of Beat Literature -
Tony Trigilio Author, Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist Poetics -
Dr. Bill Ayers Distinguished Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago-
Davis Schneiderman Editor, Retaking the Universe: Williams S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization
,

More at www.burroughsthemovie.com/fundraiser

AFTER PARTY WITH LIVE MUSIC 9:30 pm Penny Arcade, David Daniell & Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Thrill Jocky, FPP), and DJs at the STOP SMILING Storefront Open Bar 1371 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, IL Just Around the corner from Th!nkArt in Wicker Park The spirit of William S. Burroughs will come to escort you over. TICKETS ! Donations in support of the documentary, accepted online at http://cimmfest.org/ for $60 or at the door for $75. Price includes main event and after party. For more information call 773.252.2294. SPACE IS LIMITED, RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!More at www.burroughsthemovie.com/fundraiser

See also the Official Naked Lunch @50 web site http://nakedlunch.org/events/chicago/