By Youssef El Kaidi
Morocco World News
Fez, March 27, 2013
The music festival of Joujouka is to be held from 14th to 16th June, 2013. Since its first edition in 2008, the festival annually takes place in June in the far-flung village of Joujouka (or Jahjouka) in the Ahl Srif tribal area near Laksar Lakbir south of the Rif in northern Morocco. The festival is very unique and not like any other festival in the world in regard to its organization and rites.
It?s all about offering a very small group of tourists the opportunity to experience the Moroccan authenticity in its minute details. In every edition of the festival, a group of people from around the world live in Jahjouka with the Masters as hosts, experience their Sufi trance music on a daily basis and enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Rif and the local food and traditions. This micro-festival was raved about by international press like The Guardian,?Liberation,?the?BBC,?Al?Jazeera?and?The Irish Times.
The remarkable Music played by the Joujouka Masters is said to be 4,000-year old. The America novelist and painter William Seward Burroughs described the Masters? music as the world?s oldest music and was the first person to call the musicians a ?4000-year-old rock and roll band.?
The music of the Joujouka Masters finds its roots in the legend of Beoujeloud who is the symbol of fertility and reproduction and who bestowed this music on the tribe of ?Jahjouka? thousands of years ago. The Master musicians? music is believed to have healing powers. In the 15th century, when the Sufi saint Sidi Ahmed Schiech arrived in the village, he wrote music for the Masters? ancestors which could heal. Today?s Masters are said to be blessed with the Baraka or spirit of their saint and the main purpose of their music is to heal.
The Master Musicians were first presented to the global audience by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones in his album ?Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka? released in 1971. They have also collaborated with the Jazz experimentalist Ornette Coleman. In fact, many are those who were seduced by the simplicity and the ethnographic value of Jahjouka and its music. Paul Bowls, William Burroughs, Brian Jones, Timothy Leary, and Brion Gysin all wrote about the Master Musicians of Jahjouka after being entranced by their Sufi music.
? Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
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