The British Asian percussionist Talvin Singh produced an album by the Master Musicians of Jajouka (featuring Bachir Attar) in 2000. His production credits include, ominously, "atmospheres". In the album opener Up to the Sky, Down to the Earth, Singh places Attar's horn in the reverb-drenched distance, then doubles it on keyboard, further muffling its original sound. Decisions like these make bare Singh's distaste for the band's trademark ghaita flutes, and his drum'n'bass breakbeats are as ham-fisted as Jajouka's shifting polyrhythmns are subtle. Working with Attar in his London studio, Singh dated timeless music by fusing it to club techniques that sound old-fashioned less than 10 years later. Ancient Sufi traditions are not necessarily enhanced by atmospheric synthesizer washes. Jace Clayton National http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/past-masters
You can see and Bachir Attar's latest attempts at crossover into dubstep here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6gPlTm9dk
It defies logic that this is promoted as the voice of the authentic Sufi trance of the Ahl Srif.
BS ~ One thing that struck me about Jajouka Rolling Stone was that you are fulsome in your praise of Apocalypse Across the Sky, but you do not credit Bill Laswell for producing an album that sonically stands head and shoulders above Brian Jones’ Jajouka recording. Was the omission of Laswell’s name an oversight, or was there another reason?
SD ~ Laswell/Shmazwel. It is true that Apocalypse sounds great, but the quality of the music is only … ok. The band that recorded this music in Jajouka was cobbled together by Bashir (Bachir) Attar, with a couple of his brothers, and – I was told – some outside wedding musicians from Ksar el Kebir, the nearest big town. Bashir did it for the money, which was good.
http://www.overgrownpath.com/2011/05/who-are-real-master-musicians.html
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Friday, March 26, 2010
Update on recent activities of Cherie Nutting, and jajouka.com and their attacks on the Master Musicians
Note from the producer of the Master Musicians of Joujouka Frank Rynne re the activities and false statements on jajouka.com and the ongoing attacks and harassment of the people and the musicians of Zahjouka/Joujouka/Jajouka online and in correspondence by Cherie Nutting, on behalf of her ex husband and client Bachir Attar.
I was constrained for several months from answering the lies that appear on Jajouka.com about the people and musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka. This was due to a then ongoing criminal investigation in the US which had its roots in the immoral assertions which Cherie Nutting continuously makes about the musicians and people of Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjouka.
I can now report that one of her colleagues (credited on jajouka.com) made a plea deal in the case and accepted his guilt in relation to two charges of cyber-bullying and Intimidation (death threat) against me. Among the emails which formed his intimidation and harassment were mails forwarded to me by the subject on Cherie Nutting’s behalf. I will not name the guilty party as he is now on probation and doing community service and hopefully in a year he will get on with his life.
Neither The Master Musicians nor anyone who has worked with them has ever claimed to be Bachir Attar’s commercial group. Quite the opposite and they seek to distance themselves from his commercial activities. The only parts of his claimed resume ever cited was in relation to the discography and touring history of musicians who have played or who currently play with The Master Musicians. There were also factual errors in the book I co wrote Man from Nowhere Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin (Subliminal Books, 1992) which erroneously repeated Bachir Attar’s claims regarding his leadership. This book was published as part of the Here to Go Show in 1992. The Here to Show , which I co curated, was the first art show to feature substantial collections of paintings and works by Brion Gysin and his friend William Burroughs. It also featured paintings by their Moroccan friend Mohamed Hamri who first brought the Master Msuicians of Joujouka to the attention of Westerners and who introduced amongst other, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, and Rolling Stone Brian Jones to the Sufi musicians of his village. The truth began to emerge during the show from the musicians from Jajouka/Joujouka who attended when Cherie Nutting sent faxes claiming they were impostors. On investigation this proved to be a false claim. The group was never billed as Bachir Attar as is claimed on his commercial website jajouka.com, (see original poster linked below).
An example of Cherrie Nutting's false claims
On jajouka.com Cherie Nutting/Bachir Attar states that a photo was used on a postcard which was published as part of the Brion Gysin celebration in 1992 without permission. This claim has been repeated oft en by her over the past 18 years by Nutting as part of her smear campaign against the Master Musicians and those who work with them. The truth , which she is well aware of is that the photo was sent by Axiom Records who provided written permission to publish it. The reverse of the postcard , part of a set of 16 cards which, accompanied the book Man from Nowhere, was an homage to Brion Gysin by Bill Laswell, Laswell was the owner of Axiom and producer of Apocalypse Across the Sky by Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar (Axiom Records 1992). It was part of Bill;s contribution to the show which honoured Brion Gysin.
William Burroughs gave his full assistance and blessing to the Here to Go Show, providing his paintings, an introduction to the book Man from Nowhere and a special video address which was played at the opening and at a film event featuring unseen footage from the 1960s of Burroughs, Gysin and their collaborators filmed by the late Antony Balch.
Nutting is aware of these facts yet she chooses to repeat falsehoods in order to smear the Master Musicians and people associated with the musicians from the village her ex-husband was born in.
Copyright infringment by Cherie Nutting
Cherie Nutting still makes claims of copyright infringement. However, she ignores the fact that for many years she infringed other people's copyrights in order to make her false claim against the Here to Go Show organisers..
In August 2009 Network Solutions took Jajouka.com offline in order to compel Nutting to remove Here to Go Show copyrighted material from jajouka.com. Nutting had been asked repeatedly by the copyright owners to do so but failed to comply.After two days with her site offline she finally removed the copyrighted material and Network Solutions restored public access to her site.
Bachir Attar and his claim to be hereditary leader on the Sufi brotherhood of Master Musicians
Not content to be the paymaster and principle beneficiary of a commercial musical group, Bachir Attar has built his career in the west by claiming, that he was/is the HEREDITARY leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Most people would be content to tour and record but Bachir Attar seeks to destroy the musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka and their livelihoods by falsely accusing them of not being from their own village. He does this despite the fact that the actual leader of the musicians in Zahjouka/Jajouka/Joujouka is his first cousin who grew up with him. Ahmed Attar is 6 years older than Bachir. Ahmed Attar has never lived in New York, indeed he has never lived outside the village of his birth. If Bachir Attar's claim was true it would imply that his father was also the hereditary leader of the Masters.
However his claim is false. The Master Musicians of Jajouka/Joujouka have never had a system of primogeniture, There has never been a hereditary leader. The Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka elect their leaders. The musicians operate quite like a medieval guild. The Master Musicians internal organization is not based on a system of hereditary fuedal lordship. They are a Sufi fraternity. There are several secondary sources which predate the modern Bachir Attar controversy which indicate that his claims are false and that his father was not the hereditary leader. I will refer to just one of those here.
Rikki Stein worked with the Master Musicians for most of the 1970s and organised the 1980 tour of Europe by the Master Musicians. In Soft Need No. 17, Brion Gysin Special, (Paris /Basel, 1977) p.66, Rikki Stein refers to the leaders of the Master Musicians of Joujouka as being Berdouz (Mohamed Attar) who he states was leader of the drummers and Mallim Fudal as leader of the ghaita players. The position held by Mallim Fudal was in fact that of Rais' (President) of the musicians. In fact Stein was present in the village when Mallim Fudal was elected leader/Rais in the early 1970s.
Email campaigns
In an email dating from August 2008,one month after the successful Master Musicians Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival held in the village 29 -30 July, Nutting stated:
Not only did she claim that Ali Attar, who played with the Master Musicians from 1945 until he could not play anymore due to his old age was a poor musician, (now he is 101) she also indicates that Master Musicians do indeed play with the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka (ie the Masters of the village whom she associates with me Master Musicians of Joujouka) whereas, in her public statements and on her website she claims that they are all impostors from other places.
As to Mallim Ali, what had changed in two years? For Nutting he went from being a “poor (quality) musician” and not a Master to being “The oldest Master Musician of Jajouka”. Perhaps the recording of a video of Mailim Ali which, can be seen on youtube in a highly edited form , changed his status from being a liability to her false claims to being an asset in her eyes. She now sought to use Ali, a highly respected and revered figure to further smear his clan.
It is noteworthy that Bachir Attar can be heard twice in the video saying sentences for poor Ali to repeat. The highly edited video is presented in this way to remove Bachir Attar's other prompts to the 100 year old man who looks terrified after the first shot featuring Cherie Nutting. She had previously stated Mallim Ali Attar was never a Master Musician despite his life long devotion to playing the music, his recording with Brian Jones and Ornette Colemen and even on Bill Laswell's recording of her husband when he did have old Masters in his troupe. Last summer I spoke at length with Ali about his life, his forced conscription into Franco's army which took him away from his native village from 1936 until 1945 and his recording with Brian Jones. He was also paid from the Brian Jones Festival and the 2009 festival contrary to Nutting's statements accompanying the video link on her commercial webside.
In the most recent upload of the Ali Attar video (uploaded 10 March 2010) he is no longer described as being the oldest Master Musician of Jajouka. The title now states the video is Ali Attar talking about Joujouka. In fact he would not know the difference between the transliteration of Jajouka and Joujouka. He is however the oldest Master Musician of Joujouka/Jajouka. His nephew Ahmed is the current leader. There are other videos of Mallim Ali on YouTube, in one clip from Maroc 1 TV c.2005 he is standing with the Master Musicians and their Rais Ahmed Attar, in another other he is present at the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival.
In the same email she claims of the Master Musicians of Joujouka that “most come from Ksar el Kebir.” Yet she also states of her own group “[..] most real Masters now live in Ksar”.
Ksar El Kebir is the nearest city to the village. The so called "real masters" she refers to are some of her touring group, others come from Rabat, a city hundreds of miles from Joujouka.
In fact NONE of the musicians who play with The Master Musicians of Joujouka live in Ksar El Kebir. Yet by Nutting’s own admission ALL of her musicians (ie Bachir Attar's band) live in that city. Even this "admission " is false as she fails to mention the Rabat based session musician Mohammed al-Hammadi who is a mainstay of their troupe. Bachir Attar trades under the eponymous brand names of Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar or as I have seen recently advertising a show in Paris, (which was canceled due poor ticket sales possibly due to the exorbitant 75 euro ticket price sought), Bachir Attar and The Master Musicians of Jajouka. He is a band leader in the commercial sense as he owns his group and hires players as he pleases while the Master Musicians of Joujouka are a fraternal Sufi brotherhood following ancient traditions which include an elective structure for leader. Their leader is not "the boss" he is a guide and helper for the musicians and all major decisions are made after discussion and voting. (See Ahmed Attar on leadership of The Master Musicians http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html).
The key to Bachir Attar and Cherie Nutting's attacks on the villagers of the formers native village is not musical purity, or impurity as the case may be. Avarice is the key to their activities. Bachir Attar cannot own the Sufi brotherhood of his native village so he seeks to destroy. What he seeks to destroy with Cherie Nutting is the purity and faith of the Master Musicians, as well as their reputations and the reputations of all those who seek to help them.
I have dozens of emails, letters and faxes written by Nutting over the past 20 years. The claims in them reflect ever shifting goalposts and assertions which she regularly changes when her previous claims have been publicly disproved. The correct place for these to be reviewed is in a civil court of law or a book or both.
I have on many occasions invited Cherie to reach an entante cordial, and to make peace with the Masters and cease and desist from her attacks on these poor people. She has failed to respond. She and her ex husband seek to destroy what they cannot have.
Bachir Attar claims no young people in the village are interested in the music, anyone who comes to the village will see for themselves that the young people do indeed support the music (See end of second video below for a young Attar playing the lira).The youths all dance to the Masters performing Boujeloud in the village square until dawn while others practice the drum and the flute just as their fathers did when they were boys. Girls run and hide from Boujeloud when he chases through the village striking out with branches with are said to bestow fertility. Bachir Attar does not play for his community he is not part of the community of his birth, he is an outcast from the brotherhood of his ancestors.
Attacking the Master Musicians of Joujouka and the people of Zahjouka/Joujouka/Jajouka in the way Nutting and her ex-husband Bachir Attar have done and continue to do is both immoral and unethical.
Last week Nutting posted on her website jajouka.com that Bachir Attar would not be playing at this year's Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-6 June. For once she stated something that is correct. However the implication of her posting is that he is advertised as playing the festival. He is not advertised and those attending do not expect to see his group.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka have released records since the 1971 Brian Jones LP. They are well established and, have in recent times, yet again, featured in many international newspapers, radio shows and magazines. They are separate group from Bachir Attar's commercial troupe of musicians though there have occaisonally being overlaps in musicians. Bachir Attar's group are based in cities, ihis referred to in books, newspapers and on websites including his own jajouka.com.
Attendees at the festival come to hear traditional Sufi trance music played by the traditional Master Musicians.
Bachir Attar's "village".
In the Nutting's August 2008 email quoted above she also stated:
"I now see why the big costly wall around the house was built.Inside the Attar wall one is completely undisturbed and safe.It is like Palestine."
In fact the recently built and unsightly 10 foot wall that now surrounds the Madrassa built by Brion Gysin and Hamri for the Masters Musicians in the 1960s reflects the fact that Bachir Attar is not welcome in his native village. The issue of his taking up residence in the Madrassa (Musician school) is another violation that the Master Musicians and the community are constantly seeking to redress. They are determined to regain possession of their communal property.
Last year Attar built a further premises inside the wall. Bachir Attar's "village" is two buildings inside a wall. When Bachir Attar brings journalists or music business people to the village he keeps them behind that wall; cut off and removed from the culture and community he claims to represent. He entertains guests with musicians driven in from Ksar El Kebir and also the man mentioned above Mohammed al-Hammadi from Rabat. (In a recent interview this session player al-Hammadi stated that the traditions do not continue in Jajouka, he said this from the comfort of his musical instrument shop in Rabat. (See videos posted below for what happens in the actual village outside that wall ). The contrast could not be more striking. Indeed his helpers in his new building were an American man and the teenage son of one of his musicians who lives in Ksar El Kebir.
Outside the wall that Bachir Attar has built to screen his guests from the truth, the village is harmonious and united. (Note: See post on the village co operative and its aid to the women, Master Musicians and farmers of the Joujouka/Jajouka http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-joujouka-from-marc-2-tv.html Ali Attar can also be seen in the video with the Master Musicians)
In contrast the Master Musicians of Joujouka's annual festival take place in the centre of their village and in the Master Musicians' new Madrassa which is 50 metres away from the old one on the other side of the state built primary school (École Imam Malik). The Master Musicians new Madrassa has no wall surrounding it!!! It is open to their community and part funded by the local co-operative in a community initiative.
The annual festivals in the village provide much needed funds in an ethical way to the village and the Master Musicians who continue the traditions of their ancestors. They have been reported on in international media by journalists at least one of whom knows Bachir Attar. (See letters Mojo magazine Dec 2008).
No one attending is coming to see Bachir Attar at the annual festival, they come to see, hear and stay in the homes of the Masters Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka. The perceived danger of the annual festivals for Nutting and Bachir Attar is that they allow people to see the truth of what is happening in the village for themselves and to experience pure unadulterated Sufi music in its natural setting and to provide much need fund directly to the Master Musicians that they seek to erase from the record. To date none of the guests have been disappointed. Last edited edited 7/4/2010
Now back to the music and the village.................clip from the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary festival filmed in Joujouka/Jajouka, 29-30 July 2008
Clip from Joujouka Festival 2009
Links
Booking for Master musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-6 June 2010 http://www.Joujouka.net
Poster for the Here to Go Show 1992 Note the group advertised is Master Musicians of Joujouka. According to Cherie Nutting and Bachir Attar this festival advertised their group
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/mmojoujouka/?action=view¤t=heretogo017-1.jpg
The Wire magazine video download http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3052/
The Wire Magazine MP3 http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3035/
Mojo Magazine report on Brian Jones Festival PDF Oct 2009 http://media.mind2hands.com/insom/MJMM01.pdf
Master Musicians of Joujouka on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/mastermusiciansofjoujouka
The Guardian report on Brian Jones 40th Anniversary festival 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/29/master-musicians-joujouka-festival-morocco
The Faded Myth of the Goat God by Arian Fariborz http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-587/_nr-14/i.html
Mohamed Hamri Open Letter re Bachir Attar and Brian Jones PDF http://www.joeambrose.net/japdf/HamrisOpenLetter.pdf
Artilce from 1995 on the Brian Jones reissue controversy http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/no-stone-unturned-1592456.html
The National, "Past Masters" article by Jace Clayton 2009 http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090306/REVIEW/879540375/1008
Paul Bowles in Tangier The Guardian Dec 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/29/paul-bowles-forgotten-night-tangiers
Mohamed Hamri Obituary 2000 http://joujouka.net/index.php?file=thumbpop&pic=65
The Master Musicians By Rosemary Woodruff Leary
http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2008/06/rosemary-woodruff-leary-on-visiting.html
Slideshow Mallim Ali, Frank Rynne and Masters at the musicians house in the village June 2009 http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/mmojoujouka/?action=view¤t=b3e2e85f.pbw
Ariel image of the village of Zahjouka/Jajouka/Joujouka http://wikimapia.org/15123112/Ma9barate-Zahjouka
Article from Babelmed included reports of Bachir Attar drinking 2 bottles of vodka (no leader of the Sufi brotherhood can be a drinker and alcohol violates the villages halal status: http://www.babelmed.net/Countries/Mediterranean/Travel/index.php?c=396&m=145&k=&l=en
ANYTHING BUT ROUTINE: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography of William S. Burroughs v. 2.0
I was constrained for several months from answering the lies that appear on Jajouka.com about the people and musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka. This was due to a then ongoing criminal investigation in the US which had its roots in the immoral assertions which Cherie Nutting continuously makes about the musicians and people of Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjouka.
I can now report that one of her colleagues (credited on jajouka.com) made a plea deal in the case and accepted his guilt in relation to two charges of cyber-bullying and Intimidation (death threat) against me. Among the emails which formed his intimidation and harassment were mails forwarded to me by the subject on Cherie Nutting’s behalf. I will not name the guilty party as he is now on probation and doing community service and hopefully in a year he will get on with his life.
Neither The Master Musicians nor anyone who has worked with them has ever claimed to be Bachir Attar’s commercial group. Quite the opposite and they seek to distance themselves from his commercial activities. The only parts of his claimed resume ever cited was in relation to the discography and touring history of musicians who have played or who currently play with The Master Musicians. There were also factual errors in the book I co wrote Man from Nowhere Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin (Subliminal Books, 1992) which erroneously repeated Bachir Attar’s claims regarding his leadership. This book was published as part of the Here to Go Show in 1992. The Here to Show , which I co curated, was the first art show to feature substantial collections of paintings and works by Brion Gysin and his friend William Burroughs. It also featured paintings by their Moroccan friend Mohamed Hamri who first brought the Master Msuicians of Joujouka to the attention of Westerners and who introduced amongst other, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, and Rolling Stone Brian Jones to the Sufi musicians of his village. The truth began to emerge during the show from the musicians from Jajouka/Joujouka who attended when Cherie Nutting sent faxes claiming they were impostors. On investigation this proved to be a false claim. The group was never billed as Bachir Attar as is claimed on his commercial website jajouka.com, (see original poster linked below).
An example of Cherrie Nutting's false claims
On jajouka.com Cherie Nutting/Bachir Attar states that a photo was used on a postcard which was published as part of the Brion Gysin celebration in 1992 without permission. This claim has been repeated oft en by her over the past 18 years by Nutting as part of her smear campaign against the Master Musicians and those who work with them. The truth , which she is well aware of is that the photo was sent by Axiom Records who provided written permission to publish it. The reverse of the postcard , part of a set of 16 cards which, accompanied the book Man from Nowhere, was an homage to Brion Gysin by Bill Laswell, Laswell was the owner of Axiom and producer of Apocalypse Across the Sky by Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar (Axiom Records 1992). It was part of Bill;s contribution to the show which honoured Brion Gysin.
William Burroughs gave his full assistance and blessing to the Here to Go Show, providing his paintings, an introduction to the book Man from Nowhere and a special video address which was played at the opening and at a film event featuring unseen footage from the 1960s of Burroughs, Gysin and their collaborators filmed by the late Antony Balch.
Nutting is aware of these facts yet she chooses to repeat falsehoods in order to smear the Master Musicians and people associated with the musicians from the village her ex-husband was born in.
Copyright infringment by Cherie Nutting
Cherie Nutting still makes claims of copyright infringement. However, she ignores the fact that for many years she infringed other people's copyrights in order to make her false claim against the Here to Go Show organisers..
In August 2009 Network Solutions took Jajouka.com offline in order to compel Nutting to remove Here to Go Show copyrighted material from jajouka.com. Nutting had been asked repeatedly by the copyright owners to do so but failed to comply.After two days with her site offline she finally removed the copyrighted material and Network Solutions restored public access to her site.
Bachir Attar and his claim to be hereditary leader on the Sufi brotherhood of Master Musicians
Not content to be the paymaster and principle beneficiary of a commercial musical group, Bachir Attar has built his career in the west by claiming, that he was/is the HEREDITARY leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka. Most people would be content to tour and record but Bachir Attar seeks to destroy the musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka and their livelihoods by falsely accusing them of not being from their own village. He does this despite the fact that the actual leader of the musicians in Zahjouka/Jajouka/Joujouka is his first cousin who grew up with him. Ahmed Attar is 6 years older than Bachir. Ahmed Attar has never lived in New York, indeed he has never lived outside the village of his birth. If Bachir Attar's claim was true it would imply that his father was also the hereditary leader of the Masters.
However his claim is false. The Master Musicians of Jajouka/Joujouka have never had a system of primogeniture, There has never been a hereditary leader. The Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka elect their leaders. The musicians operate quite like a medieval guild. The Master Musicians internal organization is not based on a system of hereditary fuedal lordship. They are a Sufi fraternity. There are several secondary sources which predate the modern Bachir Attar controversy which indicate that his claims are false and that his father was not the hereditary leader. I will refer to just one of those here.
Rikki Stein worked with the Master Musicians for most of the 1970s and organised the 1980 tour of Europe by the Master Musicians. In Soft Need No. 17, Brion Gysin Special, (Paris /Basel, 1977) p.66, Rikki Stein refers to the leaders of the Master Musicians of Joujouka as being Berdouz (Mohamed Attar) who he states was leader of the drummers and Mallim Fudal as leader of the ghaita players. The position held by Mallim Fudal was in fact that of Rais' (President) of the musicians. In fact Stein was present in the village when Mallim Fudal was elected leader/Rais in the early 1970s.
Email campaigns
In an email dating from August 2008,one month after the successful Master Musicians Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival held in the village 29 -30 July, Nutting stated:
“Ali el Attar is 94 and played poorly but was brought out of kindness on tour as dummer.(sic). He lives next to Hamri supporters so I guess at 94 he stays in bed mostly and Rynne got to him. He did play with Bachirs Dad but he was not a Master. So Rynne has about 2 or 3 drummers.”
Not only did she claim that Ali Attar, who played with the Master Musicians from 1945 until he could not play anymore due to his old age was a poor musician, (now he is 101) she also indicates that Master Musicians do indeed play with the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka (ie the Masters of the village whom she associates with me Master Musicians of Joujouka) whereas, in her public statements and on her website she claims that they are all impostors from other places.
As to Mallim Ali, what had changed in two years? For Nutting he went from being a “poor (quality) musician” and not a Master to being “The oldest Master Musician of Jajouka”. Perhaps the recording of a video of Mailim Ali which, can be seen on youtube in a highly edited form , changed his status from being a liability to her false claims to being an asset in her eyes. She now sought to use Ali, a highly respected and revered figure to further smear his clan.
It is noteworthy that Bachir Attar can be heard twice in the video saying sentences for poor Ali to repeat. The highly edited video is presented in this way to remove Bachir Attar's other prompts to the 100 year old man who looks terrified after the first shot featuring Cherie Nutting. She had previously stated Mallim Ali Attar was never a Master Musician despite his life long devotion to playing the music, his recording with Brian Jones and Ornette Colemen and even on Bill Laswell's recording of her husband when he did have old Masters in his troupe. Last summer I spoke at length with Ali about his life, his forced conscription into Franco's army which took him away from his native village from 1936 until 1945 and his recording with Brian Jones. He was also paid from the Brian Jones Festival and the 2009 festival contrary to Nutting's statements accompanying the video link on her commercial webside.
In the most recent upload of the Ali Attar video (uploaded 10 March 2010) he is no longer described as being the oldest Master Musician of Jajouka. The title now states the video is Ali Attar talking about Joujouka. In fact he would not know the difference between the transliteration of Jajouka and Joujouka. He is however the oldest Master Musician of Joujouka/Jajouka. His nephew Ahmed is the current leader. There are other videos of Mallim Ali on YouTube, in one clip from Maroc 1 TV c.2005 he is standing with the Master Musicians and their Rais Ahmed Attar, in another other he is present at the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival.
In the same email she claims of the Master Musicians of Joujouka that “most come from Ksar el Kebir.” Yet she also states of her own group “[..] most real Masters now live in Ksar”.
Ksar El Kebir is the nearest city to the village. The so called "real masters" she refers to are some of her touring group, others come from Rabat, a city hundreds of miles from Joujouka.
In fact NONE of the musicians who play with The Master Musicians of Joujouka live in Ksar El Kebir. Yet by Nutting’s own admission ALL of her musicians (ie Bachir Attar's band) live in that city. Even this "admission " is false as she fails to mention the Rabat based session musician Mohammed al-Hammadi who is a mainstay of their troupe. Bachir Attar trades under the eponymous brand names of Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar or as I have seen recently advertising a show in Paris, (which was canceled due poor ticket sales possibly due to the exorbitant 75 euro ticket price sought), Bachir Attar and The Master Musicians of Jajouka. He is a band leader in the commercial sense as he owns his group and hires players as he pleases while the Master Musicians of Joujouka are a fraternal Sufi brotherhood following ancient traditions which include an elective structure for leader. Their leader is not "the boss" he is a guide and helper for the musicians and all major decisions are made after discussion and voting. (See Ahmed Attar on leadership of The Master Musicians http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html).
The key to Bachir Attar and Cherie Nutting's attacks on the villagers of the formers native village is not musical purity, or impurity as the case may be. Avarice is the key to their activities. Bachir Attar cannot own the Sufi brotherhood of his native village so he seeks to destroy. What he seeks to destroy with Cherie Nutting is the purity and faith of the Master Musicians, as well as their reputations and the reputations of all those who seek to help them.
I have dozens of emails, letters and faxes written by Nutting over the past 20 years. The claims in them reflect ever shifting goalposts and assertions which she regularly changes when her previous claims have been publicly disproved. The correct place for these to be reviewed is in a civil court of law or a book or both.
I have on many occasions invited Cherie to reach an entante cordial, and to make peace with the Masters and cease and desist from her attacks on these poor people. She has failed to respond. She and her ex husband seek to destroy what they cannot have.
Bachir Attar claims no young people in the village are interested in the music, anyone who comes to the village will see for themselves that the young people do indeed support the music (See end of second video below for a young Attar playing the lira).The youths all dance to the Masters performing Boujeloud in the village square until dawn while others practice the drum and the flute just as their fathers did when they were boys. Girls run and hide from Boujeloud when he chases through the village striking out with branches with are said to bestow fertility. Bachir Attar does not play for his community he is not part of the community of his birth, he is an outcast from the brotherhood of his ancestors.
Attacking the Master Musicians of Joujouka and the people of Zahjouka/Joujouka/Jajouka in the way Nutting and her ex-husband Bachir Attar have done and continue to do is both immoral and unethical.
Last week Nutting posted on her website jajouka.com that Bachir Attar would not be playing at this year's Master Musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-6 June. For once she stated something that is correct. However the implication of her posting is that he is advertised as playing the festival. He is not advertised and those attending do not expect to see his group.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka have released records since the 1971 Brian Jones LP. They are well established and, have in recent times, yet again, featured in many international newspapers, radio shows and magazines. They are separate group from Bachir Attar's commercial troupe of musicians though there have occaisonally being overlaps in musicians. Bachir Attar's group are based in cities, ihis referred to in books, newspapers and on websites including his own jajouka.com.
Attendees at the festival come to hear traditional Sufi trance music played by the traditional Master Musicians.
Bachir Attar's "village".
In the Nutting's August 2008 email quoted above she also stated:
"I now see why the big costly wall around the house was built.Inside the Attar wall one is completely undisturbed and safe.It is like Palestine."
In fact the recently built and unsightly 10 foot wall that now surrounds the Madrassa built by Brion Gysin and Hamri for the Masters Musicians in the 1960s reflects the fact that Bachir Attar is not welcome in his native village. The issue of his taking up residence in the Madrassa (Musician school) is another violation that the Master Musicians and the community are constantly seeking to redress. They are determined to regain possession of their communal property.
Last year Attar built a further premises inside the wall. Bachir Attar's "village" is two buildings inside a wall. When Bachir Attar brings journalists or music business people to the village he keeps them behind that wall; cut off and removed from the culture and community he claims to represent. He entertains guests with musicians driven in from Ksar El Kebir and also the man mentioned above Mohammed al-Hammadi from Rabat. (In a recent interview this session player al-Hammadi stated that the traditions do not continue in Jajouka, he said this from the comfort of his musical instrument shop in Rabat. (See videos posted below for what happens in the actual village outside that wall ). The contrast could not be more striking. Indeed his helpers in his new building were an American man and the teenage son of one of his musicians who lives in Ksar El Kebir.
Outside the wall that Bachir Attar has built to screen his guests from the truth, the village is harmonious and united. (Note: See post on the village co operative and its aid to the women, Master Musicians and farmers of the Joujouka/Jajouka http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-joujouka-from-marc-2-tv.html Ali Attar can also be seen in the video with the Master Musicians)
In contrast the Master Musicians of Joujouka's annual festival take place in the centre of their village and in the Master Musicians' new Madrassa which is 50 metres away from the old one on the other side of the state built primary school (École Imam Malik). The Master Musicians new Madrassa has no wall surrounding it!!! It is open to their community and part funded by the local co-operative in a community initiative.
The annual festivals in the village provide much needed funds in an ethical way to the village and the Master Musicians who continue the traditions of their ancestors. They have been reported on in international media by journalists at least one of whom knows Bachir Attar. (See letters Mojo magazine Dec 2008).
No one attending is coming to see Bachir Attar at the annual festival, they come to see, hear and stay in the homes of the Masters Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka. The perceived danger of the annual festivals for Nutting and Bachir Attar is that they allow people to see the truth of what is happening in the village for themselves and to experience pure unadulterated Sufi music in its natural setting and to provide much need fund directly to the Master Musicians that they seek to erase from the record. To date none of the guests have been disappointed. Last edited edited 7/4/2010
Now back to the music and the village.................clip from the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary festival filmed in Joujouka/Jajouka, 29-30 July 2008
Clip from Joujouka Festival 2009
Links
Booking for Master musicians of Joujouka Festival 4-6 June 2010 http://www.Joujouka.net
Poster for the Here to Go Show 1992 Note the group advertised is Master Musicians of Joujouka. According to Cherie Nutting and Bachir Attar this festival advertised their group
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/mmojoujouka/?action=view¤t=heretogo017-1.jpg
The Wire magazine video download http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3052/
The Wire Magazine MP3 http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/3035/
Mojo Magazine report on Brian Jones Festival PDF Oct 2009 http://media.mind2hands.com/insom/MJMM01.pdf
Master Musicians of Joujouka on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/mastermusiciansofjoujouka
The Guardian report on Brian Jones 40th Anniversary festival 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/may/29/master-musicians-joujouka-festival-morocco
The Faded Myth of the Goat God by Arian Fariborz http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-587/_nr-14/i.html
Mohamed Hamri Open Letter re Bachir Attar and Brian Jones PDF http://www.joeambrose.net/japdf/HamrisOpenLetter.pdf
Artilce from 1995 on the Brian Jones reissue controversy http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/no-stone-unturned-1592456.html
The National, "Past Masters" article by Jace Clayton 2009 http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090306/REVIEW/879540375/1008
Paul Bowles in Tangier The Guardian Dec 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/29/paul-bowles-forgotten-night-tangiers
Mohamed Hamri Obituary 2000 http://joujouka.net/index.php?file=thumbpop&pic=65
The Master Musicians By Rosemary Woodruff Leary
http://brianjonesjoujoukafestival.blogspot.com/2008/06/rosemary-woodruff-leary-on-visiting.html
Slideshow Mallim Ali, Frank Rynne and Masters at the musicians house in the village June 2009 http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn307/mmojoujouka/?action=view¤t=b3e2e85f.pbw
Ariel image of the village of Zahjouka/Jajouka/Joujouka http://wikimapia.org/15123112/Ma9barate-Zahjouka
Article from Babelmed included reports of Bachir Attar drinking 2 bottles of vodka (no leader of the Sufi brotherhood can be a drinker and alcohol violates the villages halal status: http://www.babelmed.net/Countries/Mediterranean/Travel/index.php?c=396&m=145&k=&l=en
ANYTHING BUT ROUTINE: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography of William S. Burroughs v. 2.0
F36. The ―Here To Go‖ Show. Boxed work including:
Ambrose, Joe, Terry Wilson, and Frank Rynne. Man from Nowhere: Storming the Citadels of
Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. [Dublin?]: Subliminal Books, 1992. Softbound
(no hardbound issued). [See also Section G below.]
16 postcards of photographs of and paintings by Burroughs and Gysin.
Issued in conjunction with a series of events that took place in Dublin, September–October 1992, ―to promote the lifelong collaborations between William Burroughs . . . and Brion Gysin . . .‖
Includes 50 numbered copies, issued by Autonomedia and Subliminal Books..
Open letter from Mohamed Hamri on 1995 re issue of Brian Jones Cd by Bachir Attar and Cherie Nutting
Open letter from Mohamed Hamri the man who brought Brion Gysin, William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, Brian Jones, Timothy and Rosemary Leary, Ornette Coleman and more to his native village between 1951 and 1973. This letter of protest dates from 1995 when Bachir Attar and Cherie Nutting usurped the rights of the Sufi brotherhood and distorted the historical record and legacy of Brian Jones.
http://www.joeambrose.net/japdf/HamrisOpenLetter.pdf
Statement of Ahmed Attar on the false claims of Bachir Attar and on "leadership" of the Sufi brotherhood of the Master Musicians
Boujeloud in Joujouka at Master Musicians of Joujouka
Brian Jones 40th Anniversary Festival 29 July 2008.
Statement of Ahmed Attar leader of the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka
For the first time a leader of the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka answers questions about Bachir Attar who claims to be the leader of the Master Musicians. Ahmed Attar, leader since 1999, answers questions put to him in his native Moroccan Arabic. translation and interview conducted in Joujouka 5 August 2009 by Mohamed Karbach.
Ahmed Attar drumming in Jajoujka/Joujouka/Zahjouka in the 1970s fom the Master Musicians of Jajouka/Joujouka 1980 European tour brochure.
Hello every body I'm Ahmed Attar. I'm ready to answer these questions:
Bachir Attar and his manager, Cherie Nutting state that he is the one true and hereditary leader of the Master Musicians. They say he inherited his leadership from his father. This would mean his father was also hereditary leader?
Ahmed Attar: Bachir Attar has gathered retired people (military who play Gaita) from Ksar el Kebir and outside, and has become their leader. He has no connection with us, the Mallimin/Masters who live in Joujouka / Jajouka. (Editor's Note: Ksar El Kebir is this is the nearest city to Joujouka / Jajouka / Jajouka, about 20 km form the village in the plains below the Ahl Srif Mountains)
How do the Master Musicians chose a leader?
Ahmed Attar: For many years the musicians chose the leader with the agreement of anyone in the group for a period of 1 year; or more if he worked well, or they change him for another one.
Who were the last five or ten leaders of the musicians and when were they elected?
Ahmed Attar:
The leaders were:
Elghailani Mohamed (dead), (1956),
Zekiken Ahmed (dead), (1958),
Mejdoubi Mohamed(dead), (1964),
Attar Ayachi (dead), 1965 (Editors Note: father of current leader Ahmed Attar),
Twimi Ahmed(dead), (1967),
Ghailani Mefedal(1971)
Abdeslam Attar (Djinnoun Bachir's father, in 1978 leader for 3 years ).
Attar Abdeslam Ali (alive he has 98 years old)(1983),
Attar Mohamed (dead) 1990
, and me Attar Ahmed (called Titi). 1999
(editor's note dates are year of election to leadership)
plus who was never the leader but he a big musician who works with us Retoubi Mefedal (alive)
Mallim Ali Abdeslam El Attar leads the song on his left Mallim Radi El Khalil, Abdeslam Mefedel grandson of former leader Ghailani Mefedal (leader 1968-1978) and Mallim Mustapha Attar. Photo Frank Rynne 5 June 2009
Does leadership pass from father to son?
Ahmed Attar: The leadership doesn't pass from father to son because we find several leaders and their sons have no relation with this music but if the son wants to be a musician he can , but not a leader automatically.
What does the leader do?
Ahmed Attar: The leader has to be: clear, confident, skilful and know how to promote the music, and to discuss with people who want to celebrate ceremonies. He is the speaker for the musicians.
Is Bachir Attar the hereditary leader?
Ahmed Attar: Bachir exploits his English language (because none of us musicians speak English) to claim to be a leader with power ,with help of his ex-wife, but no one in Joujouka trusts in Bachir because he stole their money. The big manager was Hamri the painter of Joujouka / Jajouka / Jajouka .In this time all the musicians worked together with Hamri not Bachir. One day Bachir with his brother forced Hamri to make him give them contracts which Hamri had made with the Westerners. They forced Hamri to sign blank sheets of paper. From this day the musicians of Joujouka / Jajouka have no relation with Bachir. (Editors note: This attack took place 27 December 1995 see note at very bottom of this post)
How does Bachir Attar hurt the traditional music of the village of Joujouka / Jajouka Does he play the same music as the Masters in the village? in style and quality. How is his music different from the music played by the Masters in the village?
Ahmed Attar: When Bachir uses other instruments, he hurts the spiritual music. The Masters Musicians of Joujouka / Jajouka play only the pipes and drum (ghaita and tbel) with no instruments added. When you add other instruments, the music loses its quality.
Is he considered a true Mallim/Master by the Master Musicians?
Ahmed Attar: He isn't because in his group there are some musicians who play better than Bachir. He leads them because he speaks English and gives them some work.
Can the musicians explain why Bachir Attar says they are fake, or impostors?
Ahmed Attar: He says that because he wants to be the only representative of the music of Joujouka / Jajouka so as to exploit the Master Musicians name and to gain money. That's clear because the only one in Joujouka / Jajouka who has a big car (4/4) and a big house and a big account in the bank is Bachir Attar.
What would the Masters like to say to people who claim Bachir Attar is the true leader of the Musicians?
Ahmed Attar: Whoever wants to know more can come to Joujouka / Jajouka to see Bachir’s house and where the others musicians live. We are poor and he became rich because he takes our money. In Joujouka / Jajouka no one talks with Bachir. He is alone. Who can lead people when the people are boycotting them???
How much damage has Bachir Attar's behaviour done to the village?
Ahmed Attar: He makes damage in the media abroad, but in Joujouka / Jajouka all the people know him. We play in religious and civil ceremonies, in festivals, for parties of the KING that's why here in Morocco they don't call Bachir Attar to play they call us.
Mallim Ali Abdeslam El Attar leader of the Master Musicians 1983-1990. Mallim Ali is the oldest musician in Joujouka today and played on Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. Ornette Coleman's Dancing in my Head, Master Musicians of Jajouka, and more. This portrait was taken by Jill Furmanovsky at the Brian Jones 40th Anniversary festival in Joujouka.
Ahmed Attar 5 August 2009
Interview conducted and translated by Mohamed Karbach
Additional Documentation
1/ Mohamed Hamri's Open Letter of Protest 1995
Editor's Note:
In recent years there has been a lot of misinformation about the Master Musicians of Joujouka who have also been known as Master Musicians of Jajouka, which the musicians have not commented on. The Masters who live and play in their village do not speak languages other than their native Riffian Arabic or Djebli.
For the first time ever the current leader of the Master Musicians Ahmed Attar has answered a series of questions which address the issue of leadership of the Masters and also the claims of his first cousin, Bachir Attar, who records and tours as Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar and Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar claiming to be the leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka.
In order to shed some light on these issues a series of questions were sent to the Masters and an interview was conducted and translated by Mohamed Karbach who is a son in law of a Master Musician.
The above statements show that at no time in his life was Bachir Attar the accepted or elected leader of the Master Musicians of Joujouka/Jajouka.
In the period he claims to have taken over the leadership the leader was Mallim Ali Attar and he was followed in the role by Mohamed Attar, and then the current leader Ahmed Attar from 1999.
The crux of Bachir Attar's false claims to be the the leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka are that he is the hereditary leader and that the leadership passed by tradition from father to son. The list above, as well as the clear answers from Ahmed Attar on the issue of hereditary leadership, present a very different history to the one passed off by Bachir Attar, his wife Cherrie Nurtting and their business assocaites. No such hereditary leadership exists in Joujouka/Jajouka.
The leader in the 1950s Zekiken, was the the uncle of Hamri who brought Brion Gysin, Brian Jones, Timothy Leray, Robert Palmer, William Burroughs, Paul Bowles, John Giorno and more to the village and put the music on the map. Mejdoubi Mohamed was from the powerful Mujdoubi family who produced some of the hardest men and greatest rhiata players in the village. Many of the leaders since 1956 were from the Attar family and they include the Attar Ayachi, uncle of Bachir Attar and father of the current leader Ahmed, Abdeslam Attar, Bachir's father and uncle of the current leader Ahmed, and Ali Abdelslam Attar the oldest musician in Joujouka.
It is clear that the claims made in the press and elsewhere by Bachir Attar to be leader of the Master Musicians of Jajouka have no factual basis.
The Master Musicians acknowledge that he does lead a troupe of ex-soldiers who play instruments and who live in the nearby city Ksar El Kebir . This group is currently known as "The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar". They are not the Sufi Mallimin or Master Musicians, of the village and community of Jajouka/Joujouka/Zahjouka.
Ahmed Attar in the Sanctuary of Sidi Ahmed Shiech, Jajouka/Joujouka/Zahjouka, July 29 2008.
Ahmed Attar (beside tomb) and guests including l-r Gordon Campbell, Maneau, Jonathan Amar, Joachim Montessuis, and Lisa Blanning,The Wire , at the tomb of Sidi Ahmed Scheich 6 June 2009. Master Musicians Festival 2009. Photo by Frank Rynne
Note: This incident related to an attack on Mohamed Hamri and his American wife in the village 27 Dec 1995. Hamri in his sworn police statement said he had been attacked in his home by Bachir and his brother and unknown others. During the two hour ordeal Hamri was forced to sign 15 blank sheets of paper at knife point. I flew to Morocco on 29 December and found the evidence of doors kicked in and the musicians in the village in a state of shock. Two days after the attack a fax arrived at the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society in London. This fax allegedly written by Hamri was an amateur attempt to transfer the ownership of copyrights for the Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan LP to Bachir Attar. However having already been informed of the attack the MPCS ignored the fax. I have copies of the sworn statements of Bachir Attar, Mustapha Attar , Hamri and his wife and their house guardian plus the correspondence with MCPS. Bachir and his brother were acquitted in the subsequent trial in Morocco. In his sworn statement to police Bachir Attar claimed that Hamri was trying to make trouble for him. The fax to the MCPS was not admitted into evidence and no explanation was ever given by Bachir or Cherie as to how this forged document which, sought to benefit Bachir Attar, came to be written or indeed signed by Hamri. It was hand written, had Hamri's signature on it as it was written on one of the sheets of paper Hamri was forced to sign at knife-point while he and his wife were held captive in their own home. (NB: Hamri could sign his name but he never learned how to write.)See also the Open letter of Hamri's regarding the Brian Jones controversy which was distributed earlier in 1995. Since that incident the village and the musicians have boycotted Bachir Attar.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Justice For Jajouka
For many years there has been a great deal of injustice perpetuated by Bachir Attar, The Paul Bowles Estate and Americans including Cherie Nutting. This blog will campaign for the rights of a Sufi musical brotherhood. The Justice for Jajouka/Joujouka team will post regularly on this subject.
email JusticeforJajouka@gmail.com
email JusticeforJajouka@gmail.com
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