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The Red City likes a tune, as the numerous shops selling pirate CDs are witness to. Tastes are eclectic: among his dusty cassettes, the average Marrakchi taxi driver will have Egyptian classics from the 1950s, something by the grande dame of Lebanese song, Fairouz, a spot of Algerian raï, and a hit album by Moroccan diva Samira ben Saïd. The last year or so has seen Moroccan protest songs of the 1970s back in fashion – the classics by Nass el Ghiwane (Les gens du voyage), have been reworked. Your average adolescent will be listening to Egyptian pop (try Amr Diab), as well as Bob Marley, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. So all in all, there’s quite a lot of cultural fusion around. Nevertheless, there are a number of well-defined categories of local music – for more info check http://www.maroctunes.com. Where can the visitor have an evening of local music? You’ll certainly get some musical accompaniment, generally in the form of a small orchestra, in the plusher restaurants. But in all honesty, there are no live-music venues as such in Marrakech or Essaouira. On ‘la Place’, you’re certain to find a couple of small groups in residence, playing the old ghiwaniate to small circles of admirers. And you’ll have a brush with a gnaoua or two, twirling their heads to get their cap tassles nicely spinning. But the better local singers are only to be found at private wedding parties. And for those you need an invitation. So it’s watch this space until the Red City gets a music festival to complement the cinema bash. However, the region is not a total write-off for music fans. There are at least two music festivals in Essaouira, Les Alizés in the spring and the Festival des Gnaouas in early summer, and check http://www.festival-gnaoua.co.ma. And if in Morocco in late May, you could travel up to Fès (8 hours by bus), for the annual Festival des musiques sacrées (see http://www.fezfestival.org). Small orchestras are the basis of the high musical tradition in Morocco. This is the sort of music played by white-robed gentlemen in fezzes during banquets. The basic instruments are the violin (kamanja), the lute (el oud), the flute (el rbab), the tambourine (tar) and the darbouka, a waisted drum. In Moroccan Arabic, this form of music is referred to as el ala, in European languages it’s called Andalusian music. Accompanying singing can be solo and choral and the lyrics are always highly poetic. To the uneducated ear, el ala can be a little monotonous – even soporific. Though the nouba-s or songs tend to be long, the rhythm speeds up in the final phases. Morocco’s best-known musical export, gnaoua, springs from a fusion of Muslim saint cults and African mysticism. While Marrakech and Essaouira are the twin cradles of gnaoua, the name would seem to be a corruption of Guinea, a reference to the African slave origins of the genre’s founders. Gnaoua music is based on the gentle clashing of giant metal castanets and an undercurrent of bass thrumming provided by a guimbri. It was central to trance rituals in saints’ shrines. Further Islamic credentials are provided by spiritual protector Sidna Bilal, a freed black slave and the first Muslim to make the call to prayer. Gnaoua influences are clear in Moroccan protest music (see below) and newer fusion music – see the band Saha Koyo, for example. Kids running round battering small clay drums? Small boys hurling firecrackers round the street? Drumming and chanting late at night in the derb? Yes, it must be Achoura, the tenth day of the Muslim month of Muharram, a feast day whose origins are forgotten but which gives Marrakech a carnival air. The drumming ritual of the dekka, specific to Marrakech, is central to Achoura. A slow mystic rite, all about the criss-crossing of drum rhythms, it is unlikely to come under the tourist gaze – but can certainly be heard from afar. In 2003, the grand-daddies of Moroccan chanson engagée, Nass el Ghiwane, celebrated their 33rd birthday on 2M, the country’s second TV channel. The five founder members grew up in Hay el Mohammedi, a poor neighbourhood of Casablanca. Their success was based on giving the rhythms of the countryside an urban twist in a time of repression. The group’s rise to fame was rapid – their gig at the Olympia, Paris, drew an audience of 400,000. Today, the best known songs – Al-Sinia, Alhal, Ya Moullana – are nationwide classics, and favourites with the itinerant musicians on Jemaâ el Fna, too. Popular across North Africa, raï is to Algeria, its home, what tango is to Argentina and fado is to Portugal. Born in the port city of Oran, close to the Moroccan border, raï is a genre on its own, taking traditional Arab tunes, adding an overlay of Hispanic brass while synthy riffs replace the plaintive flute solos. The word ‘Raï’ translates as ‘opinion’, but it functions more as a filler, embroidered as a sort of ‘tralala’ sound. Cheikha Rmiti is the grand old lady of raï, Hasni, Khaled and Mami are the big stars. Morocco now has its own brand of raï, mainly from Oujda in the northeast.
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