With Raï Love by Cheb Hasni | Djawla by Anouar Kaddour Cherif | Sharqi blues by Jan Wouter Oostenrijk | Berber music, Kabylia.
Produced by Cobie Ivens.
The music genre raï originated in the port city of Oran (Algeria). The raï artists sang about the hard life in the city: poverty, disease, hunger and colonial exploitation. The word means ‘opinion’, which underlines the importance of the lyrics. Cheb Hasni was a singer and raï musician. He was seen as a pioneer of raï music and was called the nightingale. He was one of the first singers in Algeria to sing about love, which earned him both supporters and opponents. At the age of 26, he was killed in the Gambetta district (Oran), where he had grown up. 2 titels: El beida mon amour + Je vis encore.
CD. Raï love – Cheb Hasni. LABEL: CMM (1992), code: 82854-2. VIDEO
Anouar Kaddour Cherif was born in Sétif, Algeria. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and bandleader with roots in the classical music traditions of North Africa. Cherif performed with various ensembles in Eastern Algeria, where he developed his love for Arab-Andalusian music and pursued a career as a composer and singer. At the age of 24, Anouar Kaddour Cherif left Algeria and settled in Switzerland, a place he says “has become a refuge for his ear and musical fingers to find multiple avenues of expression.”
3 titels: Savage butterfly + Sirocco + Amiret erriyam.
CD. Djawla – Anouar Kaddour Cherif. LABEL: Riverboat (2022), code: TUGCD1133. VIDEO
The album Sharqi Blues is inspired by the Arab Spring and reflects the struggle for freedom, revolution and innovation in the early 2010s in North Africa and the Middle East. On the album, Jan Wouter Oostenrijk is accompanied by Karim Ziad, drummer of Raï singer Cheb Khaled and jazz giant Joe Zawinul, who passed away in 2007. With his mix of belly dance, jazz and rock, the Dutch guitarist made an important contribution to the field of jazz crossovers and North African music. Over the past 10 years, he was one of the founders of Maghreb Jazz and toured regularly in Morocco and Egypt.
3 titels: I got Sharqi blues + Oriental club nights + Beyond borders.
CD. Sharqi blues – Jan Wouter Oostenrijk. LABEL: Jan Wouter Oostenrijk (2011), code: OWJ04. VIDEO
The Kabyles, an Algerian Berber people who represent one of the oldest civilizations of Northwest Africa, hold poetry and music in high esteem. The music presented here is used in honor of a wedding celebration and the religious holiday Aid-Amezziane. The songs mourn poverty, misfortune and unrequited love, but always retain a sense of pride. The instrumentation includes the shepherd’s flute, the bagpipe, a double reed instrument similar to the oboe, the tambourine, a frame drum, as well as more recent additions to the instrumental range: the violin, guitar and banjo.
3 titels: Semethiyi / Lounès, Matoub + Adrar / Idir + Ajadjig / Ouzaid.
CD. Kabylie – musique Berber. LABEL: Déclic (1999), code: B 11472. VIDEO
