Morocco music reviews

other than that it is what happens when honest and talented individuals get together and extend themselves in the joy of creation? as the other reviewers have mentioned, this is testament to the possibility of successful fusion (all of those United Colors cliches come to mind, but without the irony or jaded sarcasm).

I like the tracks with flutes better than the others, but that may be purely a personal thing.

This CD is the precursor for all these New Age records and "The Insider"/"Three Seasons" soundtrack phenomenon, where world instrumentation is smashed together with Western sensibilities to essentially create a sometimes good ("Three Seasons"), sometimes bad ("The General's Daughter", most of the Deep Forest records) mix of musical flavors.

This CD is better than most attempts at this in that it starts from a foundation and obvious respect for what African (in this case specifically, Morocco) music IS, not what it can add to house beats or a slowed down "Funky Drummer" loop. The music features the playing and singing of Hassan Hakmoun, an incredibly rich and fascinating African singer, and is then run through reverbs and delays to really punch up the other-worldness of the whole project. THEN, to make things even more interesting, current hot soundtrack maven Richard Horowitz ("Three Seasons", etc.) plays African percussion alongside jazz man Don Cherry, who does some incredible playing off of Hakmoun's singing.

For people who already have an appreciation of world music, but probably a little too down-to-earth for the New Age crowd.

This is some amazing music. Hassan Hakmoun plays an African bass and sings along with some fine conga and tabla drum rhythms integrated with Arabic flute and the psychedelic sound of Don Cherry's heavily reverbed trumpet. Morocco, although an African country, is known for it's middle-Eastern culture. Hassan Hakmoun comes from a sub-culture that already assimilated both African and middle-Eastern influences into its music. At times on this CD there are flowing middle-Eastern melodies played on a ney flute in unison with Hassan's vocals and at others the vocals are reminiscent of African call and response. With the addition of Don Cherry's trumpet Hassan Hakmoun manages to bring the sensibilities of several cultures together on this CD. In fact, from a short conversation with him, this appears to be what he loves to do because he says he finds it beautiful how music brings people together. This CD is a labor of love and it shows. If this music doesn't take you someplace, try again. It's flight proven.

other than that it is what happens when honest and talented individuals get together and extend themselves in the joy of creation? as the other reviewers have mentioned, this is testament to the possibility of successful fusion (all of those United Colors cliches come to mind, but without the irony or jaded sarcasm).

I like the tracks with flutes better than the others, but that may be purely a personal thing.

This CD is the precursor for all these New Age records and "The Insider"/"Three Seasons" soundtrack phenomenon, where world instrumentation is smashed together with Western sensibilities to essentially create a sometimes good ("Three Seasons"), sometimes bad ("The General's Daughter", most of the Deep Forest records) mix of musical flavors.

This CD is better than most attempts at this in that it starts from a foundation and obvious respect for what African (in this case specifically, Morocco) music IS, not what it can add to house beats or a slowed down "Funky Drummer" loop. The music features the playing and singing of Hassan Hakmoun, an incredibly rich and fascinating African singer, and is then run through reverbs and delays to really punch up the other-worldness of the whole project. THEN, to make things even more interesting, current hot soundtrack maven Richard Horowitz ("Three Seasons", etc.) plays African percussion alongside jazz man Don Cherry, who does some incredible playing off of Hakmoun's singing.

For people who already have an appreciation of world music, but probably a little too down-to-earth for the New Age crowd.

This is some amazing music. Hassan Hakmoun plays an African bass and sings along with some fine conga and tabla drum rhythms integrated with Arabic flute and the psychedelic sound of Don Cherry's heavily reverbed trumpet. Morocco, although an African country, is known for it's middle-Eastern culture. Hassan Hakmoun comes from a sub-culture that already assimilated both African and middle-Eastern influences into its music. At times on this CD there are flowing middle-Eastern melodies played on a ney flute in unison with Hassan's vocals and at others the vocals are reminiscent of African call and response. With the addition of Don Cherry's trumpet Hassan Hakmoun manages to bring the sensibilities of several cultures together on this CD. In fact, from a short conversation with him, this appears to be what he loves to do because he says he finds it beautiful how music brings people together. This CD is a labor of love and it shows. If this music doesn't take you someplace, try again. It's flight proven.

This is an amazing CD. Initially, I was disappointed because the drumming at the outset seemed tedious. But waiting paid off! The drumming increased in its rhythmic complexity and beauty as the CD went on to its conclusion. One should understand the context of the playing so I strongly suggest reading the liner notes. I would love to attend such a meeting of master musicians heightened by the spiritual context. This Cd would appeal more to those interested in the religion of Islam and its cultural manifestations. Brilliant music. They could have telescoped the beginning minutes down quite a bit. Then I would have given it 5 stars.

Towards the end on my Army tour in Europe, I heard some music in a Mediterranean lounge that made an impression on me. My girl friend realizing my interest in the music, informed me that it was Moorish music. We danced all night to the captivating sound that was being played in the lounge that night. At the end of the night I noticed the CD cover on top of the DJ's table, it was "Sacred Sounds from Marrakesh", This CD is one of the best recordings from this enchanting place, it brings back the romantic days of the desert caravans. I have recently retired from the army and now I reside in Tangier (Morocco) it's close to the sea and the scene it's beautiful, the people are real nice and the region is full of stories from the days of Spanish/French (see Casablanca movie) times. I wake up every morning to the call of the Imam and listen to the rich intriguing music in the Cafe Lounges and play my Moroccan drums. Most of the people speak Spanish or French and are well educated. On weekends I can travel to Southern Spain (Tarifa) and enjoy more exotic music blending the Spanish/Moorish sounds (check Radio Tarifa Band) and its rich culture. My ex girl friend (now my beautiful wife) she is Mediterranean and the dancer in our band, she blends greatly with this region; Not only buy this album but visit Morocco, travel to Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier, Who Knows, maybe you will find your other half! Until then Salem Alekum!

This CD was okay. I wanted an overview of Moroccan music and this was a good CD for it.

The copy of "Belly Dance from Morocco" that I have has a different track listing. It's the same album that is pictured here. The track listing that my cd has is:

1.Khamsa We Khamsine
2.Taarida Hawzi
3.Genawa
4.Shelha
5.Solo Darbuka
6.El-Andaloussi
7.Taarida Shaabi
8.Zayani El Rifi
9.Genawa Rhythm
10.Oud Improvisation

This CD is much better than Chalf Hassan's other Belly Dance from Morocco recording. The songs have a variety of fast and medium speed's. Excellent for teaching or practicing Moroccan dance.

This CD I would rate right in the middle. As always it includes Hossam Ramsy and Emad Sayyah who I always love and these are good songs. But I could barely make it through listening to the Turkish and Morroccan pieces. Its a reasonable variety though if you're new to Middle Eastern music.

This recording offers a variety of music, from Morocco to Turkey. Egypt's Mostafa Sax gives us a pair of unusual pieces that start slowly and build intensely, especially with "Afrah Baladi", a sensual seven-minute piece that worked very well in a "please make it short" venue. The Turkish numbers are traditional, and very engaging; Huseyin & Gunay Turkmenler's "Macka Yollari" worked particularly nicely as a cane dance, though Dogan-Corringham/Hadjineophytou also did an excellent piece.

I think that it's about time to make an anthology of Gharnati music that will include all the "Nubas", otherwize, we wil lose this part of our patrimony for ever. The "Ala"schools of Morocco, namely:Fes, Tetouan, Rabat and Tangier in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture&the French Arab Institute have recorded all of the 11 "Nubas". Tlemcen (Algeria) is the mother school for Gharnati style and we see no effort done to preserve this treasure. I say it's time to put hand in hand with the gharnati artists of Oujda,Tetouan and Rabat, where this art is flourishing to collect the gharnati nubas.

Thank you, Mohammed Salah

Joyful tunes, recorded live at various festivities (weddings). Included is a most informative booklet (in French and English) that describes the Berber culture, the music, and instruments. The booklet also discusses each song: rhythm, dancers, musicians, and translates the words of the songs. This music makes me want to dance!

If you are looking for traditional Gnawa Music,this is the real thing. Everything is kept to a bare minimum, voice,sintir(three string bass lute)and percussion with call and response style chorus. Hakmoun has a smooth but soulful vocal style and his sintir playing is quite impressive. Many of the cuts have long instrumental breaks where Hakmoun really cooks.If african roots music is your thing,run out the door now and get a copy...highly recommeded

In general I don't write reviews, but as no one else has for this record, I feel the need to say something. Mind you I know nothing about Arabic music, so this is an amateur in spades talking . . .and given that. . . I fell in love with this record the moment I first heard it. It is extremely mellow and soulfull, and feels very authentic. It definitely hits a mystical strand. Alla is from southern Algeria, but clearly he has been influenced by the sounds of the black African side of the Sahara as well. I really like that the record consists of three long improvisational pieces, instead of the choppy "songs" one often hears in world music. One has the feeling that these stretched out moods are the way this music is supposed to be heard. The middle piece, where Alla is accompanied by a drummer, is quite magically captivating. I would give it five stars, except that I have to sit with a record a long time before I would do that. I know this is one record I'm going to keep coming back to for many years to come.

Buyers need to be warned that there is only 36 minutes of music on this cd. While the music itself is excellent, in my opinion this amounts to only half a cd. I recommend instead the specially priced 4CD anthology "Maxi Rai" on Beur FM / Declic Communications / Blue Silver records. It includes tracks by the Chebs Mimoun, Mami, Khaled, Hasni, Tati, among others, with each of the four discs containing over an hour's worth of fabulous music. Buy it first.