The master musicians of the Joujouka have played in their namesake village in northern Morocco for hundreds of years, handing down their unique sound of drums and bagpipes from generation to generation.
Recently they opened the Glastonbury Festival in the South West of England, one of the biggest outdoor music events in the world, which BBC highlighted in a piece paying tribute to the Rif music.
Nobody knows exactly when the music began. However, according to certain research, the tradition dates back to the 15th century.
“Timothy Leary called it the 4,000-year-old rock ‘n’ roll band,” says Rikki Stein, who helped organize the Glastonbury performance this year of the Moroccan artists, as reported by BBC News Africa.
In 1971, Stein discovered the master musicians of Joujouka. He tore up his return ticket and stayed in the Moroccan community for two years, having been blown away by their work.
The musicians had already been noticed by American counterculturalists Paul Bowles and William Burroughs, as well as British-Canadian artist Bryon Gysin, at this point.
Joujouka musicians create their own special sound using traditional Moroccan instruments. The bagpipes are called Ghaitas and there are two drums: the Zowak and the Farad.
There were 27 Joujouka musicians in the 1980s, but there are only 11 now. Many of them are elderly, and it is unclear whether a new generation is rising, according to the BBC.
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