Free Master Musicians of Jajouka bootleg

And it’s officially endorsed by them, to boot.
You can get it at their official MySpace presence, if that sort of thing grabs you.
Visit it here.
Recorded on their first European tour in 1980 with then-leader Hadj Abdeselam El Attar (current leader Bachir Attar’s father), this was released by Staalplat against the wishes of the band in the early Nineties. Apparently there’s a schism between two dueling factions of Musicians, with the Attar-led performing under the more traditional spelling of the village name (Jajouka) and one that trades with the misspelled name that came about from Brian Jones famous album Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka.

In either case, this is an amazing album. I really recommend listening to it. The last track Arraks Peht Al Komar pt.2 is amazingly hypnotic.

UPDATE: For more background on the Musicians, go to this link to hear a fascinating BBC4 documentary on them, which provides much background and interviews with folks involved. <Link to download>

Thanks to The Master Musicians of Joujouka for the tip.

Radio-Activity Update: Seven Hours, Seven Souls

I’ve done it now.
I am on board to do a seven hour radio marathon on musician Bill Laswell on the 21st of March, as part of KBOO’s spring pledge drive.
I keep thinking I’m dreaming and that I’ll wake up or that it won’t happen, but no….
…It’s in the listener’s guide now, so it’s for real.
Here’s the proposal I wrote:

Nothing is TrueEverything is permitted

A Bill Laswell Pledge-drive special

On Friday, March 21st, join The Outside World for the Seven Hours, Seven Souls pledge drive special, while we explore the vast body of work of Brooklyn musician, producer and agent of chaos, Bill Laswell.
From the downtown New York upstart Jazz Funk outfits Material and Massacre, to the extreme metal of Praxis and Painkiller, to his many dub permutations and ambient vexations, to his many World Music excursions and to too many genre-hopping collaborations to list here, we’ll barely scratch the surface of his intimidating discography, but will take you on a voyage through more musical tangent points than you thought possible.

Join us from 11PM to 6AM, for Seven Hours, Seven Souls: The Music of Bill Laswell.

Some points of interest:

* Material
* Massacre
* The Golden Palominos
* Praxis
* Buckethead
* Otomo Yoshihide
* Brian Eno and David Byrne
* John Zorn
* Divination
* Jah Wobble

and many more…

I have plenty of Material (pun intended), but am still nervous. Regular host of the show I’m hijacking - Daniel Flessas - will be out of town and across the US, so I’m flying solo, sort of. Oh, well. I also have no shortage of people willing to help out, so it’ll be swell and we’ll all have a fun time.

Be sure to listen on Friday, march 21st, from 11pm to 6am, for the Bill Laswell: Seven Hours Seven Souls pledge drive extravaganza (who’s bringing the extra vaganza, Daniel?).

KBOO is at 90.7 FM in Portland and SW Washington and is streaming on the web at kboo.fm.

Interview and mix of DJ Cheb i Sabbah

Solipsistic Nation has a great interview and retrospective mix of this Algerian-born DJ from about a year ago.

 Give it a listen.