An old LP sleeve vs. a new CD. Jil Jilala.
Jil Jilala – Une Soiree Avec Jil Jilala A L’Olympia (Morocco).
Again and again I am lost in amazement when I come home after visiting a flee market, record fair and/or did my second-hand stores round, and inspect my loot. Every time it contains records you bought solely on the basis of the sleeve or other even vaguer impulses for a song that makes your eyes water.
The same goes for the LP of this broadcast. At the semi-annual record fair in Utrecht in November 2008, I decided to only go for the bargains (like I do almost always but this time I had set myself a clear price barrier of €2,50). I came home with no less than 110 records, only having spent around 100 euros. Besides the necessary (also indispensable good ones) rubbish, there are also a couple of previously unknown treasures among them like the one of today.
Jil Jilala, this name did not ring a bell with me half a year ago but the sleeve did the trick. A five-person group with traditional instruments in front of a large stage curtain of, probably, the Olympia Théatre in Paris and beautiful Arabic writings. Released by the Marocco label in 1973.
The band was founded in 1972 by Mohamed Derhem, Moulay Tahar Asbahani, Sakina Safadi, Mahmoud Essaadi, Hamid Zough and others.
Moulay Abdelaziz Tahiri joined them after he quit Nass El Ghiwane. Jil Jilala is influenced by traditional Moroccan music & poetry and the music of Sufi brotherhood Jilala.
The band still exists, they even have their own Hyves page, and in 2006 they formed an alliance with Uve Muellrich and Marlon Klein from the German cross-over group de Dissidenten (The Dissidents). This collaboration is still active and in 2007 a documentary was made about their collective adventures in North Africa, broadcast by WDR and Arte. In 2008, their collaboration then was immortalized on an album called Tanger Sessions. The clips you will hear from this album that is only to be purchased as download, sounds very promising but with quite a jab of rock in it.
After the three Jil Jalala songs you will hear strong, Moroccan traditions mixed with rock, fusion by Hassan Hakmoun. Five songs from his CD Zahar, released in 1992 by Knitting Factory Works.
