EDITORIAL: ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Fes: A Reflection of Africa and its Music

I do not know in what age it was, I always confuse childhood and Eden

As I mingle Life and Death – a bridge of sweetness joins them.

Ethiopiques, Léopold Sédar Senghor

The concept of time is impalpable in Fes, where the medina  leads us constantly into the labyrinth of the past.

While Fes is Andalusian, Arab and Amazigh (particularly during the Merinid period), it is also African.

Those great travellers and pilgrims who wandered the unexplored dimensions of the soul, and those who ventured to the unexplored countries of the world, chose trade routes on which to travel and encouraged the wide expansion of Islam. They encountered the people of Africa from the very beginning.

We can imagine the culture shock of that time between people with disparate customs and origins: animist tribes along the great African rivers, the Bedouins of the desert, nomadic Tuaregs and Peuls, the Amazigh Berbers of the Atlas and the Rif, and traders who might be Jewish, Christian or Muslim.

Tales of travellers, of whom Leo the African is an example, tell us that Africa was then, and still is, a vast continent of multiple societies who are imaginative and creative.

The opening concert of this 21^st Festival is a large production that showcases a colourful maiden voyage.

From desert wastes to the jewels of ancient African kingdoms, this great musical spectacle evokes the spirit of Africa described by Hassan Al Wazzan, who was born around 1490 and died about 1550. He is also known as Leo the African, or Yuhanna Al Assad in Arabic. The Tijani Sufi brotherhood, Fes and its medina are the links between Andalusia and Africa.

Artists from the banks of the Nile to the Niger River, from the Atlas Mountains to the vast sub-Saharan desert, the age-old empires of Songhai and Mali, from Timbuctoo to Cairo, all are here along with the most renowned traditional artists of Morocco, Mali, Egypt, Mauritania and Senegal.

Fes pays homage to Africa that has influenced so much of popular western music.  Through the revered folkloric rituals, where man is inspired by the force and beauty of nature, such as the astonishing ritual of the Masks of the Moon, we follow the path of the heart-breaking diaspora related to the slave routes.

Over the centuries, this forced emigration permeated the music of the Caribbean and North America.

‘Black’ music was born of work songs and ‘shouts’, poetic declamations of African origin that paved the way for the Negro spiritual of the 18^th century.

If once upon a time black workers sang at night of their Christian faith and dreamt of a better world, today black music is present all over the planet: from blues to Gospel, from soul to rhythm and blues, from jazz to rap. This kind of music that started in the 1940s is brought to life by the historic, legendary Temptations, the mainstay of the Tamla Motown label.

Today many young African artists are tapping into this music, such as Faada Freddy with his innovative Gospel, or the young griot singer Fatoumata Diaware who draws on Cuban rhythms stemming from the initiatory rituals of the Orishas.

The great masters of contemporary African music are here, too, from Ballaké Sissoko for the opening concert to the outstanding Oumou Sangaré, and one of the founders of African reggae, Tiken Jah Fakoly. They strive towards an African presence in the world.

All sorts of other emotions are brought to the fore by the great Kurdish daf drums from Iraq, the Chinese pipa, the Indian slide guitar, the Mandinka kora, Breton bagpipes and Corsican voices.

After Tomatito and the late Paco de Lucia, Andalusian Fes is now honoured by the celebrated Diego Al Cigala, as well as by Amen en la voz del Hombre, a performance that melds the saetas with classical music.

More Andalusians from Algiers and Tunis, Beihdja Rahal and Sonia Mbarek, join those of Fes. Endeavouring to achieve harmony between past and present, the festival mirrors the diversity of the world, including that of Morocco itself, with such varied artists as the popular Lamkartass Ensemble from Tissa and the contemporary music of Nabil Benabdeljalil and the Zakharif Ensemble.

Alain Weber