On Friday night, I went to the Juanes concert at the Bouregreg. There were several reasons that drew me to the Colombian pop-sensation's concert – and let’s just leave it at I wasn’t attending for the musical experience.
While I have no interest in pop-rock as a genre, I must admit that I was impressed by performance of the band and Juanes himself – I did not realize that he was such a polished guitarist. Often, music critics overlook the fact that MTV-type, commercial musicians are some of the highest trained musicians in the world: each member of Juanes’ band was very talented. The crowd adored Juanes; and it was an enjoyable concert, for sure.
Although the Mawazine Festival ended on Saturday, I opted not to attend the final, headline show of Whitney Houston – Juanes was enough pop music for me.
The organization of the Mawazine Festival was outstanding: everything from the lineup itself to the light shows to the sound quality was stellar. It is fantastic that the King of Morocco and government are supporting arts and culture in this manner: I recently read that, across all nine venues, approximately 120,000 people attended the festival each day.
I also read that the organizers had a budget between 22 and 24 million dirhams (about $3.1 million dollars). While that, of course, is a lot of money, considering the fact that there were nine days of music with nine different stages, it is very impressive that they were able to stretch the budget to be able to bring in so many accomplished musicians. On that note, as I have written before, the line up was fantastic, as there was such a comprehensive list of artists that performed. Because of the diverse lineup, I was exposed to so many new artists – the ultimate purpose of any concert-going experience.
Without a doubt, the absolute highlight of the week was the concert of Hoba Hoba Spirit; although, Zao, of Congo, was the best individual performer of the festival, by my book.
I cannot express my appreciate to everyone at Hit Radio, and most specifically Younes Boumehdi, for their assistance in helping me cover the festival. What a week
Over the past two months, I have been very fortunate to make many wonderful contacts throughout the Moroccan music scene. Although the original parameters of the proposal for my fellowship indicate that my research pertains to drumming and drum crafting in different religious and spiritual traditions, while in Morocco, the focus of my research has expanded to include a more contemporary dynamic. (The overlying question remains, as to whether “spirituality” exists in modern music. In short, and I will expand on this in the next few weeks, is that I believe “spirituality” exists in almost all genres of music, traditional and contemporary, as music is an expression of the heart).
As I have reported earlier, much of my time in Morocco has been spent in Casablanca, living with Adil Hanine, the drummer of Hoba Hoba Spirit, a very popular Moroccan band. Indeed, Adil’s connection to the music scene here has been an indispensable asset for my research; nevertheless, we have become such close friends that it is like we are family – something that obviously transcends anything pertinent to my research.
I have been well aware that Hoba Hoba Spirit is very successful; yet, until Thursday night’s performance, my conception of just how popular Hoba is was completely redefined. During the sound check in the late afternoon, I was talking to Hisham, the band’s manager, about the show. Probably about a hundred fifty fans or so arrived around 4pm, even though the show wasn’t going to start until 9pm, so I was curious as to how many people would come to the show. When I asked how many people were anticipated to attending the concert, he asserted that “50,000” were expected. While the venue was more than suitable to house that many people, I was pretty skeptical that that many people would turn out for the show – the only other time I saw Hoba Hoba Spirit perform there was a crowd of about 2,500 people (the “girls only” show), a very good sized crowd, but no where near 50,000. Furthermore, there are only a handful of musical acts that can draw such a large crowd. So, I figured that I had misheard Hisham, and that he said, “15,000,” a seemingly more reasonable number, although still very impressive.
After the sound check was finished, the members of the band and myself went to Hisham’s apartment to kill sometime until the show. Some of the guys seemed particularly nervous about the anticipation of playing a big show – an absolutely reasonable feeling. The band was performing at the Qamra scene, a huge outdoor stage near the Rabat bus station – in fact, Qamra is the largest stage of the Mawazine Festival.
Around 8:30, we returned to the venue, it was absolutely packed with people – it turned out that Hisham’s prediction was wrong, after all. By just after 9 o’clock when the band took stage, 70,000 (!!!) people were in attendance. (The organizers of the festival confirmed this is an accurate statistic). Granted, this was a free performance; nonetheless, that does not undermine the amazing feat of drawing a crowd of that many people.
I was entirely overwhelmed by the size of the crowd: being surrounded by that many people is an indescribable sensation. There were people for as far as you could see; the crowd even spilled out onto the streets! (Fortunately for me, I was right up next to the stage, thanks to my pass, so I did not have to be lost in the sea of people).
What was most impressive about the (astronomical) size of the crowd was that almost everyone knew all the lyrics to almost all of the songs. That is to say, it was not just 70,000 people that showed up to see a free concert; it was 70,000 devout Hoba fans! I cannot imagine, as a musician, entertaining that many people; it must be an incredible feeling to make so many people so happy.
Of course, I will readily admit that, as I have developed lasting friendships with members of the band, I am a bit biased; regardless, Hoba Hoba Spirit’s performance was one of the single best concerts I have ever attended. There was so much energy – both on stage and throughout the crowd - that made for such a memorable experience, a true highlight of my year on the Bristol Fellowship. It is actually pretty funny how energetic the band was, considering how languid most of the guys were before the show. (The one exception was Adil, who was so hyped up before the show that he kept on telling me, “We’re going to burn Rabat down!”)
In terms of the band’s performance, they were outstanding, to say the least. Of course, I have seen Hoba play in Casablanca before; yet, this performance was head-and-shoulders better than that show. Everyone just clicked and played their best; and thus, the band sounded incredible. (Side note: all of the shows at the Mawazine Festival have had excellent sound quality, a testament to the professionalism of the festival’s organizers and engineers).
For just under two hours, Hoba Hoba Spirit played almost nonstop. The band had such fluid set list: there were minimal breaks, as almost every song bridged straight into the ensuing one. There was a concrete cohesion with the set list: the band opened with their hit, “Radio Hoba,” and did a reprise of the song for the encore.
Like any live show, it is very difficult to describe the sound of the show: to be as concise as possible, the show was very rock, very reggae, very punk, very gnaoua, and very, very cool.
Musically, the band has such a unique sound: because they are able to employ the sounds of so many different genres, all their songs sound very distinct. To give the band another level of expansiveness, everyone but Saad (the bassist), provides vocals. Surely, Reda, the lead guitarist, would be considered the lead singer as well; yet, the other guys do sing quite often. Furthermore, all of the members that contribute vocals sound very different from one another; so that expands the musical range of the band. Lastly, because so many of the members are capable of singing, the vocal harmonies are always superb.
There were so many great numbers that it is impossible to pick a single favorite; but, I think one of the highlights of the evening was, “Marock’n Roll,” a song led by Reda. Perhaps this was one of the most memorable songs as it is sung in English; but, it is such a catchy number, especially as Reda plays harmonica on it. Further, Adil’s smooth drum beat perfects the song.
By the end of the show, it seemed that everyone in the crowd was covered with sweat and dust: because most of the venue was just a dirt ground and almost everyone was dancing, dust caked the entire Qamra scene.
After meeting up with the band backstage to congratulate them on such an incredible performance, we all eventually departed for the Chellah, a site of Phoenician and Roman ruins with to a beautiful garden and palace-like facilities. There was a banquet (in other words, a feast) for the band, as provided by the organizers of the Mawazine Festival. The high life, indeed…
I spoke to Adil earlier today, and learned that on Saturday, the band was given a gift from the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, in recognition for their performance at the Mawazine Festival. Congratulations to everyone in the band for that award!
Below are a few videos and a bunch of pictures from the show. (The light show was awesome and the pictures don’t do it justice). To be completely honest, I was so engrossed in the performance that I didn’t really feel like taking the best videos/pictures possible. Being in the thick of the crowd was an experience I couldn’t pass up on: sure, it would have been nice just to stand by the stage the whole, but there was such much electricity throughout the audience, that I just had to get out there and dance!
The sound on the videos is pretty poor; the concert itself had extremely good sound quality, so watch the videos with that in mind. Also, I really wish I could have gotten an aerial photograph to give you all an ideal of just how many people were they, but I left my helicopter at home. I am still so impressed that 70,000 people came for the show!
Enjoy, and do yourself a favor, and get a hold of one of Hoba Hoba Spirit’s albums!
On Wednesday evening, I headed to the Hay Ryad venue – I am staying just a few minutes walk from the stage, so it is unbelievably convenient. Freshly Ground, a South African group, composed of a female lead vocalist, a female violinist and keyboardist, a male flute and saxophonist, a male bassist, a male guitarist and a male drummer.
The music was a fluid mix of reggae and lighter rock; on the songs that employed the violin, there was almost a “country” feel to it. (Perhaps if you are familiar with Willie Nelson’s reggae album Countryman, the concept of “country-reggae” may not be so abstract).
The highlight of the show was a cover of Bob Marley’s “Zimbabwe,” a classic song about the struggle for equality in the troubled nation. (It is quite depressing to think that Marley wrote the song in 1979 to draw attention to the political strife in Zimbabwe; and today, the Robert Mugabe regime still maintains control of the country, despite his recent defeat in a democratic vote for the presidency).
The second act of the evening was Omar Pene, a smooth vocalist from Senegal. Having recorded over thirty records, Omar Pene is more of an institution than musician, in terms of Senegalese music.
The band is composed of Omar Pene on vocals, two female background vocalist, a bassist, an electric guitarist, a keyboardist, a synth player, a kora player (a 21-stringed harp-like lute), a percussionist (playing three different types of djembes) and a drummer (on a regular Western kit).
I had never seen a kora before; I feel so lucky to have the privilege to be exposed to so much new music (and, thus instruments, even if they are not in the percussion family). Because of the tremendous diversity of music at the Mawazine festival, I have been introduced to several new styles of music, which always makes for an enriching experience.
As for the music of Omar Pene, the first half of the show was rather mellow, but the second half really picked up.
The percussionist was superb: on one of his djembes, there was a metal shaker, exactly like an Ainu djembe player I saw perform in Kyoto, Japan. As the music began to be more upbeat, the percussionist used a drum stick on his hand drums to augment the power of the sound made from each drum. Sometimes it is difficult to coordinate multiple rhythms in a performance; yet, the percussionist and drummer played together seamlessly, often trading triplet-filled fills back and forth.
What was most impressive about the performance was the devotion the audience: the VIP area in front of stage (reserved for press and other artists) was absolutely packed. In fact, proportionally, there were more people in the VIP section than general admission section: it is always a positive testimony to the credibility of the artist on stage when the crowd is filled with other musicians.
At the end of the show, I ran into Saad, of Hoba Hoba Spirit – H2S performs tomorrow night at the Qamra scene and I am really looking forward to it! Below are a bunch of photographs and videos. As always, enjoy!
Freshly Ground, from South Africa, at Hay Ryad
Omar Pene of Senegal
View from the soundboard on the side of the stage.
I graduated from Hamilton College in 2007, with degrees in Religious Studies and Hispanic Studies. I have been awarded the Bristol Fellowship, a year-long grant.
As a passionate drummer, I would like to explore the art of the drum, with a global perspective: to establish the spiritual process that a craftsman undergoes while building a drum, and to define the intricate spiritual relationship that the drummer has with his drum. The itinerary includes Fiji, Japan, India, Morocco, and the Caribbean.
