Hajib, Najm Arribat, the Star of Rabat

Is there an African country that generates more musical interest, at least on the internet, than Morocco?

Two wonderful sites are entirely devoted to the country's music.  Moroccan Tape Stash and Moroccan Tapes both feature recordings that have become difficult to find in Morocco with informed commentary to help you make sense of the depth and regional diversity of Morocco's musics.  Snap, Crackle & Pop, Arab Tunes, Music Republic, Awesome Tapes from Africa, Oriental Traditional Music from LPs and Cassettes, the Settat Bladi Aïta archive, and Archive Lokman, all feature wonderful recordings of Moroccan music.  YouTube has countless videos,  from television recordings to rural weddings, and there are more and more interesting mixes of Moroccan music on Soundcloud and Mixcloud.  [I recommend Radio Martiko's mix of 45s from the Boussiphone label.]  Whether it is Gnawa, Aïta, Andalusian music, Ahwach from the High Atlas, 1970s folk-roots groups from Agadir, Aïssawa from Meknes, or recordings from the Moroccan Sahara, you can find it all.


So what is the point of another post devoted to Moroccan music?

Well, first Moroccan music is a deep well, and there are always more artists and recordings to discover.  [Unfortunately, the well seems to be running dry. There are far fewer new recordings released, per year, in Morocco than there were ten years ago and I haven't heard a new release in the last ten years that has held my interest.]  Second, there is an important Moroccan artist, who while no longer in the prime of his career, is still a dynamic performer and deserves some attention, Hajib Fergane.

I have written elsewhere about several of my favorite Moroccan artists (Khadija el Bidawiya, Mohammed Rouicha, and el Ansar Abdelghani), whose repertoires I have returned to, again and again, over the last twenty years.  My curiosity for Moroccan music was sparked, however, by the music of Hajib.  In the mid-1990s, I found a set of Moroccan cassettes at Bazaar Atlas, an ethnic curio and furniture store in Adams-Morgan, Washington DC.  There were stacks of cassettes behind the cash register and I bought as many as I could afford.  I didn't know much about Moroccan music and chose cassettes based on the look of their J-cards.  There were several Hajib releases in the lot and they were the most exciting cassettes of the bunch.  [There was an Ethiopian music store, also full of cassettes, two doors down, and a Sudanese butcher, with another wall of cassettes, a few blocks south on 18th street.]


Hajib Fergane was born in 1966 and grew up in the Yacoub al Mansour neighborhood of Rabat, a densely packed working-class neighborhood a few miles south of the centre of town, buffeted by Atlantic Ocean breezes.  Hajib's father was part of the national television team that covered King Hassan II's official events and ceremonies.  His father was also a music lover.  Several times a year he organized ksarates, musical evenings in the family home featuring Cheikhates, the divas who peformed Aïta, a forceful poetic and musical genre with roots in rural Morocco.  In particular, Hajib's father was a fan of the great Fatna bint el Houcine.  He would invite her several times a year.  The young Hajib was mesmerized by her charisma and voice.  In 1979, Fatna bint el Houcine heard Hajib sing during one of these evenings and prophesied, 'you are going to be one of the greats'.

Hajib made his formal musical debut in 1984, while still in high school.  He had already started singing informally, mostly pick-up gigs with neighborhood groups.  Several days before the fête du trône, the annual holiday when Moroccans reaffirm their loyalty to their sovereign, a group asked Hajib to replace their singer for a performance in Bouznika.  He accepted, sang, and was acclaimed by the audience.  [The fête du trône used to be a three-day event with musical groups performing in public in every town and city in Morocco. In recent years musical performances seem to have become less a part of the public celebrations.]  The group asked Hajib to become their singer.  He dropped out of high school and joined the group.  They started to perform as the Noujoum Arribate, the stars of Rabat.

In 1985, the group broke up.  A few months later Hajib went into the studio and recorded his first solo cassette.  Ever since he has been known as Najm Arribat, the star of Rabat.  Not only is Hajib one of the best voices in Aïta, he is also a scholar of the genre.  Throughout the 1990s, he travelled throughout Morocco with the researcher Mohamed Bouhmid studying the different regional styles of Aïta.  Hajib is one of the few artists to have mastered several different regional styles of Aïta, from the Al Gharboui and al Haouzi to the Aïta Abda.  Hajib has released over a dozen cassettes and half as many CDs.  He still lives in Rabat and continues to perform, appearing regularly on national television.


Unfortunately, none of Hajib's best recordings are available from your preferred online distributors.  My favorite of his early releases is his second cassette, produced by Samora Disque of Rabat.  This cassette is entitled 'Popular Hits Volume II '.  This is hard Aïta, featuring oud, viola, percussion, and strident backing vocals.  I know of little music as exciting.

Download Hajib - Najim Rabat, Popular Hits Volume II

If you enjoy this cassette you can go to Moroccan Tapes for some more Hajib, this one a later release.

Most of the detail in this post, and the pictures, were taken form this 2019 feature published in the Moroccan weekly TelQuel, written by Kaouthar Oudrhiri.

Enjoy!!



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