Brian Jones Presents: The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Brian Jones's trip to Morocco in 1968 included a trip to the mountain village of Jajouka guided by painter Brion Gysin. What he recorded there introduced the world at large to the Master Musicians of Jajouka, initially released in 1971. Their music is based on ritual, but is still playful. The horns, chanting, and drums of this field recording are completely trancelike. It's a shame that phasing and panning has been added to the sound in an attempt to make it even more psychedelic because it stands perfectly well by itself without the effects. (You also have to wonder whether titles like "Your Eyes Are Like a Cup of Tea" are really literal translations from Aramaic). Still, this is perfectly classic stuff, celebrating the weeklong Rites of Pan festival and offering an almost religious experience to the listener. Anyone who doubts that music has the power to transport should begin here. A classic of world music. --Chris Nickson

Brian Jones Presents: The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka, Music, The Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar, Classical, Classical Music, Ethnic, Moroccan, Morocco, North Africa, Rock & Roll, Traditional

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Instant Classic

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted"

Take Me With You, My Beloved

A fitting memorial to Brian

The Master Musicians

Brian Jones Presents: The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka
The Master Musicians of Jajouka
Manufacturer: Philips
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Morocco | Africa | International | Styles | Music
General | International | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Performance

ASIN: B0000040UX
Release Date: 1995-09-26

Tracks:

55
War Song/Standing & One Half
Take Me With You My Darling, Take Me With You
Your Eyes Are Like A Like A Cup Of Tea
I Am Calling Out
Your Eyes Are Like A Cup Of Tea (Reprise)

Amazon.com

Brian Jones's trip to Morocco in 1968 included a trip to the mountain village of Jajouka guided by painter Brion Gysin. What he recorded there introduced the world at large to the Master Musicians of Jajouka, initially released in 1971. Their music is based on ritual, but is still playful. The horns, chanting, and drums of this field recording are completely trancelike. It's a shame that phasing and panning has been added to the sound in an attempt to make it even more psychedelic because it stands perfectly well by itself without the effects. (You also have to wonder whether titles like "Your Eyes Are Like a Cup of Tea" are really literal translations from Aramaic). Still, this is perfectly classic stuff, celebrating the weeklong Rites of Pan festival and offering an almost religious experience to the listener. Anyone who doubts that music has the power to transport should begin here. A classic of world music. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews:

Instant Classic.......2004-03-17

This is the record that started the interest in Jajouka. Since most was already said, I will just add what I think is missing from other reviews. The Jajouka village is Arabic-speaking, not Berber, and definitely not "Aramaic". Their traditions are typical of whole Morocco, which is an amalgalm of Andalusian/Arabic influence, Islam, and of course the ancient traditions of Berbers of North Africa. I think this is the best record about Jajouka since it sounds like a live recording of what could have been an eternal night. The instruments are solely ghaita (Moroccan oboe) as well as tbel and bendir percussions.
Many Jajouka records have sprung after this one, some are good and some are not, but this one is a must have.
If you like this music, check out other Berber records and make sure you go to Morocco to attend the various traditional music festivals throughout the year!

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted".......2004-03-10

Hassan i Sabbah's phrase, as translated by Brion Gysin, makes a fitting review for this album -- just as the other reviews reveal, everyone will find something different in this strange, hypnotic music. The album is a field recording made in Morocco by Brian Jones and Brion Gysin in 1968, an edited document of ancient Lupercalia rituals dedicated to the god Pan that are hours, and sometimes days, long. (These rituals echo through every springtime rite, from Mardi Gras and Carnival to Easter.) Although the recording has been given a psychedelic gloss it doesn't really need, the result is powerful music, if the listener is open to it. This is an old, old trip -- and the album, originally released in 1971, is considered the first of its kind.

Take Me With You, My Beloved.......2004-02-25

I don't know if Brion Gysin and Brian Jones and/or the Master Musicians of Jajouka made these recordings sound so strange on purpose, or if they just turned out that way. In any case the bizarre echo and phasing effects make this recording unlike any of the 5 or 6 other Jajouka recordings. But Bachir Attar loves it, so that's one high recommendation.

This music will scare ... many people. Others will be annoyed. Other people will fall in love with it, as I did. To hear this music as it is meant to be heard, you have to give yourself over to it completely, in whatever way that is best accomplished for you. Then you will abe able to hear the relationships of the repeated patterns in the 3 or 4 musical layers. These relationships can be extraordinarily complex, but sound as beautiful as a living arabesque unfolding itself would appear to the eyes.

The purpose of this music is to take you away. You can only find out where you are going if you take the journey.

A fitting memorial to Brian.......2003-02-26

This album...the very pipings of Pan, the ancient and forgotten rites of Lupercalia, discovered in 20th Century Morocco by Beatnicks, Junkies and Hippies? ABSOLUTELY.

The sounds made in this album send chills up my spine. This album reminds us that not only is the world stranger than we know, it is weirder than we CAN know. Everything is True. Nothing is Forbidden. These tapes will cause cold winds to blow through the canyons of your mind. The state of Pan is that of "Panic", and that is what you hear in these "songs."

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards caused this album to be posthumously released after Brian Jones unfortunate drowning/murder in the swimming pool of the house where A.A. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh. Brian recorded these tapes several months before his death, intending to release them.

The Master Musicians.......2002-09-28

Recorded by Brian Jones with his friend, superhippie Brion Gysin, in July 1968, the tapes were edited in London by Brian. This was the first record released by the new Rolling Stones Records label in 1971 (after Brian died). Several authors claim the album started the world music movement that integrated non-Western music into the mainstream of rock.

The music is part of an ancient festival that has been linked by anthropologists to the Roman Lupercalia and the truly ancient prehistoric festivals of pan. It celebrates an ancient, pagan-Muslum tradition in the Moroccan village of Jajouka that is detailed in the linear notes by Gysin and Jones. You need to be prepared to appreciate the anthropological context of this music to enjoy it (and although Brian was on a different plane of reality when he recorded this music, he did have a genuine appreciation of the cultural context, as did Keith when he worked with the Master Musicians of Jajouka many years later).

Brian Jones Presents: The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka
Average customer rating:
Brian Jones Presents: The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka
The Master Musicians of Jajouka
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Morocco | Africa | International | Styles | Music
General | International | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008QOZ
Release Date: 1996-03-19