History of Chaabi music, This musical genre born in the Kasbah, which mixes oriental instruments of the classic Arab-Andalusian with others from the West.
The chaâbi was born at the beginning of the 20th century in the heart of the Kasbah, in Algiers. Chaâbi means “popular” in Arabic. This national genre constitutes the rough side of scholarly music resulting from the great medieval Arab-Andalusian culture.
The first chaabi musicians were people from the countryside who came to populate the towns. Many are Kabyle. The masters of this relatively recent art are called Cheikh Nador, then Cheikh El Hadj Mohamed El Anka and also Cheikh Hasnaoui (who has just died on Reunion Island).
After the wave of immigration from the Maghreb, who came to France to find work, the chaâbi reached Paris via Marseille. It is sung and played in the bistros of the industrial suburbs.
Dahmane El Harrachi (1925-1980) – whose 28-year-old son Kamel is the undisputed tenor of the 1950s when chaabi is primarily addressed to Algerians far from home. Dahmane El Harrachi sings of inner and outer exile, the difficulties of daily life far from the motherland, the torments of love, the nostalgia for the country.
El Harrachi, who left Algiers to settle in France in 1949, died in a traffic accident. The chaabi, without completely disappearing, is marking time. In the cafes of the Parisian belt, however, he resists and fans are used to meeting on Saturday nights in Montreuil.
The huge success of Rai has taken its toll on Chaabi, but in recent years, young people have taken up the torch. Kamel El Harrachi, for example, is one of them. He is a mandola player. Born in Algiers after independence, he has lived in France for six years.
The chaâbi mixes the oriental instruments of the Arab-Andalusian classic with others from the Western classic. There are the derbouka (percussions) and the tambourine, but also the mandola (a kind of large mandolin with guitar sounds, equipped with four double metal strings), the violin and strangely the banjo, not to mention the piano. Algiers is renowned for its pianists and accordionists. Chaabi players still use their violin vertically, as they used to handle the gimbri which no longer exists. As for the mandola, it has replaced the oud, the Middle Eastern lute. It is not uncommon to hear the suspender piano as well. On the other hand, no electric instrument is allowed, except sometimes the keyboard (for quarter tones), unlike the raï, born in Oran.
The chants of the chaâbi, carried by the Algerian or Berber idiom, feed on ancient poetry but also on feverishly current original texts. With, always in the background, the echo of heritage, the ancestral complaint, the country that you miss.
According to musician and ukulele player Cyril Lefebvre, “people attack hard, express themselves violently, which in some ways brings chaabi to blues.” The chaâbi will undoubtedly continue to flourish…
Translated by Hope from https://jazairhope.org/histoire-de-la-musique-chaabi/
