The guitarist MEHDI CHAMMA has been living in Austria for regarding 7 years, he grew up in Morocco: in conversation with Jürgen Plank, CHAMMA talks regarding the musical traditions of his native country and how he found his own musical language. His recently released debut album “Layla wa Bahr” is a colorful mix of jazz, pop, rock and traditional music and can best be described as an ethnic fusion.
How and with which instruments did you start making music as a child?
Mehdi Chamma: I was born in Morocco and have spent most of my life there. I first saw a guitar when I was regarding 15 thanks to a tourist from Canada who was playing on the beach. There were no guitars in my small Moroccan hometown back then, but I immediately liked the sound of the guitar.
How did your musical path go following that?
Mehdi Chamma: The first thing I had to do was get my own guitar. I heard from a man in his 50s who was a drug addict and alcoholic and lived in his car. Nobody wanted anything to do with him. But he had a guitar and he was my first teacher. I bought him two cigarettes and watched him play. He never answered me when I asked him: “How do you play that?” Because he only ever spoke to himself. So I took notes and learned the chords. Soon following that I had my own guitar and the adventure of learning to play the guitar by myself began. At the age of 15 I kept going to the beach and looking for tourists who might play and teach me something.
What happened then?
Mehdi Chamma: I learned to play the guitar as an autodidact, also by listening to old blues records, such as from B.B. King or by Eric Clapton. But I was also influenced by Arabic music and by the music of the hippies who roamed Morocco in the 1960s and 1970s. A few years later I wrote my first songs in English and played many concerts as a singer-songwriter. Then there were requests to play in other bands and once more 6 or 7 years later I went on tour with African or oriental bands. I have played with musicians from England and the USA, also with musicians from the Sahel. At festivals as well as in clubs and hotels. Even during this time of touring I was always making my own music.
“I don’t just go in one direction musically, so I don’t just play pop, jazz or fusion”
This brings us to your debut album “Layla wa Bahr”, which has just been released. How would you describe the musical language you found on this album?
Mehdi Chamma: Every track on the album has its own identity. I don’t just go in one direction musically, so I don’t just play pop, jazz or fusion. You can hear many musical colors on the album. I try to be as honest as possible in my music. The best description is probably the term ethno-fusion. I use influences from blues, funk and jazz to North African rhythms and mix them together without you noticing. You get a simple song. The album contains eight stylistically different tracks. I don’t want to call my music world music, I don’t believe in that term. I sing in Arabic because that’s my mother tongue.
You also refer to the Gnawa music tradition that is lived and played in Morocco and further south. What did you use from it for your album?
Mehdi Chamma: I took everything that makes up this tradition because I grew up with Gnawa: the rhythm is in my DNA, I didn’t have to learn it. I also used chaabi rhythms, polyrhythmic colors that are also on the album. The way I use the rhythms they sound like funk to European ears, but they’re not. So I combined these rhythms with new melodies and harmonies and in that way I opened them up and took them out of the box with the traditions.
But you also play the gimbri, a traditional stringed instrument.
Mehdi Chamma: I agree. The gimbri has three strings, it is made of wood and is a pentatonic instrument. It’s difficult to play it rhythmically. As a guitarist, I was curious regarding how to play an instrument with three strings. Harmonically there aren’t as many possibilities as with the guitar, but rhythmically the possibilities are almost unlimited. There is something magical regarding the gimbri, you can repeat a pattern over and over once more and you might even fall into a trance. This is also the Gnawa music I was born into: there is a lot of rhythm, call and response, trance, repetitive patterns until something in the listener is touched by the music.
As you say, this is regarding trance and also regarding Sufi traditions and music is a tool for expanding spirituality. Would you aspire to do the same for your music?
Mehdi Chamma: Yes very. I’ll tell you a very private story: our neighbor in my hometown in Morocco was a card reader. She did a Gnawa ceremony once a month and Gnawa music was played throughout the night. The music looks behind the mirror, to the other side of your soul. As a child, I watched the musicians, the koyos, on their way to this wise woman to play. A song on my album is called “Walking with Koyos”. In this piece I followed the traditional rhythm and used call and response. I tried to keep the piece simple but added groove and harmonies to it. That’s what I grew up with, I’ve been listening to this music since I was regarding 4 years old. As I said: I am honest in my music. I don’t do anything I don’t feel. I’m not trying to sell the music. I make tracks that are sometimes seven minutes long, I don’t care regarding pop formats or formats compatible with radios.
“Koyos are very honorable, sincere people who live for the art”
What hierarchies are there in Gnawa music?
Mehdi Chamma: Well, there’s the master, he plays the gimbri for example. Before he becomes a master, he is a koyo himself. The koyo helps the master, he tunes the instrument for him. His position is between the master and the novice. The master passes on his knowledge to the koyos, it’s like in jazz, there are standards. And when the koyo masters the musical repertoire, he becomes a master himself. Koyos are also like wandering musicians, tending to dislike material possessions. They are also unfamiliar with modern technologies. Koyos are very honorable, sincere people who live for art. I grew up with this aspect of tradition and it is reflected in my music.
There’s a video of you sharing Fragile by Sting coverst while playing the three-string gimbri.
Mehdi Chamma: That happened by accident. I usually play “Fragile” with the guitar, because I like to play pop and rock songs, also by Pink Floyd regarding. One day I was playing with my gimbri and realized that I was suddenly very close to the main melody of “Fragile”. I was wondering how to get closer to the song: so I used the gimbri polyrhythmically and circled this melody. My band thought the version was cool, so I wrote an arrangement for it. And so I presented this instrument in a new way in Austria.
Are you planning to present your new album with concerts in Morocco or Northwest Africa?
Mehdi Chamma: Yes. To be honest, I currently have no contacts in this regard. But the album just came out and I’m just exploring ways to get it out there. I only come to Morocco for a week or two a year to visit my family, but of course I would also like to play live there.
Many thanks for the interview.
Jurgen Plank
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Links:
https://www.mehdichamma.com
http://linktr.ee/mehdichamma
https://www.youtube.com/thechamehdi
