2024-04-28 15:25:48
The Moroccan city of Tangier has hosted great American jazz artists, such as Randy Weston, Idris Slimane and Max Roach, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean to an “oasis of freedom”, leaving a legacy that UNESCO will celebrate on Tuesday, on the occasion of World Jazz Day.
The city, located between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, in the far northwest of Morocco, exerted at that time “an attractive charm on a wave of (foreign) intellectuals and musicians, until one of them is credited with having declared: “There is a ship in New York always ready to sail to Tangier”, according to what the founder of the Tangaz Festival, Philippe Laurent, said.
UNESCO has chosen Tangier to celebrate this year’s World Jazz Day and, starting on Saturday, it will host conferences and open-air concerts, culminating in a major international celebration with the participation of artists such as: the pianist Herbie Hancock, bassists Marcus Miller and Richard Bona. , and guitarist Romero Lobambo.
The roots of this attractiveness go back to the city’s opening to the world at the time when it was under international administration (1923-1956), while Morocco was subject to Franco-Spanish protection in the first half of the century. last.
What increased her global status was that writers and poets from the American literary movement “Beat Generation” and American jazz musicians of African descent came to her in search of their African roots, according to what ‘explains the historian Farid Bahri, author of the book “Tangier, a History of the World and Morocco”, explains.
Tangier represented at that time “an oasis of freedom, in the same way as jazz music”, adds Laurent, while Bahri emphasizes that “the presence of American musicians in Tangier was also linked to the intense activity of American diplomacy” in the city.
For example, the famous pianist Randy Weston settled there for five years, following a tour of 14 African countries organized by the US State Department in 1967.
This artist who became famous in the New York district of Brooklyn played a fundamental role in weaving the legend of Tangier and dedicated an album to it which he released in 1973, entitled “Tanger”.
During his stay in the “Bride of the North”, as it is known in Morocco, Weston met Moroccan Gnawa music artist Abdullah El Kord, who he remembers saying: “Randy was a special man, kind and respectful. to the city and its musicians.
The Kurdish Gnawa “teacher” collaborated with his friend Randy, who died in 2018, and together they pushed the boundaries of creativity far, becoming pioneers in the blending of jazz and Gnawa, Sufi music whose roots date back to the slaves deported from West Africa.
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