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Mohamed Hamri (1932 - 2000) was a Moroccan painter and author and one of the few Moroccans to participate in the Tangier and Beat generation scenes as an equal.

He was born in 1932 in the northern Moroccan town of Ksar-el-Kebir, the nearest town to Jajouka (sometimes spelled Joujouka, Hamri's preferred spelling), at the southern end of the Rif Mountains. His father was a ceramics artist who painted his pieces following an ancient tradition. Hamri's mother was born into the Attar family of Jajouka musicians. Hamri attended school for a short time but eventually ran away from school and went to his uncle's house in Jajouka. His uncle was the leader of the musicians there and the music of the village had a strong effect on Hamri.

Career

As a boy he often danced as Boujeloud in a costume sewn from goatskins, but after World War II life in the village was very difficult, as there was very little food available. Hamri helped the musicians avoid this famine by bringing them to Tangier to play. One day, when Hamri was fifteen years old, he was killing time outside the train station in Tangier by drawing in the dust on the ground. He was approached by the American writer Paul Bowles, who admired his drawing. This fateful meeting was Hamri's introduction to the sophisticated set of Westerners that was attracted to Tangier. Bowles soon employed him as a cook. Bowles and his wife, American writer Jane Bowles, encouraged Hamri to paint and bought him his first set of watercolours.

The following year, he befriended the Canadian painter Brion Gysin, who became his mentor. They had a joint exhibition in 1952 where Hamri sold all his works and Gysin sold none. Gysin was introduced to the music of the village and became a life-long promoter of the Sufi trance master musicians who lived there. Together with Gysin, Hamri set up the 1001 Nights Restaurant in Tangiers and employed the Master Musicians of Jajouka (sometimes spelled early on with the "Joujouka" spelling) to play there.

In 1968, Hamri brought The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones to Jajouka to record. The resulting album, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka (see album article for album name spelling history), was released on Rolling Stones Records in 1971. A painting by Hamri was used for the original album cover illustration. In 1972, Hamri arranged Ornette Coleman's visit to Jajouka, and the collaboration between Coleman, local musicians, and journalist/musician Robert Palmer was recorded for Coleman's Dancing in Your Head LP, on which it appears as the track "Midnight Sunrise." In the early 1970s, Hamri was dismissed from his previous role managing the Master Musicians of Jajouka. From 1974-79 Hamri lived and painted in Los Angeles.

In 1975 his book Tales of Joujouka, containing Hamri's drawings and legends he recounted, was published by Capra Press in Santa Barbara.

From 1980 onwards, Hamri divided his time between Tangier and Jajouka. After the death of Master Musicians of Jajouka band leader Hadj Abdesalam Attar in 1982, Hamri managed a rival group, Master Musicians of Joujouka, who challenged the new band leadership of the late band leader's son Bachir Attar, as mentioned in an article in 1995 by Neil Strauss in The New York Times. Past public statements displayed at Hamri's official website also noted his displeasure with the cover and album title spelling changes on the reissue of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka. Hamri continued his band management activities thoughout the 1990s.

In 1992, he participated in The Here to Go Show in Dublin, Ireland. This show, a celebration of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin and the Tangier Beat Scene, was documented in the documentary Destroy all Rational Thought, directed by Joe Ambrose and Frank Rynne. In 1994 he supervised Frank Rynne's recording of the CD Joujouka Black Eyes by the Master Musicians of Joujouka. He had over fifty exhibitions of his paintings in Morocco, Spain, Germany, the United States, and Ireland.

Hamri continued to promote the music of Jajouka until his death in August 2000. He is buried in the centre of the village, close to the tomb of Sidi Ahmed Sheich. His posthumous reputation as a painter is growing, and a recent retrospective was held at the Laurence-Arnott Gallery in Tangier. A large collection of his 1950s paintings has recently been discovered in the U.S.A.

His youngest daughter Sanaa Hamri is the first Moroccan woman to direct a Hollywood movie.

References

• Ambrose, Joe; Wilson, Terry; and Rynne, Frank (1992). Man from Nowhere: Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment With William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Autonomedia. ISBN 0-9520217-0-6.
• Clandermond, Andrew and McCarthy, Dr. Terence (2004), Hamri the Painter of Morocco/Hamri Le Peintre du Maroc. ISBN 0-9523838-6-1.
• Hamri, Mohamed (1975), Tales of Joujouka. Capra Press.
• Palmer, Robert (October 14, 1971). "Jajouka: Up the Mountain". Rolling Stone.
• Ranaldo, Lee (August 1996). "Into The Mystic". The Wire
• Rynne, Frank (October 19, 2000). "Obituary: Hamri". The Indepenedent (London).
• Strauss, Neil (October 12, 1995). "The Pop Life: To Save Jajouka, How About a Mercedes in the Village?". The New York Times.

See also

• Jajouka
• Master Musicians of Joujouka
• Master Musicians of Jajouka
• Brion Gysin
• Pan (mythology)

External links

• Master Musicians of Joujouka official site and official Hamri site
• Joe Ambrose personal site, includes documents related to Hamri, with whom he sometimes collaborated

• 1932 births
• 2000 deaths
• Moroccan painters
• Moroccan writers