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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. His uncle was the leader of the musicians there and the music of the village was a strong influence on Hamri.
Career
After World War II life in the village was very difficult, as there was very little food available. Hamri helped the master musicians survive by bringing them to Tangier to play. In 1948, Hamri befriended the Canadian painter Brion Gysin, who became his mentor. They had a joint exhibition in 1952. Gysin was introduced to the music of the Jajouka 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 Tangier and employed the Master Musicians of Jajouka (who sometimes used the "Joujouka" spelling early in their history) to play there.
In 1968, Hamri brought The Rolling Stones' guitarist 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, although the cover art was changed on the mid-1990s CD rerelease. 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." Hamri managed the master musicians until the early 1970s. 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, Attar's son Bachir Attar led a group of his father's musicians, eventually recording with them as Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar and sometimes with the shorter "Master Musicians of Jajouka" name. Hamri managed a separate set of master musicians also from the elder Attar's old group. Both bands slowly replaced their aging original members with a newer generation.
1990s to 2000
In 1992, Hamri 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 the 1990s, In 1994 the group of master musicians managed by Hamri recorded a CD called Joujouka Black Eyes under the band name Master Musicians of Joujouka, using the spelling for the village used both on the famous Brian Jones 1971 album release and in Hamri's own 1975 book title. The recording was produced by Frank Rynne under the supervision of Hamri.
Hamri had over fifty exhibitions of his paintings in Morocco, Spain, Germany, the United States, and Ireland during his lifetime.
Hamri continued to promote the music of Jajouka until his death in August 2000. He is buried in the center of the village, close to the tomb of the Muslim saint Sidi Ahmed Sheikh. 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.
- Hamri, Mohamed (1975), Tales of Joujouka. Capra Press.
- Kettlewell, Ben. "Features: The Master Musicians of Jajouka". Alternate Music Press. Retrieved Jan. 16, 2007.
- Palmer, Robert (October 14, 1971). "Jajouka: Up the Mountain". Rolling Stone.
- Palmer, Robert (June 11, 1992). "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
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