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Fritna Darmon – Ouh alia el hachmia [Sides 1-2], Columbia, c. 1930 - The Tunisian Jewish vocalist Fritna Darmon was a force. She was also a pioneer.
Aroun Haouzi El Baidi – Ana nadi bel ghram [Sides 1-2], Polyphon, 1932 - Much as the artist Aroun Haouzi El Baidi sings of sleepless nights and a fire blazing in his liver, the hope is that listeners here are awakened to a similar sensation when it comes to a musician who deserves much more by way of recognition.
Abraham Arzouane – Eliyahu Hanavi (E’erokh mahalal nivi) [Sides 1 – 2], (Olympia, 1950s) - On this mid-twentieth century recording, then, furnished by Abraham Arzouane in Casablanca, is an echo not only of a particular person and place but of multiple meaningful moments in time which stretch back to the end of the 18th century.
Aroun Haouzi El Baidi – Ya Moulat El Khana [Sides 1-2], Polyphon, 1932 - This recording of “Ya Moulat El Khana” comes from a rather prodigious 1932 Polyphon session. Part of the hawzi repertoire, it is a powerful lament, especially when performed by a powerful vocalist. “Today, my dearest ones left,” Haouzi intones at the 2:04 mark, “Only I remained.”
Blond Blond – Chekchouka – Pathé, 1952 - At first listen, this record by Algerian Jewish ambianceur Blond Blond catches you off guard.
Lili Boniche – Marché Noir [Sides 1-2], Pacific, c. 1947 - But with Operation Torch, Boniche made sure his voice was heard once again. He intimates that he may have even participated directly in the resistance that allowed for the Allied landing in the first place. As soon as was possible, he resumed touring. He also headed to the recording studio. Among his initial postwar releases was “Marché Noir” (Black Market), a song that spoke directly to the experiences of Jews and Muslims in wartime North Africa.
Mouzino – Neklab ssika (Elked eladi ssabani) – Odeon, c. 1906 - Over a recording career that spanned three decades––from the tail end of the nineteenth century until his death in 1928––the Algerian Jewish musical pioneer Saül “Mouzino” Durand released hundreds of records and quite a few cylinders as well.
Laho Seror – “Kam wa-kam ya ʿayni” – Pathé, c. 1907-1912 - Eliaou “Laho” Seror was among the first cohort of Algerians to record for the phonograph at the turn of the twentieth century. That his recording career lasted decades, from his first appearance on a set of cylinders made in Algiers in 1905 through sessions which brought him to Berlin in the 1930s, makes it all the more surprising that to date, so few of his records have surfaced.
Sam Fhimat – Hobini ya bneia [Sides 1 – 2] – Olympia, c. 1950s - Providing some of Olympia's output at the time was Sam Fhima (al-Bidawi), one of a handful of rising stars within the Jewish community during the years surrounding Moroccan independence.
Khailou Esseghir and Sion Bissana – Hattab El Hattab – Pathé, c. 1930 - For hundreds of years, Tunisian Jewish and Muslim communal authorities have objected to the goatskin instrument given the central role it has played in...
Albert Suissa – Ughniyya Sayyid Muhammad al-Khamis [Sides 1-2], Éditions N. Sabbah, c. 1955-1956 - This record, “Ughniyya Sayyid Muhammad al-Khamis” (The Song of Sayyid Muhammad the Fifth), likely released in 1955-1956, was one of a number of nationalist songs performed by Suissa which heaped praise on the Moroccan sultan.
Zohra El Fassia – Kif Youassi [Sides 1-2] – Polyphon, 1938 - But one has to wonder if she did not record earlier. Indeed, in his memoirs, Mahieddine Bachetarzi, the Algerian vocalist, impresario, and artistic director for Gramophone, mentions El Fassia as one of the musicians he recorded during a 1929 session in Morocco.
Ensemble Paul Godwin – Touchiat Dil – Suite Arabe – Polydor, 1929 - Paul Godwin (né Pinchas Goldfein) and Saoud l’Oranais (né Médioni) are not names you might expect to find together on a record. But once again a disc made almost a century ago has managed to surprise and delight.
Sariza – Épreuve – “Mihna” – Polydor, 1938 - Here Sariza Cohen, the pianist and vocalist from Oran, performs a composition by Algerian Jewish impresario Edmond Nathan Yafil.
Judah Sebag – Elmella and Adon Olam [Sides 1-2], Disques Tam Tam, c. 1955 - By the mid- to late-1940s, Judah had made a name for himself as a musician and regularly performed in and around Marrakesh for both the Jewish community and mixed Jewish-Muslim audiences.
Aroun Haouzi El Baidi – Koumtarra Barahim, Polyphon, 1932 - El Baidi’s strong vocals, which begin with the repetition of “ya layl,” are punctuated by the early introduction of the zurna, a woodwind instrument found not only in Algeria but in the Middle East, Balkans, and Central Asia as well.
Raoul Journo – Habbit ana habbit [Sides 1-2] – Philips (Polyphon), 1937 - This is not a complete history of Raoul Journo, one of the great Tunisian vocalists of the interwar period and mid-twentieth century, but it should give us a sense of his earliest years and recordings.
Orchestre Arabe, Direction Mimoun – Danses Arabes – Parlophone, c. 1930 - For those familiar with the Yazoo label’s Secret Museum of Mankind series, you may recognize the name Mimoun from their “Music of North Africa” album released in 1997.
Saoud l’Oranais – El Idd El Kebir [Sides 1-2], Pathé, c. 1930-31 - As its name implies, the song-text performed here by the renowned Jewish musician invokes the Muslim holiday which commemorates the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to fulfill God’s command to sacrifice his son Ismail (as in “the Binding of Isaac” in the Jewish tradition, God intervenes to replace the child with a ram). Ben Triki’s qasida itself deals with issues of longing for home and family.
Isaac Loeb and Slomo Souiri – Belouajeb Nefrah – Olympia, c. 1950s - The Moroccan Jewish musician Isaac Loeb recorded no more than a handful of records and perhaps only the soul-nourishing one featured here: “Belouajeb Nefrah” (بالواجب نفرح, We must rejoice), a duet with Slomo Souiri––complete with hand-clapping.
Salim Halali – Adhrob Kassi and Atini – Pathé, c. 1947 - Like Halali, “Adhrob Kassi” is salacious. It begins with an invitation to an unnamed lover for a drink, which leads to a kiss, and then proceeds with the Algerian Jewish vocalist invoking all manner of sexual innuendo.
Sariza – Plainte (Chekoua) – Polydor, c. 1936-1938 - This Polydor side, “Plainte” (“Chekoua”), which might be best translated as “lamentation,” ornamented simply but stunningly with Sariza’s voice, her own accompaniment on piano, and strings, may have hailed from those 1936 session although the record itself indicates it was pressed in 1938. Nonetheless, the result is breathtaking.
Lili Boniche – Carmelita – Pacific, c. 1950 - Written and composed by Boniche, “Carmelita,” a paso-doble about a Spanish woman who drives him wild, was a major hit across North Africa when it was released c. 1950 (and possibly as early as 1947).
Smarda el Olgia – Refken [Sides 1-2], Smarda, 1935 - At various points on this record, the masterful bowing of strings cleaves so closely to el Olgia’s voice that one could be forgiven for thinking she was singing in harmony with herself.
Marie Soussan – Alach ya Lsan tadoui [Sides 1-2], Polyphon, 1934 - As can be heard, there is a strength and a sultriness to her voice. Perhaps that is why, in part, the French press of the time referred to Marie Soussan as “the Sophie Tucker of North Africa.”
Zohra El Fassia – Ayli Ayli Hbibi Diali [Sides 1-2], Philips, c. end of 1954-1955 - El Fassia, a favorite of the Moroccan palace, was almost certainly motivated to record the song at the time for the same reasons as Suissa: she, like so many others Moroccan Jews and Muslims, longed for the exiled Sultan Mohamed Ben Youssef.
Albert Suissa – Ayli Ayli (ايلي ايلي) [Sides 1-2] – Olympia, c. end of 1954 - On February 15, 1955, it was concluded that at least three versions of “Hbibi diyali” by three different artists were being distributed in Morocco. The record censor’s office determined the following: “that of Albert Suissa contains political allusions.”
Lili Boniche – Pourquoi Tu Ne M’aimes Pas (علاش ما تحبنيش) – Pacific, c. 1950 - Released circa 1950, “علاش ما تحبنيش/Pourquoi tu ne m’aimes pas” (Why don’t you love me), a tango which blended French with Arabic, is emblematic of his signature Franco-Arabe sound, which won him fans from Algeria to Morocco (where he toured regularly) and from Morocco to metropolitan France.
Blond Blond – Ghnaït Robert Cohen [Sides 1-2] – Pathé, 1954 - Two months before fighting broke out in November 1954, a boxer from Annaba in eastern Algeria fought halfway across the globe to become the bantamweight champion of the world and a national hero back home. His name was Robert Cohen.
Albert Abitbol and Gaston Bsiri – al-Bashraf al-Kabir [Sides 1-2] – Disques Oum-El-Hassen, c. 1930s - Like all of the releases on the independent Tunisian label Oum-El-Hassen (meaning, “nightingale”), this one begins with the chirping of birds.
Elie Touboul dit Pinhas El Saidi – Istikhbar Zidane + Ya saki ou s’ki habibi – Columbia – c. 1928 - Cheikh Pinhas’s voice serves to remind of the vast and sometimes little-known universe of Algerian music-making that existed outside of Algiers and other principal locales.
Abraham Arzouane – Midam Bessari (מדם בשרי) – Olympia – c. 1950s - Despite the scant archival material, there is just enough to work with in order to erect a historical scaffolding of Arzouane, the label, and the recording itself.
Alice Fitoussi – Ya msalmin kalbi – Polyphon – 1933 - Alice Fitoussi (1916-1978?) was one of a handful of Algerian Jewish musicians to remain in Algeria after independence in 1962. In many ways, the continued presence of a highly visible and audible Algerian Jew in independent Algeria reminds that music can complicate periodization schemes.
Unknown – Bar Yohaï – Pacific, c. mid-1950s - This version of “Bar Yohaï”––of an uncredited singer on the Pacific label––comes from about the mid-1950s and was certainly the last ever recorded in Algeria.
Saoud l’Oranais – Gheniet U.S.M.O. – Polyphon, 1934 - Presented here is what is almost certainly the first soccer chant ever captured on 78 rpm record in North Africa. It dates to 1934. That it was written, performed, and recorded by Saoud l’Oranais, with accompaniment by the violinist Doudane, intrigues.
Line Monty – Ouine houa? – Pathé, c. 1952 - Algerian Paris in 1952 must have been quite the scene. In and out of the Pathé recording studio that year, for example, was a who’s who of Algerian artists including the rising star Line Monty.
Simon Amiel – Mine Cahlat Landar – Polyphon, c. 1934 - Simon Amiel appears suddenly on the Tunisian scene around 1930 although he must have been a known entity before he started recording.
Cheikh El Afrite – Lamodate Lamodate – Gramophone, c. 1932 - It is in this way––in inveighing against the bob and lipstick––that Cheikh El Afrite and his music provide us with Arabic-language insight into the potency, power, and pull of what we might think of as the age of the modern girl in the Maghrib.
Khailou Esseghir et Sion – Gheita – Columbia, c. 1930 - Among those who would record mizwid for Columbia in the company’s earliest years of operation was its greatest exponent: the Tunisian Jewish artist by the name of Khailou Esseghir.
Louisa – Ya Manna – Parlophone, c. 1930 - In 1931, Gramophone described Louisa al-Israïliyya (Louisa the Jewess) as “the most famous ‘méââlma’ in Algeria.”
Joamar Elmaghribi – Istikhbar Sahli & Rani Nestana Fik – Philips, c. 1954-1955 - Before the world knew him as Jo Amar, Moroccans had known him as Joamar Elmaghribi.
Zohra El Fassia – Mayli Sadr Hnine – Pathé, c. 1956 - Among the many North African musical forms recorded by Zohra El Fassia, her interpretations of Algerian hawzi (or haouzi) stand out. Her “Mayli Sadr Hnine,” recorded c. 1956 for Pathé and complete with accordion accompaniment, is no exception.
Sassi – Tchambar Sika – Parlophone, c. 1930 - Sassi, born in Constantine but raised in Algiers, was not only the most accomplished mandolin player of his generation––almost always described as a virtuoso––but among the most prolific recording artists of his era.
Habiba Messika – Anti Souria Biladi & Ya man yahounnou – Baidaphon, c. 1928 - In April 1928, approximately a year after the conclusion of the Great Syrian Revolt––ninety years ago this month––Tunisian Jewish superstar Habiba Messika walked into the Berlin studio of the Baidaphon label and recorded, “Syria, you are my country” (“Souria Anti Biladi”).
Louisa Tounsia – Heukm Ennessouane – Pathé, c. 1930-1931 - During Louisa Tounsia’s rise to stardom in the mid-to-late 1920s, the Tunis-born Jewish artist played an instrumental role in carving out a modern Tunisian public.
Flifla Chamia – Moute Habiba Messika – Gramophone, c. 1930 - There was near-consensus during the interwar period that Flifla Chamia was the greatest dancer of her generation.
Albert Suissa – Ghoniet Lefrak – Olympia, c. 1950s - That Albert Suissa’s biography and history have until now escaped is not surprising. In many ways, he lived in-between and embodied the painful essence of “lefrak” (“separation”).
Reinette l’Oranaise – Ya biadi ya nas – Polyphon, c. 1934 - If you listen carefully to the first thirty-seconds of Reinette’s recording of “Ya biadi ya nas,” Saoud himself is there in the background, lending his vocals to hers as she warms up.
Slomo Souiri – Kssidat Farha – Olympia, c. 1950s - In the 1930s, he added Baidaphon and Columbia to his roster. As for the latter, the label claimed that the public “could not remain indifferent” to Souiri’s popular repertoire
Salim Halali – Je t’appartiens (tango) – Pathe, c. 1945 - With this tango, then, Salim Halali not only boldly announced his return to the stage and studio but also made it clear that, once again, he belonged to his public.

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