Raoul Journo – Habbit ana habbit [Sides 1-2] – Philips (Polyphon), 1937

Posted on by Christopher Silver

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 at least a sense of his earliest years and recordings. Raoul was born in 1911 to Joseph Journo and Zouïaza Journo (née Chiche) in a working-class neighborhood in Tunis (on rue Tronja to be exact). The Journos, including their five children, lived in a home shared with six other families. The courtyard was to be Raoul’s first stage.

The young Journo began singing at an early age. He learned much from his mother. The same was true of the phonograph, employed at nearby cafés, which attracted him and other customers. We need add that his passion for music and his adroitness for it was also incubated in the traditional Jewish school he attended (kutab) and the synagogues he frequented, where some of the standout musicians and recording artists of his era gathered to chant. Perhaps more surprisingly, it was at the Alliance israélite universelle where he began to develop and then expand a repertoire. His music teacher there was none other than Gaston Bsiri, who twice weekly taught him Tunisian, Egyptian, and Tripolitanian songs. Bsiri soon gave the promising upstart private lessons at his home.

By the age of fifteen, when he left school, Journo had launched an amateur career with a small ensemble. Within a couple of years, he also began acting and did so alongside the likes of Habiba Messika and Dalila Taliana.

His big break occurred in the early 1930s when the pianist Messaoud Habib, who was also Pathé’s artistic director in country, arranged for a recording session at the Hotel Moderne on rue de Constantine. What happened to that first record is unclear. But that he had talent was obvious. Around 1932, he headed to Paris where he began recording for Polyphon. He would record for the label regularly until the outbreak of the Second World War. In the meantime, his discs were played with stunning frequency on Radio Tunis and Radio Alger and were sold from Tunisia to Morocco in the thousands. He had become a star.

“Habbit ana habbit” (I loved, I loved) comes from a 1937 recording session with Polyphon (re-released from the masters postwar by Philips). If nothing else, his powerful and yet supple voice stands out here. So does a considerable influence from Egypt.

Notes
Label: Philips (originally released on Polyphon)
Title: Habbit ana habbit [حبيت انا حبيت]
Artist: Raoul Journo
Issue Number: 46.016
Matrix Number: 3269 HPP; 3270 HPP
Date of Pressing: 1937

Zohra El Fassia – Ayli Ayli Hbibi Diali [Sides 1-2], Philips, c. end of 1954-1955

Posted on by Christopher Silver

Within moments of Albert Suissa’s end of 1954 release of the politically charged “Ayli Ayli” on the Olympia label, Zohra El Fassia did much the same with “Ayli Ayli Hbibi Diali” on the Philips label. Indeed, 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.

One final note on what else can be heard on this recording. At minute 5:41, El Fassia excitedly recognizes her violinist, the famed Moroccan Jewish musician known as Shulamit.

Notes
Label: Philips
Titles: Ayli Ayli Hbibi Diali / ايلي ايلي حبيبي ديالي [Sides 1-2]
Artist: Zohra El Fassia
Issue Number: 78.120 H
Matrix Number: 207-A [Side 1] and 208-B [Side 2]
Date of Pressing: c. 1954-1955

Joamar Elmaghribi – Istikhbar Sahli & Rani Nestana Fik – Philips, c. 1954-1955

Posted on by Christopher Silver

Sometime in the year prior to Moroccan independence in 1956, a Jewish vocalist by the stage name of Joamar Elmaghribi recorded at least seven records––six in Arabic and one in Hebrew––for the Philips label in Morocco. Approximately a decade later and now resident in Israel, Jo Amar, the internationally acclaimed artist, would hold the honor of being the first Moroccan to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Of course, before the world knew him as Jo Amar, Moroccans had known him as Joamar Elmaghribi. Unfortunately, the remarkable journey of Jo Amar has been mostly unmoored from its Moroccan point of origin. But it was there, in the Maghrib, that Amar first got his musical bearings, developed his signature voice, and launched his career in the recording industry. At Philips, he joined other Moroccan Jewish artists including the veteran Zohra El Fassia (a major influence on Amar) and the relative newcomer Lili Mamane El Maghribi.

Jo Amar - Rani Nestana Fik - Philips

Like almost all of Amar’s earliest recordings, Rani Nestana Fik (I’m waiting for you), released on Philips sometime between 1954 and 1955, was animated by the virtuosic Moroccan Jewish accordionist “Sam.”[1] In similar fashion, Jo Amar’s rather unique take on the mawwal, his signature vocal melissma with a Spanish lilt which would pepper his later Hebrew-language hits like Shir hasShikor (The Drunkard’s Song), emerged in Morocco before migrating with him to Israel.


Finally, it should be noted that Amar continued to record a variety of Moroccan and Algerian music on 78 rpm in Israel under the name Joamar Elmaghribi (usually rendered Joe Amar Moghrabi) for the label initially known as Sacchiphon, soon after R. Zaky, and eventually Zakiphon. Among the first Joamar Elmaghribi records either re-recorded for or re-released by Zakiphon for the burgeoning Moroccan population was appropriately Rani Nestana Fik. Much as he was waiting for his audience, his audience was waiting for him.

Notes
Label: Philips
Titles: Istikhbar Sahli [Side 1] and Rani Nestana Fik [Side 2]
Artist: Joamar Elmaghribi [Jo Amar]
Issue Number: 78.125 H
Matrix Number: 243-A [Side 1] and 244-B [Side 2]
Date of Pressing: c. 1954-1955

[1] One has to wonder whether the accordionist Sam is perhaps Sami Amar, Jo Amar’s brother.