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Randy Weston
piano, electric keyboard
Ron Carter bass
Vishnu Bill Wood bass (on 3)
Bill Cobham drums
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1
Ifrane (Weston)
2 Ganawa - Blue
Moses (traditional)
3 Night in Medina
(Weston)
4 Marrakesh Blues
(Weston) |
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David Horowitz
synthesizer
Freddie Hubbard trumpet
John Frosk trumpet
Alan Rubin trumpet
Marvin
Stamm trumpet
Wayne Andre
trombone, baritone horn
Garnett Brown
trombone
Warren Covington
trombone
Paul Faulise
trombone, bass trombone
Brooks Tillotson
french-horn
James Buffington
french-horn
George Marge
english horn, clarinet, flute, alto flute, bass flute
Huberi
Laws flute, alto flute, bass flute, electric flute,
piccolo
Romeo Penque hobo, english horn, clarinet, flute,
alto
flute, bass flute, piccolo
Grover
Washington tenor sax
Phil Kraus percussion
Airto Moreira percussion
Azzedin Weston percussion
Madame Meddah vocal
Don Sebesky arranger, director
Randy Weston liner notes
Don Sebesky arranger
Rudy Van Gelder engineer
Bob Ciano design
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BLUE MOSES
GANAWA (Gnawa / Gnaoua)
African music is the creative source of much of the world's music - its
influence extends not only to Europe and the Americas, but into the Far
East. The music of Morocco, a country with o great variety of
people, music and scenery, is port of Africa's musical heritage.
GANAWA (Blue Moses),
The title song, is adapted from the rhythms and melodies of a religious
song, "Sidi Mussa"
(Arabic for
Moses), one of
the spirits evoked by an Islamic brotherhood of the Gnawa.
(All the North African rhythm patterns have a spiritual identity; each
identity has its own color
- Sidi Mussa's color is blue.)
There are a number of these brotherhoods in North Africa; the Gnawa
originated in West Africa, and most of its members ore black. There are
groups in Mali and among the Hausa in northern Nigeria whose music,
rhythms and rituals are similar to those of the Gnawa in Morocco and
Tunisia.
The music of the Gnawa, which is passed from generation to generation
without being written, is heard throughout Morocco. The instruments used
vary in different areas, but generally the Gnawa use the gembri, a large
box-shaped three-stringed instrument that is held like a guitar and sounds
somewhat like a stringed bass; kakobars, large iron "castanets" held in
the hands (which may be the forerunner of the sock cymbal); various kinds
of drums and hand-clapping. (My son, Azzedin, learned the Gnawa rhythms he
plays on his drums by listening carefully to the kakobars.)
MARRAKESH BLUES is a musical portrait of the beautiful red city in the
south of Morocco where the Atlas Mountains meet the Sahara Desert. I've
tried to convey some of the flavor of the great square in Marrakech, where
actors, dancers and musicians perform all day long.
NIGHT IN MEDINA expresses my feeling of peace, but peace tinged with
apprehension, during a three a.m. walk in the twisting streets of the
Medina
(the old city)
in Rabat, on a night when the moon was full.
IFRANE is the result of a visit to that ski village high in the Atlas
Mountains, where I heard African rhythms from the beautiful, snowy
Moroccan countryside.
I am in the debt of the Moroccan people for their help and inspirations.
1972 Randy Weston
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