Product Description
Rounder has begun to release the field recordings made by the late author/composer Paul Bowles during his many decades in Morocco. The cover photo of a group of men singing to oud and tambourine accompaniment implies the presence of instrumental music, but what one hears on this 2-CD set is strictly vocal-liturgical music and adaptations of popular songs. A Moroccan synagogue service is quite unlike the better-known European Jewish rites and makes for a fascinating comparison as to how prayers are approached and intoned. Nevertheless, this is ritual worship, not music as such, and it's of lesser appeal than the songs, which are performed informally and reflect the influence of popular Egyptian and Algerian styles.