KTK80: SLIMANE AZEM (MC763)

Ladys & gentlemen...
As you probably noticed if you follow my other blog, I won't post any music there during this month.
I still have hundreds of records that I would love to share here so during the next few weeks I'll post some tapes reminding me of my childhood and the beguinning of my interest for different kinds of music when around 5 years old I discovered the maghrebian tapes stalls at the local market...
A few years ago, We had a trip in Egypt for an homage to Abdel Halim Hafez, this time We'll fly from the Djurdjura mounts in the north of Algeria (a place called Kabylie) to France to get deeply into the music of one of those (almost) anonymous legends of the exodus like there are dozens in France, all workers who had to leave their village to help their famillies in hard times...

This story, like many others, is the story of Slimane Azem (born in 1918 in a farmers familly) who had to travel at 19 years old «for a few months» to the metropole (Algeria is still french at this time) and who never came back...
Bad jobs, the second world war and the urban annonymous parisian loneliness instead of his mountains his village and his familly, Slimane Azem starts to write songs around 1945.

Then, the Algerian independence war and all the troubles you can imagine for an Algerian singer living in France..

If the songs of Slimane Azems talks about his own life in what many would call «Kabyle blues», they mean a lot for his community and soon Slimane becomes the voice of all the Algerian people far from their roots, victims the times. Many 7' records where published, especially in the 60's and 70's (he even got a gold record in 1970 and was one of the best records sales of the year in France) and it's not unusual to ear about him from the french-algerian people (a young hip hop band is even called «Slimane Azem»). afew years ago a documentary came out about his life and his grave in the south of France got visits from people from all around. In the next few weeks we'll get a whole bunch of tapes from him, a great opportunity to (re)discover his work.

About the music itself, Slimane Azem wrote and composed his songs and also played guitar, he was usually backed by all kinds of traditional folk instruments from Algeria: darbuka, mandol, mandolin, flutes, violin and backing vocals... Well, during the next few weeks you'll have plenty of time to enjoy some of the many songs Slimane Azem released, enjoy!

SLIMANE AZEM (MC763 Les Artistes Arabes Associés / Club Du Disque Arabe, tape re-edition)

TRACKLIST:
01 THAMOURTHIOU AZIZEN
02 BARKAYI TISSIT NECHRAV
03 ATTAS ISSEVRAGH (feat Bahia Farah)
04 DOUNITH AKA ITHSEDOU
05 AYOULIOU OUTHOUV