34. Cheikha Remitti, Ya Darr (The Aflicter), Algeria
Ive just found another epic lady. My lucky day lol. Ive moved onto enjoying Cafe Arabia compilation - I miss buying music from the record shops. Its so awesome to sit and read the insert and get ready to get into the zone. This album is subtitled Rai Roots and Mint Tea. Its describes the setting of a cafe and I love reading “behind the bar, at a safe distance from itchy-fingered or zealous customers, is Mr Faouzi’s battered old ghetto-blaster which serenades the clientele through the day with a steady stream of high-pitched, pumping rai music.” As I just chose what I enjoyed listening too from the album and began to search for english translations I came across another artist on the album.
When I asked a friend about Cheikha Remitti who has Algerian heritage I didn't get a warm reply. Researching her wikipedia page the following shed some light.
At age 15, she joined a troupe of traditional Algerian musicians and learnt to sing and dance. In 1943 she moved to the rural town of Relizane and began writing her own songs. Her songs described the tough life endured by the Algerian poor, focusing on everyday struggle of living, pleasures of sex, love, alcohol and friendship and the realities of war. Traditionally, songs of lust had been sung privately by Algerian women at rural wedding celebrations but were considered crude and unfit to be heard in polite society. Rimitti was one of the first to sing them in public and did so in the earthy language of the street, using a rich blend of slang and patois. She eventually composed more than 200 songs but remained illiterate all her life.
Four years later she went on a hadj to Mecca, after which her lifestyle (though not her songs or subject matter) changed. She stopped smoking and drinking, but continued her singing and dancing, and by the mid-80s, when Rai was becoming established as the rousing dance music of angry young Algerians, Rimitti was being hailed as la mamie du Rai, the grandmother of the style. Her deep singing voice, in the male tenor range, was recognizable throughout the Algerian community on both sides of the Mediterranean.
She died at the age of 83, in Paris. Her music crossed over to the West and she undertook prestigious concerts in big cities and worldwide capitals as well as collaborating with Robert Fripp and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers on the "Sidi Mansour" LP in 1994, inaugurating a new electric form of raï.
Her back catalogue was rediscovered by a new generation raï successors including Khaled who has covered "The Camel". Many singers of the new generation venerated her as "The Mother Of The Genre" and Rachid Taha dedicated a song to her, "Rimitti".
Her most recent album N’ta Goudami, released in 2006, was a lustful combination of traditional Algerian and modern rock sounds sung in a deep voice of booming energy that belied her 83 years and garnered enthusiastic reviews [2]. For someone who had been officially banned in Algeria, Rimitti marked rai history by taking the defiant step of recording her last album at the Boussif Studios in Oran.
According to my source the 91st name Ad-Darr is the only source that produces the failure to make use of something for a higher good or that causes us not to profit or benefit from the gifts, opportunities and events the come our way. Ad Darr is the only source of what we perceive to be harm. It is the only source of harmful or profitless behaviour. As Darr means to become blind to the divine intent in the unseen worlds. It puts you in a state of great want or needs, and at the same time it makes you unable to use a remedy for a good purpose. Letting the denseness of ego dwell in the heart is what produces real blindness. When God blinds, it is in the heart. Reflections on Ad-Darr is helpful for all who need to pray for enough sight to see their own blindness.
Isn't this connection with Ad Darr interesting? It seems maybe some of her listeners judged her for her content and not her heart. What does this remind you of?
Another more famous Rai song is discussed in blog number 15.