Rachid Taha

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Rachid Taha
رشيد طه
Barclay
Websiterachidtahaofficial.com

Rachid Taha (

Algerian singer and activist[1][5] based in France[2] described as "sonically adventurous".[5] His music was influenced by many different styles including rock, electronic, punk and raï
.

Early life

Taha was born on 18 September 1958[1][6] in Sig, Mascara Province, Algeria,[1] although a second source suggests he was born in the Algerian seacoast city of Oran.[6] This town was the "birthplace of raï" music, and 1958 was a key year in the Algerian struggle for independence against French authority.[6] He began listening to Algerian music in the 1960s,[4] including street-style music called chaabi.[4] Additionally, music from the Maghreb region was part of his upbringing.[7]

He moved with his parents to France when he was ten years old, settling in an immigrant community around the French city of Lyon[1] in 1968.[8] His father was a textile factory worker,[9] with long hours and low pay, such that his life was compared to that of a "modern slave", according to one account.[4] Aged 17, Taha worked during the day at a central heating plant, described as a "menial job",[6] and hated this work, but at night worked as a club DJ playing Arabic music, rap, salsa, funk and "anything else that took his fancy."[4]

In the late 1970s, Taha founded the nightclub called The Rejects or, in French, Les Refoulés, where he would spin mashups of Arabic pop classics over Led Zeppelin, Bo Diddley and Kraftwerk backbeats.[10]

Career

Raï roots

Taha grew up in the seaside Algerian city of Oran.

In the 1980s, Algeria's indigenous pop music known as raï began to achieve international attention.

political protest when young people in the 1960s and 1970s used it to "express their anger and desires."[6] Taha suggested that Algerian musical styles and rock are "closely linked".[11] Taha was influenced by the Moroccan chaâbi band Nass El Ghiwane which has been described as "Morocco's answer to the Beatles or the Stones."[12]

Carte de Séjour

In 1981, while living in

Arabic
, but usually in Arabic. Taha was inspired by the group The Clash:

The Clash were militant and

country and western, disco, but making it sound their own. I think that's what gave French musicians the confidence to do the same with whatever music they were into. In some ways, they introduced us to the world. – Rachid Taha, in The Guardian, 2007[13]

Taha met members of the group The Clash in Paris:[5]

It was September 1981, and Taha bumped into all four members of the band just before they were due to play at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris. Taha gave them a copy of a demo tape by his band, Carte de Séjour (Residence Permit), an outfit from Lyon who combined Algerian raï with funk and punk rock. "They looked interested," remembers Taha, "but when they didn't get in touch, I thought nothing of it. Then, a few months later, I heard Rock the Casbah." He cackles mischievously. "Maybe they did hear it after all." The incident has since gone down in French rock legend. – report in The Guardian, 2007[13]

Clash singer Joe Strummer

Taha believed his early recordings helped to inspire The Clash to create the song "

New York Times
music reporter wrote of Taha's cover version of the Clash's hit song probably influenced by his earlier work:

Is "Rock El Casbah", with its images of

Cadillacs and cracking down on 'degenerate' disco dancers, an indictment of the oil-choked, religiously fanatical Arab world, or a wry comment on the West's cartoonish vision of the region? No listener to the recording can doubt that it is both, or that in Mr. Taha, a rumpled North African with a buzz saw voice, the Clash has an unlikely heir. – Jody Rosen, 2005[5]

These were difficult years since record stores often refused to stock their records "because they didn't want Arabs coming into their shops".[4] There was little money; the band performed in suburbs of Lyon.[4] Taha took a standard patriotic French song entitled "Sweet France" (in French: Douce France) which had originally been recorded by Charles Trenet in the 1940s, kept the lyrics, but sang it with "furious irony" which irritated many French listeners, particularly coming from a "scruffy, bohemian-looking Arabic singer", to the point where Taha's version was banned from French radio.[4] The "acerbic" song created a "splash", nevertheless, and won Taha some recognition as a serious artist.[1] The group never achieved much commercial success and, as a result, Taha had to work a series of day jobs in a factory, then as a house painter, a dishwasher, and later as an encyclopedia salesman.[4] They recorded their first maxi album Carte De Séjour in 1983. In 1984, with the help of British guitarist Steve Hillage, the group achieved a "sharp, driving sound" which played well on the radio, and the LP was entitled Rhoromanie.[6] In his songwriting, Taha wrote about living in exile and the cultural strife associated with being an Algerian immigrant in France.[2] In 1986, his "sneering punk-rock cover of 'Douce France'" was seen as an "unmistakable protest against the nation's treatment of its immigrant underclass", and caused consternation in French political circles.[5] His song "Voilà, Voilà" protested racism.[5] Taha had to cope with anti-Arab sentiment and confusion; for example, The New York Times stated in a front-page story that Taha was Egyptian rather than Algerian, but later posted a correction.[14] Later, in 2007, Taha-as-an-immigrant was mentioned in France's National Center of the History of Immigration.[15]

Taha performing in Belgium

When performing live, Taha wore various outfits, including at one point a leather fedora hat, then later a red cowboy hat.[2][16] The band's second and last LP entitled Ramsa (Five) was released in 1986. The band dissolved in 1989.

Solo years

In 1989, Taha moved to Paris to launch his solo career.

doumbek or darbuka, his new group played Arabic-style beats.[2] It appeared at one point that Taha might become an "overnight success", but after the release of the album Barbès, sales were disappointing in the United States, possibly because Americans were not keen on Arabic-sounding music during the time of the first Gulf War.[4]

In 1993, Taha again worked with Hillage who helped produce his second solo album, the self-titled Rachid Taha and helped him achieve "the kind of clubland-raï synthesis".[6] Hillage worked on nine solo Taha albums from 1993 to 2006, helping Taha return to his "north African roots".[4] In 1995, he released the album entitled Olé Olé with Taha looking like an "Aryan androgyne" with dyed blond hair and blue contact lenses, to make a point about anti-Arab bigotry and at the "homophobia of North African culture."[5] Valencia features the singing of Kirsty Hawkshaw. In 1997, his song "Ya Rayah" became a hit.[2][11] He performed in the Canary Islands.[17]

In 2001, Taha released

Galactic.[6] Taha saw parallels between African and American music and said "New Orleans is like Algiers ... They were both French colonies at one time, and there's even an area there called Algiers," and he noted that Louisiana Zydeco drum patterns were similar to raï music.[4] Made in Medina combined Algerian roots, techno, pop music, and early rock and punk influences with "remarkable consistency" with previous works, according to Hillage.[4] There were elements of political protest in his music leading a BBC critic to describe him as a "shit-disturbing artist who risks challenging his own culture as undemocratic."[7] A report in The Guardian suggested that Taha had achieved a cult status in pop music.[4]

Guitarist Steve Hillage played a big role in Taha's career, primarily as a producer.

Taha's breakthrough album as a solo artist was his bestseller

Mick Jones.[13][20][21] The Guardian selected "Rock El Casbah" as one of the top 50 cover songs.[22]

Taha played in Morocco in 2006.

Montreal Gazette described his performance while wearing a "pewter pimp suit" which was "stunning":[7]

Rachid Taha did not disappoint. ... Taha leaned into his cheerfully louche street persona. Taha dropped his hat on the mic stand. The percussion undulated in, the trumpet and keys re-creating a North African swirl. Ste. Catherine St. was a sea of clapping hands. Some fans tried to get an Algerian flag waving and abandoned it to dance. Taha brought the crowd down and then back up for coute-moi camarade, an irresistible bounce about female treachery from the Diwan 2 album. But given there is always a subtext to Taha's music, the girls in the casbah danced to the blocked trumpet. Then Taha fell on his ass. – Montreal Gazette, 2007[7]

An Algerian mandole or mandolute, played by a member of Mon côté punk.

In 2008 he performed with the band

West African music", and was part of "Africa Express", a response to the lack of African musicians at Bob Geldof's Live 8 musical extravaganza.[25]

In 2008, Taha was growing increasingly prominent, with greater audiences in places such as Canada, although there were reports that his music had "trouble getting airplay" in France.[26] He performed with Nigerian artists Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti in Lagos at a "Felabration" of the music of their late father Fela Kuti,[27] as well as with Brian Eno in an anti-war concert in London.[28]

In 2009, Taha released

Clash guitarist Joe Strummer. In 2010, Taha played in Toronto, Canada to large audiences.[30] Taha performed with Algerian artist Mehdi Haddab who plays the oud.[31] Taha's song "Habina" was featured in the 2010 film, It's Kind of a Funny Story. Guitarist Carlos Santana recorded his song Migra which went on to sell over 25 million copies.[4] In recent years, Taha toured nations including the United States[1] and Dubai
.

In 2013 Taha released the Zoom album, which was produced by guitarist Justin Adams and featured guests Mick Jones and Brian Eno;.[32] Jones toured with Taha as part of the Zoom project.[33][34] The album included a new recording of "Voilà, Voilà".[35] Taha also recorded "Now or Never" (words and music by Aaron Schroeder / Wally Gold and previously recorded by Elvis Presley), which features Jeanne Added singing in English.[36]

Use of Taha's songs in movies and computer games

The song '"Barra Barra'" from his album Made in Medina was featured in the 2001 film Black Hawk Down as well as in the Games Convention 2008 trailer of the game Far Cry 2. It was also featured in the 2007 film The Hunting Party.[37][38]

His song "Garab" from Made in Medina was used in the movie

Blood and Chocolate in 2007.[39][40]

His song "Ya Rayah" from his album Carte Blanche (Rachid Taha album) was used in the movie Something New (film) (2006) [1]

"Ya Rayah" was also allegedly

bollywood film Mann
(transl. The Psyche).

Reviews

Some critics attribute Taha's unique sound to his use of the mandolute, a mixture of the traditional oud with European fretted instruments. One critic described his arrangements as "no less bombastic" since they mixed North African rhythms and "string orchestra flourishes" with "pummeling big-beat techno, distorted electric guitars, snatches of Bo Diddley, Led Zeppelin and other macho sounds."[5]

  • Music critic Philip Brasor in
    Japan Times commented that Taha's album Made in Medina featured Arabic "chanting" which was meant to evoke "the generalized chaos of society" and which features "heart-stopping break beats, flamenco guitar, African choruses, crunching hard rock and the inevitable sappy love song."[6]
  • Music critic Danny Wiser praised Taha for both his emphasis that he places upon fellow Arabs in North Africa to have pride in both parts of their dual-identity as Arabs as well as Africans, in addition to complimenting him for his infectious personality that shines through on his posthumous album, Je Suis Africain, commenting that "one can almost hear his smile beginning to shine through as he plays; simply through the tone of his voice one can detect that he seems to really enjoy performing his music."[41]
  • Music critic Robin Denselow felt Taha's Bonjour album was calm – "he switches between Arabic and French in this mix of pleasant ballads and novelty pop, with just the occasional reminder of the old passion and anger."[29] Denselow felt his album Tékitoi (2004) was his "most powerful, direct fusion of rock and North African styles to date."[11] Denselow wrote:

Taha's blend of anger and angst has been distilled into a set of songs that match crunching guitar chords, simple riffs and angry lyrics (in French and Arabic) with subtle, wailing flourishes of North African embellishment. – Robin Denselow, The Guardian, 2007[11]

The thrumming beat in this 21st century Räi piece is ancient and high-tech, showing how gripping a single drum can be, even when we cannot tell whether it is living or looped. The lyrics ricochet back and forth between French and Arabic, and we remember that Räi began in the city of Oran, whose windows are supposed to face away from the sea to gaze only on the desert sand. – Dwight Garner, The New York Times, 2008[28]

  • BBC News music critic Martin Vennard described Taha's music as a "seductive mixture of traditional North African, rock, techno and dance music."[17]
  • Canadian music critic Philly Markowitz named a Taha album one of the best in 2005.[42]
  • French music critic Amobe Mevegue described Taha as an "eclectic artist".[43]

Discography and filmography

Personal life and death

Taha was described as "gregarious" and "quick with a smile." A person who liked to party throughout the night,[5] he also had a cosmopolitan group of friends.[5] Taha was quoted as saying "I've never wanted to just stay in my own neighborhood, my own community ... It's a kind of conformism. You have to be adventurous."[5]

Taha was not fond of contemporary French cinema and said "I'd much rather watch some dumb

Hollywood movie than another haute bourgeois auteurist piece of crap."[5] He was a critic of the Bush administration although he made comments favoring a bombing raid on Iran, and said that "Iran shouldn't be allowed to have nukes."[5]

Taha suffered from Chiari malformation diagnosed in 1987. "I'm tired of people thinking I'm a drunk on stage. While these are the symptoms of Arnold Chiari disease. I'm stumbling because I'm losing my balance. I'm wavering. It generates a disruption in the body."[44]

Taha died from a heart attack in his sleep on 12 September 2018, six days before his 60th birthday.[45] He is survived by his longtime partner Véronique Pré and their son, Lyes.[46] A posthumous album, Je suis Africain, previously finished before his death, was released on September 20, 2019.[47]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Africa's shining music stars: Rashed TAHA". BBC. 4 June 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Born in 1958 in Algeria, Rashed Taha, grew up in France in the poverty-stricken, working-class immigrant community around Lyon...
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Jon Pareles (7 July 2008). "Algerian Singer Mixes Rock and Rai". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  3. ^ Al-Taee, Nasser (Spring 2003). "Running with the Rebels: Politics, Identity, and Sexual Narrative in Algerian Rai" (PDF). Echo. 5 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Robin Denselow (28 May 2001). "Nuclear fusion: Rashed Taha mixes rock and techno with Algerian street music – and the results are so good, he's already been banned from French radio". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Jody rosen (13 March 2005). "MUSIC; Shock the Casbah, Rock the French (And Vice Versa)". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Philip brasor (12 September 2001). "HIGH NOTES: Rashed Taha". Japan Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d e f CanWest MediaWorks Publications (8 July 2007). "A rock'n'rai finale". The Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  8. ^ Plastino, pp. 111.
  9. ^ Curiel, Jonathan. "Arab rocker Rachid Taha's music fueled by politics, punk attitude and – what else? – romance". San Francisco Chronicle. 27 June 2005. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  10. ^ Morgan, Andy. "Can Rachid Taha rock the Casbah?". The Independent. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
  11. ^ a b c d e Robin Denselow (22 November 2007). "Rachid Taha: Tékitoi (2004)". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  12. ^ Robin Denselow (29 October 2004). "Streetmusic Arabe". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Nass El Ghiwane, one of the most important bands in the history of north-African music, ... back in the late 1960s, and a major influence on the Rai movement that shook up the music scene over the border in Algeria, they've been described as Morocco's answer to the Beatles or the Stones. ... Ideally, they should have shared the bill with some of the great musicians they have influenced – Rachid Taha...
  13. ^ a b c John Lewis (30 March 2007). "Paris calling: Rachid Taha was just one of the musicians inspired by the Clash's visit to Paris in 1981. John Lewis explores the band's enduring influence in France". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  14. ^ "Corrections". The New York Times. 20 March 2005. Retrieved 4 June 2011. A front-page index entry last Sunday for an article about the singer Rachid Taha misstated his nationality. He is Algerian, as the article said, not Egyptian.
  15. ^ Michael kimmelman (17 October 2007). "Ready or Not, France Opens Museum on Immigration". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011. National Center of the History of Immigration ... Otherwise, the museum makes do with ... Rachid Taha, the singer of dual French and Algerian citizenship ...
  16. ^ "A guide to surviving the Fest". The Ottawa Citizen. 3 July 2008. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2011. ... Rachid Taha, the cowboy-hatted Algerian-French rocker whose recorded oeuvre includes a version of the Clash's Rock the Casbah ...
  17. ^ a b Martin Vennard (11 November 2001). "Womad wows Gran Canaria". BBC News. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Rachid Taha ... There can't have been a pair of feet at the Womad Canarias festival that weren't at least tapping to his seductive mixture of traditional North African, rock, techno and dance music. ...
  18. ^ "Rachid Taha: Tekitoi? (Wrasse)". The Observer. London. 19 September 2004. Retrieved 4 June 2011. The rocking title track is street slang for 'Who The Hell Are You?' and if Taha could work that one out he could be huge. Echoes of Joe Strummer, Khaled and Manu Chao – and promise aplenty.
  19. ^ Sarah Liss, Jason Kavelman (28 January 2011). "Rachid Taha: "Rock the Casbah"". CBC radio 2. Retrieved 4 June 2011. ... It is off the soundtrack from 'The Future Is Unwritten,' the film about Joe Strummer from the Clash. It's a remake of an old Clash favourite... It's really different and really cool....
  20. ^ "Rachid Taha – "Rock El Casbah" feat. Mick Jones". YouTube. 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  21. ^ "Rachid Taha – Rock El Casbah feat. Mick Jones & Brian Eno – live at Stop the War concert". YouTube. 27 November 2005. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  22. ^ "The OMM top 50 covers". The Guardian. London. 2004. Retrieved 4 June 2011. 32 Rachid Taha – "Rock el Casbah" (2004) (orig. The Clash, 1982) – An Algerian rai rebel reclaiming the Clash's potshot at Arab nations who ban Western music is irresistible.
  23. ^ "Africa in pictures: 24–30 June". BBC News. 30 June 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2011. A Moroccan girl is entranced by the music of Franco-Algerian singer Rachid Taha during his performance at the Essaouira world music festival over the weekend in Morocco.
  24. ^ Ben Sisario (16 April 2008). "ARTS, BRIEFLY; Summerstage Fills Its Lineup". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011. The New York buzz band Vampire Weekend and the author Richard Pricewill be part of Central Park SummerStage this year. ... Rachid Taha and Dengue Fever (July 5);
  25. ^ Robin Denselow (25 October 2008). "Africa Express/Africa Now". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011. The lineup read like a Who's Who of west African music ... and the wild Algerian punk fan Rachid Taha. ... Africa Express, a movement that set out to present African and western musicians on an equal footing, in angry response to the lack of Africans at Bob Geldof's Live 8.
  26. ^ CanWest MediaWorks Publications (3 January 2008). "Jean Leclerc, Malajube, Rachid Taha. ... Know their music?". The Gazette (Montreal). Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2011. the great Rachid Taha, a hero in Montreal, still has difficulty getting airplay in France. Yet modern French-language music manages to be aesthetically competitive with anglo-American and global infusions. Anomalies run rampant.
  27. ^ Robin Denselow (26 September 2008). "Collaboration with every nation". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011. But Fela's sons Femi and Seun will certainly be present ... Rachid Taha.
  28. ^ a b Dwight garner (23 January 2008). "Living with Music: A Playlist by David Rothenberg". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2011. ... I saw Rachid play the Astoria in London with Brian Eno in an anti-war concert a few years ago.
  29. ^ a b c d Robin Denselow (30 October 2009). "Rachid Taha: Bonjour". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  30. ^ "Rachid Taha". cbc (Canadian news). 12 June 2010. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Reuben Maan is a huge fan of the Algerian musician Rachid Taha. Reuben shared his enthusiasm when he joined Mary to talk about Taha, who's come to Toronto to play a concert today (June 12) at 4 p.m. at Queen's Park North as part of the city's Luminato festivities.
  31. ^ Robin Denselow (25 September 2009). "Speed Caravan: Kalashnik Love". the guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Born in Algeria ... Mehdi Haddab is a virtuoso of the ancient classical Arabic lute, the oud ... he sets out to match the furious rai-rock fusion work of Rachid Taha, with Taha himself joining in on vocals ...
  32. ^ "Rachid Taha, 'Zoom'". Rolling Stone. 23 December 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  33. ^ "Trans Musicales de Rennes 2012 : 12 concerts à ne pas louper". FranceTVinfo – Culturebox. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  34. ^ John Lewis (26 June 2013). "Rachid Taha/Souad Massi – review (Barbican, London)". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  35. ^ "Rachid Taha – Voilà, Voilà feat. Agnès b., Femi Kuti, Mick Jones, Christian Olivier, Eric Cantona, Camélia Jordana, Oxmo Puccino, Rachida Brachni, Sonia Rolland, Rodolphe Burger (Official video clip)". rachidtahaofficial.com. 2012. Archived from the original on 21 December 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  36. ^ "Rachid Taha – Now or Never feat. Jeanne Added (Official video clip)". YouTube. 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  37. ^ "Algerian singer Rachid Taha dies at 59". BBC News. 12 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  38. ^ "GC 2008 – Far Cry 2". play3.de (in German). 21 August 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  39. ^ "Eclectic International Soundtrack Backs 'Charlie'". Billboard. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  40. ^ "Blood and Chocolate - Songs and soundtrack music from the film". Blood and Chocolate Film Official Website. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  41. ^ Wiser, Danny (16 July 2020). "ALGERIA: Je Suis Africain - Rachid Taha". 200worldalbums.com. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  42. ^ Philly Markowitz (2005). "Best Albums of 2005". cbc.ca (Canadian news). Archived from the original on 29 June 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2011. Some are releases from big name artists: ... Rachid Taha ...
  43. ^ Amobe Mevegue (27 October 2009). "Culture: Music news with Amobe Mevegue". France 24. Retrieved 4 June 2011. In this edition, our music critic Amobe Mevegue talks about eclectic artists who perform worldwide. He starts with Moby, Rachid Taha and Papa Wemba.
  44. ^ "Rachid Taha souffrait de la maladie d'Arnold Chiari : Courage et dignité | El Watan" (in French). 13 September 2018.
  45. ^ Le Monde: Mort du chanteur Rachid Taha, légende du métissage musical (in French)
  46. ^ "Rachid Taha obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  47. ^ ""Je suis Africain" de Rachid Taha "sort de manière posthume mais l'album était terminé de son vivant" : Le musicien Toma Feterman raconte deux ans de complicité". 20 September 2019.
  • Plastino, Goffredo (2003). Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds. .

External links