The ONB’s real comeback

Barbès immersion

Paris 

07/06/2010 - 

This fourth album from the National Orchestra takes us to the heart of the east Parisian neighbourhood that gave them their name, Barbès. The group so synonymous with late 20th century “community living” has pulled out the stoppers and returned to the “trans-Maghreb” sound that made its early career such a success fifteen years ago. The bass player, Youssef, gave us the facts.

“We did our first concert back in 1996,” reminisces Youssef Boukella, who has played bass with the band from the start and seen around fifty members come and go (musicians and technicians). Youssef goes on: “Very quickly, just a few months after we’d started performing, we brought out a live album. Poulina, the second, followed in 1999. After that, it was almost a decade before we got back into the studio. We’d done too many tours, and had to take a break,” he comments.  The release of Alik in 2008, promoted as the group’s comeback album, didn’t convince many, and especially not the band: “Its darker, more rock sound wasn’t totally us. Our real comeback is actually now, with Rendez-vous Barbès.”

The group is obviously on top form and has gone back to basics with a fusion of music genres from the Maghreb (like allaoui, gnawa, chaabi and raï). The familiar allaoui rhythm is still there – a made-in-Morocco groove that can be found on the very first track (Sidi Yahia-Bnet Paris), but the Orchestre (inter)National de Barbès also plays around with ska reminiscent of Madness and an up-tempo Berber beat (Chkoun?), Jamaican dub (Chorfa), Moroccan chaabi (Jarahtini-Marhba-Jibouhali), ganawa whirls (Laâfou), and pre-synthesiser raï-trab (Denya).

Not careerists

For all of those musicians who have taken part in the ONB adventure, Barbès isn’t just an area for meeting people from all over Africa, it is primarily a place where North African music production is organised around “boutique labels”. “Barbès is a meeting place, it’s the WOMAD of North African music”, muses Youssef Boukella. And they are attached to Barbès, even though none of them lives there any more, not even Hafid Bidari, the most recent ONB recruit. “Hafid joined us two years ago. He’s a Gnawa from Oran – he brought us the sunshine,” explains Youssef, who hammers out ONB’s sales pitch once more: “We are primarily a live group. It’s up on stage where ONB really gets going. Nothing is calculated or premeditated. Life has made us what we are, with our differences and similarities. We are all taking part in a joint adventure. We’re not civil servants, we’re not even careerists.”

Their diversity means they can avoid being associated with any particular flag, even though, “for fun”, they were once part of the Bougnoule Connexion*“There are fourteen of us when we tour. Some are left wing, some are right wing. Some say their prayers, some don’t. So we have to be tolerant. Surely we can talk about other things than the niqab?” he asks himself. “We would rather be part of a virtual nation where we can make music together. That would be something else!”

"We play wherever we are asked to"

The Barbès that gave them their name has completely changed. “The neighbourhood is becoming almost normal. It’s a bit less dodgy, there are fewer heroine dealers”, notes Youssef, who also points out a change in the social core. “Like everywhere else in Paris and its near suburbs, rents have gone up, pushing the poorest inhabitants to the outskirts. But thankfully, Barbes is still a real melting pot where all types come together. It’s still full of life and colour!” he proclaims. The music business has changed there too. In the 1970s, cassettes took over from the vinyl records of North African countries’ pre- and post-independence, and then became outdated themselves when music moved over to digital (CDs, then MP3s).

“Barbès is still the best local Job Centre for North African musicians. It’s still the main meeting place,” confirms the bass-player who has toured the world with the ONB. “We play wherever we are asked to,” he explains, “from the Presipality of Groland**, transported to Quend-Plage-les-Pins for the duration of an annual cinema festival, to the Principality of Monaco for the Grimaldi family’s Rose Ball, and places like Villetaneuse University and Constantine, where we played a couple of days ago. There’s always an enthusiastic, warm atmosphere, both on stage and among the audience, and that’s the main thing,” Youssef exclaims happily.

 

ONB on MySpace

* A group of friends who banded together to promote North African culture – “bougnoule” is a pejorative term for a North African.
**A fictitious land that features in various humorous TV programmes in France.

Orchestre National de Barbès Rendez-vous Barbès (Chants du monde / Harmonia Mundi) 2010

Playing live in Paris, at the Cabaret Sauvage, from 26 to 31 October 2010.

Squaaly

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper