Biography
Bachir Attar assumed leadership of the Master Musicians of Jajouka upon his father's passing in 1982, steering the ensemble into one of its most rewarding eras. Under his guidance the group—labeled a “4,000 year old rock & roll band” by novelist William Burroughs and hailed by www.crittersbuggin.com as the “ancient founding family of trance”—has joined forces with artists from around the world, among them the Rolling Stones, Ornette Coleman, Maceo Parker, Sonic Youth, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Indian composer, DJ, club promoter, and tabla player Talvin Singh served as producer for the ensemble’s 2000 release Searching for the Passions.
Born in the northern Moroccan foothills of the Rif Mountains, Attar was destined for a life in music. He belongs to a lineage of state-recognized performers that once supplied royal court musicians to seven Moroccan kings before the French and Spanish occupation. He took up percussion studies at age four. Still a child, he witnessed the late Brian Jones capture the Master Musicians of Jajouka on tape shortly before Jones’s drowning death in 1969; the resulting album, The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka, appeared two years afterward. Beyond his duties with the group, Attar has sustained a parallel path as solo performer and session musician. During repeated visits to Paris, London, and New York he worked alongside Deborah Harry, Ornette Coleman, Maceo Parker, the Rolling Stones, and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. His solo album The Next Dream came out in 1992, followed in 1994 by In New York, a collaboration with improviser Elliott Sharp.
Born in the northern Moroccan foothills of the Rif Mountains, Attar was destined for a life in music. He belongs to a lineage of state-recognized performers that once supplied royal court musicians to seven Moroccan kings before the French and Spanish occupation. He took up percussion studies at age four. Still a child, he witnessed the late Brian Jones capture the Master Musicians of Jajouka on tape shortly before Jones’s drowning death in 1969; the resulting album, The Pipes of Pan at Jajouka, appeared two years afterward. Beyond his duties with the group, Attar has sustained a parallel path as solo performer and session musician. During repeated visits to Paris, London, and New York he worked alongside Deborah Harry, Ornette Coleman, Maceo Parker, the Rolling Stones, and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. His solo album The Next Dream came out in 1992, followed in 1994 by In New York, a collaboration with improviser Elliott Sharp.
Albums
In New York
2022
Dancing Under the Moon
2022
Apocalypse Live
2017
Jajouka / New York
2014
The Next Dream
2013
Live
