The strange history of 1971’s ‘Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka’
Following the expiration of their Decca contract in 1970, The Rolling Stones followed The Beatles’ example with their Apple Records and established their own namesake label, Sticky Fingers, being the first Stones LP on the new Rolling Stones Records imprint and introducing the world to the iconic tongue and lips logo plastered across their merchandise to this day.
Conceived as a measure to own their publishing rights and provide an easy outlet for associated projects, bassist Bill Wyman released his first two solo efforts via the group’s vanity label, plus Peter Tosh and The Mamas and the Papas’ John Phillips signed up.
The fledgling label’s first issue was its most intriguing, however. Channelling the contemporary counterculture’s heady fascination with indigenous folk music’s arcane mysticism, 1971’s Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka was instrumental in bringing The Master Musicians of Joujouka to Western audiences.
Recorded in 1968 during a trip to Morocco along with Beat poet Brion Gysin and recording engineer George Chkiantz, The Rolling Stones’ deified founding member headed to the Rif Moutain village with a portable Uher recorder and documented the Jbala tribe’s Sufi celebration of the religious Aid el Kbir festival.
Surrounded by word-of-mouth folklore regarding the origins of their trance-like power, the Jajouka village’s Attar clan musicians are practitioners of a cultural practice going back thousands of years, serving as potent conduits for Sufi barakah, or ‘blessing’, via their mantra playing of traditional instruments including the lira, ghaita, the three-stringed guimbi, and plenty of double-headed percussion.
Alienated by The Stones’ march toward rock away from his beloved blues and plagued with uncertainty in the increasing shadow of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ winning songwriting partnership, Jones’ creative contributions to the band were increasingly sporadic and haphazard by the time of his Jajouka project. Seeking stimulation elsewhere and anticipating his eventual dismissal from the band, Jones poured his energy into shaping the material in the studio, editing the 90 minutes of uncut audio into its eventual LP length via an artful use of cross-phasing and subtle studio effects.
“No one’s ever spotted the fact that Brian took two, sometimes three songs and layered them. People writing about the album have missed it because they have no clue what Joujouka music is,” Jojouka manager Frank Rynne told Ugly Things in 2020. Suggesting that Jones may have been influenced by Gysin’s cut-up approach, Rynne further stated: “Listen to the women singing with flute and drum underneath them; that’s two songs playing at the same time. That’s why Brian deserves to have his name on the cover. He was making a cut-up of the music to recreate what he felt there.”
Approaching the archive as a field recording, Jones keeps all kinds of crucial audio details to further the record’s authenticity: dogs barking, the occasional clatter of furnishing or crockery, and the hubbub of nearby crowds all organically held together by tape hiss thrusting the listener in the middle of the musical ceremony.
The Master Musicians of Joujouka still command worldwide fascination and frequent session demand. Lending their Moroccan instruments to Steel Wheels‘ ‘Continental Drift’ in 1989 and later collaborating with Jane’s Addiction and The Orb, their acclaimed 2023 set at Glastonbury Festival won the Sufi ensemble a new generation of fans. Forever indebted to Jones’ production work with them, the musicians included the track ‘Brian Jones Joujouka Very Stoned’ on 1995’s Joujouka Black Eyes in honour of the late Rolling Stones idol.
