A shout out to Algeria!

I know I'm the only one who gets a thrill out of the little red dots on the map of who's showing up to my site but yesterday I got my first ping in AFRICA. I'm so excited...it's from Algeria! Little do they (the Algerians) know I am a lover of their music.

It all started in 1995 when I saw the movie Party Girl at the local independent cinema in Seattle. The movie was cute and funny but what struck me most was a certain "Middle Eastern sounding" song. I rushed out to buy the soundtrack to find out what the song was (this is before you could listen to clips on Amazon) and found it was Khaled's "Les Ailes."

I bought an album of Khaled and eventually, four of his CDs. I bought Rachid Taha (also of Algeria) and saw the Master Musicians of Jajouka (Morocco) play in Seattle. It was a fantastic show, a magical experience. I bought Césaria Évora from Cape Verde, off the coast of Senegal, a beautiful blend of African, European and North American sounds.

A friend introduced me to Passion: Music For The Last Temptation of Christ. I have still never seen the movie but the soundtrack is unbelievably beautiful. I bought Passion Sources, the music and musicians that inspired and contributed to the soundtrack. Its traditional North African songs (many not more than vocals) are probably too exotic for most but I love them. I collected all of Dead Can Dance's music, also heavily borrowing North African themes. This rich music ironically goes very well with the dark, wet winters of Seattle.

Although my tastes have become more varied since moving to Los Angeles, (I'm loving Central-African-by-way-of-Belgium Zap Mama's latest) this music still holds a special place in my heart. In the last couple of years, I've even got my mother hooked. She can't get enough of Natacha Atlas (Egypt) and has listened to nothing but Cheb i Sabbah (Algeria) for the last few weeks. (This is a great disc.)

Seemingly unrelated, today has officially been declared Star Wars Day in Los Angeles but there's no mention of North Africa's special role in the sextet of films.

According to the official Star Wars site, North Africa has provided most of the films' shooting locations:
Tatooine was originally named Aquilae in the draft scripts of Star Wars, before adopting a name very similar to the southern Tunisian city of Tataouine. Being the most explored planet in the Star Wars films, Tatooine required the greatest number of real-world filming locations. In Africa, Djerba, Matmata, Tozeur, Medenine, Ksar Hadada, the Chott El-Djerid, and La Grande Dune doubled as Tatooine locales; in California, the production crew visited Death Valley, and in Arizona, the sand dunes of Yuma.

So, from California to Algeria, Happy Star Wars Day!