Word: taha
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Banjoko spoke after an introduction by Taha Abdul-Basser ’96, a Ph.D. candidate in Islamic Studies and an Islamic representative to the United Ministry at Harvard...
...Tweaking accepted conceptions of musical and cultural identity has been a Taha trademark for more than 20 years. He's focused on merging the influences of his native Algeria with the European idioms he encountered after emigrating to France when he was 10. A native of Oran, a culturally rich northwestern port city, Taha came of age displaced from his Algerian roots but without being accepted by French society either. In 1980, after a series of drudge jobs, including a stint in a heater factory, Taha hooked up with a quartet - three of whom were fellow ethnic Arabs...
...nostalgic Douce France (Sweet France), a wartime ballad extolling an insouciant, bucolic nation of villages, church bells and endless horizons. The ironic reminder of the less-than-sweet treatment reserved for France's immigrants and minority populations propelled Douce France into the charts, and set the tone for Taha's subsequent releases...
...Since going solo in 1990, Taha's output has been eclectic. He produced two rock-based albums before going decidedly electronic with Olé, Olé in 1995. In 1998, Diwan went gold - selling over 100,000 copies in France - fueled by the hit single Ya Rayah, a popular north African song of exile that takes on a roguish air with Taha's rough vocal. Despite some commercial success, Taha's mix of traditional and electronic instrumentation and beats, and his habit of singing in Arabic, has often led critics to classify his records as fusion or world music...
...Taha takes his own advice very much to heart. "I've understood that if we bend to the clichés and roles society assigns us, we'll never progress, never integrate, never really learn from each other," he says. "In a way, I guess I've become so integrated I can now stand apart and do things my way." Like rocking the Casbah - in Arabic...