Châabi music master Amar Ezzahi keeps low profile

29/12/2005

For lovers of Algerian popular music, Amar Ezzahi is a living legend. Despite his status as the undisputed master of the genre, he remains far from the limelight by not making public appearances and refusing to make himself available to the media.

By Nazim Fethi for Magharebia in Algiers – 29/12/05

[File] Ezzahi only plays at family gatherings.

Algerian Amar Ezzahi, a brilliant writer and interpreter of châabi (Algerian popular music), whose real name is Amar Aït Zaï, was born on January 1941 in Tizi-Ouzou. He became involved with the genre in 1963 after meeting Sheik Lahlou and Mohammed Brahimi, known as Sheik Kebaili. They encouraged him, sent him ancient qacidate (poems), and demonstrated the rhythm in which the texts were sung. Ezzahi was then able to teach himself through practice.

Ezzahi's first recording was in 1968. The modest, reserved and quiet man often hung out at El Kawakib, a café in the Kasbah of Algiers. After being one of the most brilliant châabi artists in the 1970s, Ezzahi practically disappeared from the music scene after 1980, turning up only for family celebrations. He reappeared 10 February 1987 at a recital at a major venue in Algiers, only to disappear once more.

Ezzahi has not made any public appearance since, and has rarely gone to El Kawabib since 2000 due to health problems. The most popular and gifted singer of his generation is now considered a veritable enigma in the music world. Completely withdrawn from the media circuit for some years, Ezzahi leaves his many admirers hungering for more.

The generous man, who is intolerant of worldliness and excess, has made châabi his reason for living. While he refuses to appear before large audiences, he still finds immense pleasure in intimate family gatherings because, "singing in front of a little audience of friends is one of the greatest feelings in the world".

Amar Ezzahi recorded his only cassette in 1982, forcing admirers to delve into personal recordings from family celebrations in the 1970s or hunt for his old records.

Ezzahi's talent is improvisation, being able to change style with disconcerting ease. Having lost both his parents, Ezzahi lived for a long time with an aunt. She died a few years ago, leaving Ezzahi with the solitude he had always been seeking.

Consequently, Ezzahi has shunned the spotlight and described himself as being on the side of humble folk. He has held many events for common people with modest incomes. His fans follow him to family celebrations, and record his music, which they copy and sell by the thousands.

Since the death of El Hadj Mohamed El Anka, known as "The Cardinal", Ezzahi has been widely regarded as his successor in a line of grand masters of châabi, despite his media avoidance and strong competition from El Anka's pupils.