Brion Gysin

In the summer of 1950, Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles made a memorable trip to a moussem (festival) that was held on the Atlantic coast at Sidi Kacem, several miles south of Tangier. At Sidi Kacem, not in Jajouka, Gysin first heard some Sufi trance music which truly excited him. In a collection of Gysin's writings, Back in No Time: The Brion Gysin Reader, edited by Jason Weiss (2002, Wesleyan University Press), Gysin wrote: "I turned to Paul Bowles who had taken me there and said: 'I want to hear that music every day of my life!'" Soon thereafter, Gysin learned from his artist friend and protégé Mohamed Hamri that the musicians were from a small mountain village called Jajouka. Gysin eagerly went to Jajouka with Hamri to hear this music. Hamri's mother was born in Zahjouka/Jajouka, but she later moved to nearby Ksar-el-Kebir. Hamri was born in Ksar-el-Kebir (according to his obituary in The Independent newspaper published on October 19, 2000), but as a child he spent much time visiting relatives there, and later in life he divided his time between an apartment in Tangier and a house in Zahjouka (which he pronounced as "Jou-jou-ka"). In Gysin's book The Process (New York: Doubleday, 1969), Hamri was made into a real-life character named Hamid. With the help and translation from Maghribi Arabic or darija into English by his American-born wife Blanca Nyland, Hamri's stories were initially printed and published as a limited-edition of 50 copies and entitled Tales of Joujouka, edited by Édouard Roditi (Santa Barbara, California: Capra Press, 1975; reprinted later in Tangier: Black Eagle Press, 2003). This book contains eight stories about the legends, folkore, Sufi origins, myths and rituals of the Ahl Srif tribe in the foothills of the southern Rif Mountains near Ksar-el-Kebir, Morocco, whose Master Musicians so fascinated and even obsessed Gysin.

Although Brion Gysin originally spelled the name of the village as "Joujouka", which is how his friend Mohamed Hamri had pronounced it, Gysin in his later writings, references, correspondence and letters used the spelling of Jajouka for both the Master Musicians and the village itself. Likewise, although William S. Burroughs had used and published articles about the Master Musicians of Joujouka, he later used the much more common spelling of Jajouka. Perhaps this confusion in spelling first began because Hamri pronounced the village as Jou-jou-ka. The preferred spelling in English seems to be Jajouka. Hamri became an accomplished and prolific Moroccan artist (his personal calling card proclaimed "Hamri, The Painter of Morocco"), and during his lifetime numerous exhibitions of his paintings were held in Morocco and in other countries. Further exhibitions of Hamri's art works have been held since his death in 2000.

In December 1954, Brion Gysin and Mohamed Hamri opened a new restaurant in Tangier named 1001 Nights, located in a narrow wing of the Menebhi palace on the Marshan (it was a restaurant, not a café, and the 1001 Nights was not located in the Kasbah but rather on the Marshan, as at least one guide book and several travel articles on Tangier have inaccurately placed it). News spread quickly throughout Tangier about this restaurant and it soon became fashionable and attracted well-heeled Europeans and Americans resident in Tangier, and tourists. Customers included Cecil Beaton, Barbara Hutton, William Burroughs, Christopher Isherwood (when he visited Tangier), and Jane and Paul Bowles. Hamri was the cook, and Gysin hired the Master Musicians of Jajouka, who performed regularly, and dancing boys also provided entertainment. Hamri proved to be such an excellent cook that Gysin wrote "Hamri's Hands" as a preface for an intended cookbook of Hamri's recipes, but the book was never published. After Moroccan Independence in 1956, business at the restaurant dropped off dramatically. When a rich American couple named John and Mary Cooke from Hawaii arrived in Tangier, they became financial backers of the 1001 Nights. Later, Gysin visited the Cookes when they moved on to Algeria. It is said that Gysin cried when Mary Cooke abruptly fired him from his job at the restaurant, and it closed permanently in January 1958―never again to reopen. Gysin's dream in Tangier had come to an end, and soon thereafter he left Morocco and travelled first to London and shortly thereafter he settled in Paris.

In the spring of 1958, Gysin moved into a cheap, unnamed, 42-room hotel in Paris, at 9, rue Git-le Coeur on the Left Bank or Latin Quarter. The hotel had been frequented by writers and artists and later was referred to as the "Beat Hotel". The rooms were dimly lit and without telephones or carpets, and Gysin lived there for several years. Gysin continued his painting while living in Paris. He introduced Burroughs to the cut-up method of writing, and Gysin and Burroughs collaborated on the technique for four years. Gysin also worked with Gregory Corso. In 1961, Gysin and mathematician Ian Sommerville co-invented and constructed the first Dreamachine.

Brion Gysin developed both emphysema and lung cancer. While suffering, he died from a heart attack in Paris on July, 13, 1986, at the age of 70. His body was cremated in Paris on July 22, and during a post-cremation memorial given by Matilda, Duchess of Argyll, music of the Master Musicians of Jajouka was played (see page 317 of Nothing Is True, Everything is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin by John Geiger; New York, The Disinformation Company, Ltd., 2005). The urn containing Gysin's ashes was brought to Morocco by François de Palaminy, and on January 19, 1987, Gysin's birthday, de Palaminy, Paul Bowles, Felicity Mason (aka Anne Cumming), Salah, Hamri, Joe McPhillips, Mohamed Choukri, Udo Breger, Marguerite McBey and other friends gathered on a cliff near the Caves of Hercules outside Tangier. When they each took a portion of the ashes to scatter into the Atlantic Ocean, sudden gusts of winds blew his ashes back into their faces.