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A contribution from Muhammad Khalil Eugene Lange: |
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Peace and Blessings to all at Soulpool.
Just a few lines about some research I hope to publish soon, maybe you
can post it on your web-sight as a poet it's more like a story, a story
of the Blues as an African Sufi Tariqa whose roots go back to the Ethiopian
Hadrat Bilal (ra). Bilal (ra) was the first person to make the Islamic
call to prayer. Bilal was ccthe freed slave was chosen to call the prayer
because the sound of the Ethiopian voice was the most favoured at the
time, even as it is today in the West in the form off Black Music.
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The story of Bilal (ra) and The Blues Path of Healing, began
for when I visited Morocco back in 1981, even though me and the Blues go
back further due to me Ma and me da both being Blues/Gospel singers, and
it being something I grew in. My arl-man beibg now a Gospel singing Bible
teacher in St John's Baptis College, Austin, Texas. All I'm saying is I
knew the Blues alraedy, but when I jammed with the Black African-sub-Saharan
Gnouwa street musicians in Morocco, my knowledge deepened. The Gnouwa buskers
claim that their Tariqa, or path of self-knowledge, and self-repair comes
from a blessing given to Bilal (ra) from The Prophet Muhammad (saws). As
it transpires, Bilal (ra) was granted a wish by The Prophet Muhammad (saws),
for curing his daughter Fatima Zorah (ra) of depression with his singing,
playing, and comic dancing wearing a robe with cowrey shells sewn onto it
and a red felt hat sewn with cowreys, and fixed with dread locks, the Gnouwa
still wear these, they also still play the castanets that Bilal (ra) is
known to have accompamied himself with that day. |
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It is a known fact that , despite the belief amongst many
orthodox Muslims that music is forbidden, The Prophet (saws), allowed the
customs and music of the Ethiopians to go unchanged, to the extent that
they are the only people to ever be recorded to have danced in the mosque
in Medina, the Holy city of The Beloved Prophet (sasw). And Hadith tells
how he, Muhammad(saws), lifted up his wife Aysha (ra), to watch them when
they were performing in front of a crowd busking, and dancing. This Ethiopian
music of the Habashi Bilal (ra), was subsequently carried by slaves acroos
Africa through Sudan, Mauritania, up through Hausaland, Ghana, Nigeria,
Niger, Cameroon, Gambia, Senegal and Mali to Morocco, where today it is
still used to cure ill spirits, in a sort of Bluesifying exorcism> Many
Jazz musicians have followed this infor;al creative path as a form of journey
back to their spiritual roots, and the original religiously healing purpose
of their ancestors music. Ali Fark Toure of Mali plays this Desert Blues,
listen to him for the proof of our Islamic roots heritage in healing through
sound. It's no coincidence that his village is called Nia Funke. Listen
to the Egyptian poorman's rhythm it's funk, and it's Nia Binghi, listen
to Moroccan Gnouwa music it's Blues. And it's true nature should be aknowledged
and preserved. |
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As a mixed-race, Liverpool born person with African ancestry, and a poet-singer-drummer,
I think it is important to do as Shiekh Sulieman al Hadi of the Last Poets
says " Put more meaning in the things that you do and there will
be more meaning in you". The Blues is a remembrance and a healing.
It heals our pride and our anger as a down trodden minority peoples, and
it's something that we've shared with the World through the Beatles. As
such I hope that people of all races, religions, regional dialects, classes
and creeds, can appreciate the intention of my wishing to elevate the
Blues form as a special sort of ancestral cultural pass-time, for healing
the Soul with a Gospel sort of legacy. African Sufi Gospel Blues &
Soul is a form that, I have been working on for years vocally, and rhythmicaly,
God Willing, one day I might get to perfect it. We all need to dream,
and we all need a moan from time to time, as African descendants we have
always led the West by doing this creatively, as Brother Bob Marley said
"One Good Thing About Music; When it Hits You Feel No Pain. When
It Hits You Feel OK."As a vehicle for culturaldiversity and interfaith
dialogue I think it could be only just coming into it's own but its. up
to lovers of Earthy Human Harmony, to pick up the ball and run with it,
and not to let the true spirit of the Blues die out. as the Northern Soulers
used to say "Keep The Faith".
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Salaam-Shalom-Peace-Pax....
Muhammad Khalil Eugene Lange,
Blues Dervish,
Toxteth,
Liverpool,
England, UK. |
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