A00260 - The Magical Music of Maurice El Medioni, The Pianist Who Fused Jewish and Arab Music into Andalous

 As one who becomes intrigued by unusual stories involving music, I found myself drawn to the obituary this week for Maurice El Medioni

What fascinated me was that Mr. El Medioni's music was inspired by the American jazz that he heard when his country was occupied by American troops during World War II.  And that he was greatly influenced by the improvisation that he saw by the African Americans who played jazz at that time.

Having read about Mr. El Medioni, I immediately wanted to see what his music sounded like.  That led me to this amazing piano performance with Omri Mor.

Tribute to Maurice El Mediouni - (4) Khlassat (El Mediouni & Omri Mor) (youtube.com)

The dual piano playing on the same piano was something I had never seen before and the manner in which it was executed was simply dazzling.

Towards the end of the obituary, Mr. El Medioni is said to have been concerned that his unique synthesis of Sephardic Jewish, Arab, Jazz and boogie woogie might vanish once he passed away.  Maybe, but it appears that he has influenced a new generation of musicians like Omri Mor



Neta Elkayam

Maurice El Médioni host Neta Elkayam | موريس المديوني ونيطع القايام (youtube.com)

and Yasmin Levy


pretty much guarantee that in some form the music of Maurice El Medioni will continue to live for some time to come.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
April 20, 2024

P.S.  It is noted that Mr. El Medioni exited the music scene during his exile from his Algerian homeland after it became independent in 1961.  It would be almost three decades before he returned.  Musically, it was as though he was "re-born" when he was in his 60s.  Perhaps, that may be why he brought so much joy to his work, and perhaps, why he seemed to be in a creative heaven.  Indeed, how else can one explain why the piano playing Maurice El Medioni was brought to rise from the piano and sing


Simply amazing!

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
April 20, 2024

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