Alla

Tanakoul

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Conversation avec un luth

A tout voyage il faut une musique. Le ntre nous ramenait anne aprs anne au bord du Sahara, dans limmense massif de dunes du Grand Erg Occidental, avec lobsession den pntrer le mystre. Cest l, videmment, que nous devions rencontrer la musique dAlla. Lun des premiers soirs Taghit, oasis de rve comme sur les vieux chromos, nous fmes invits par les notables, le maire, le secrtaire du parti, le facteur et dautres encore, connus en dambulant dans le village. Il y avait un match de foot la tl mais quelquun coupa le son, la conversation avait pris le dessus. Dans les silences elle laissait place aux rsonances dun luth. Ce ntait quune cassette mdiocrement enregistre mais linstrument chantait sous la main dun virtuose. Il nous parlait de galops effrns et du pas lent du chameau, ouvrait tout grand lespace dans lallgresse et la gravit de lerrance. Nous venions de dcouvrir Alla, le luthiste de Bechar et sa musique ne cesserait daccompagner nos traverses du dsert. Elle en a lampleur et permet den aborder la dimension spirituelle. Intense, lgre, planante, mme Paris, elle a le don de faire surgir ce silence intrieur qui ne prend racine que l-bas.
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Le chemin dAlla ne devait pas tarder croiser le ntre. Le soir de notre premire rencontre il dnait avec quelques amis dans lun des rares restaurants de Bechar o lon pouvait encore consommer de lalcool. Alla, petit bonhomme en cravate, sangl dans son costume, nous apparut linverse du personnage que nous avions imagin. Le contact se noua dans une sorte de jeu de cache-cache avec nos questions et ses non-rponses. Le dialogue stablit enfin mais pour la musique il fallut attendre. Reconnu comme le meilleur joueur de luth du sud Oranais, Alla ne possdait pas dinstrument et nous dmes partir dans Bechar la nuit la recherche dun luth. Deux heures plus tard, aprs lavoir longuement accord il se mit jouer mais puiss nous nous endormmes sur les tapis. Un rituel sinstalla, chacun de nos passages Bechar il y avait une soire avec Alla. Au fil du temps sa musique nous disait le drame du pays et la difficult dtre Algrien. Elle avait dabord pris son inspiration dans les rythmes marocains du Tafilalet voisin, le pays de sa mre, et chant ses racines bdouines. La seule cassette dAlla quon trouvait alors au souk de Bechar avait t enregistre nimporte comment dans les mariages o on lui demandait de jouer. Nous insistions pour quil vienne faire un disque en France, mais lpoque il refusait obstinment de gagner de largent avec sa musique. Au fil tragique de lHistoire de lAlgrie il eut de plus en plus de mal jouer puis finit par renoncer et ouvrit... une boutique. Marchand de meubles.
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Sa vie passait par un retour lIslam et ses valeurs traditionnelles. Nous lui disions de nous rejoindre en France. Il dbarqua au moment o lon ne lattendait plus. Et sa musique revint lUNESCO en septembre 1992 loccassion dune exposition sur la Casbah dAlger. Arriv pour sjourner trois jours Paris, le destin et ses amis ont fait quil y demeure encore aujourdhui. Alla tait devenu musicien nomade ou plutt musicien voyageur. Nous lavions quitt dans sa boutique de Bechar et nous le retrouvions assis sur un tapis, au centre de la scne du Thtre de la Ville, Paris, devant une salle bonde qui vibrait dmotion. Presque immdiatement, avec un premier disque, la voix singulire de son luth avait rencontr son public. La conversation avec le luth a repris et, depuis, se mtisse daccents dautres Suds, de Sicile ou dAndalousie o Alla a donn des concerts. Souvent il chantonne, saccompagne de la voix, sa musique la consol. Plus caressante, plus joyeuse, elle sest approfondie aussi de voyages intrieurs, de recherches inlassables, de travail sur les aigus de son instrument entre improvisations et rencontres avec le rythme.

Marie-Odile Delacour et Jean-Ren Huleu

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Conversations with a lute

Every voyage needs its music. Ours brought us year after year back to the border of the Sahara, in the huge mass of dunes of the Great Western Erg, with the obsession of penetrating its mystery. It was here, of course, that we encountered Allas music. One of the first evenings in Taghit, an oasis like an old picture postcard, we were invited by the leading citizens, the mayor, the secretary to the party, the mailman and others, as we walked through the village. There was a soccer game on the television but someone cut the sound as the conversation dominated. In the pauses of the conversation you could hear the sound of a lute. It was a poorly recorded cassette but the instrument was obviously played by a virtuoso. He portrayed frantic galloping and the slow saunter of the camel, opening a huge expanse in happiness and seriousness of wandering. We had just discovered Alla, the lutist from Bechar and his music would accompany all our travels in the desert. His music is ample and has a spiritual dimension. Intense, light, even in Paris it has a way of bringing that inner silence that takes its roots only in the desert.
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It didnt take long for our path to cross with Allas. The night of our first meeting he was having dinner with some friends in one of the few restaurants in Bechar where you can drink alcohol. In his tight suit and necktie, the small man that was Alla was very different from what we had imagined. Our relationship began with a game of hide-and-seek with our questions and his evasive answers. We finally entered a dialogue but for the music we had to wait. Alla, recognised as the best lute player in all of southern Oran, did not have an instrument of his own. We left Bechar in the night in search of a lute. Two hours later, after having tuned the instrument for some time, he started playing. However, we were all so tired that we fell asleep on the mats. A ritual started, with each of our trips to Bechar we would spend one evening with Alla. Over time his music told us of the drama of his country and the difficulty in being Algerian. His first inspiration came from the Moroccan rhythms of nearby Tafilalet, his native country, and his Bedouin roots. At the time, the only cassette of Allas music could be found in the Bechar souk. It was a haphazard recording made during wedding ceremonies which he played at. We insisted that he come to France to record but at the time he refused to earn money through his music. With the tragic history of Algeria he had more and more difficulty in playing then finally gave up. He opened a store. A furniture store.
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His life was directed by a return to Islam and traditional values. We told him to come join us in France. He came when we least expected him. And his music came back at UNESCO in september 1992 for three days. Destiny and friends have kept him in Paris. Alla had became of nomadic musician, or rather a travelling musician. We left him in his shop in Bechar to find him sitting on a mat in the front of the stage of the Thtre de la Ville in Paris, playing for a full audience filled with emotion. Almost immediately, the special sound of his lute found its public with his first record. The conversation with the lute had resumed and since then, mixing accents from other Mediterranean regions, Sicily, Andalusia, where Alla has given concerts. He often hums, accompanying himself with his voice. His music has consoled him. It has become more caressing, happier, deeper from his inner travels, continuous search and work on his instrument between improvisations and encounters with rhythm.

Marie-Odile Delacour and Jean-Ren Huleu

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