Saturday, November 16, 2013

Tunisian Chaabi

 Tunisian chaabi artist Slah Mosbah

From Tunisia Live here is a useful introduction to Tunisian chaabi music, which one never hears or reads about by comparison with the ample coverage of Moroccan and Algerian chaabi.

In Tunisia, the article states, the genre is known as "fann chaabi," and it translates this as "the art of the masses." The article also insists on calling it a part of the country's "folkloric" tradition -- which seems problematic to me because it is an urban art form. But this is just a minor quibble.