CHEB I SABBAH

Iowa debut | Cheb i Sabbah is a legendary Algerian born, San Francisco DJ who spins what he calls an “Outernational Mix” of dance music from “the oasis of Arabia, Africa, Asia.” A hybrid of Hindustani classical music and contemporary mixology, Sabbah taps into something timeless and without borders.

Cheb i Sabbah grew up Jewish, of Berber (Amazigh) descent, in Constantine, Algeria, so the idea of mixing cultures was in his blood from the start. He moved to Paris in the 1960s, and became a DJ. By the late 1980s, he was pushing boundaries on the dance floor, seeking ways to work African, Asian and Arabic music into the mix. As the “world music” movement unfolded, Cheb i Sabbah took the inspired step of recording traditional and classical musicians himself and using those tracks to create bold, new works—effectively, music “composed” by a DJ.

With four landmark recordings under his belt, Cheb i Sabbah enjoys a worldwide reputation as a magician of the dance floor, from the crowded confines of New York’s Knitting Factory to L.A.’s massive Getty Center. On stage, he improvises using precomposed tracks and massive, projected visuals, interwoven and juxtaposed as the spirit moves him.

In the past, Cheb i Sabbah produced trippy and mellifluous prayers to the Hindu goddess Durga and sang beatific stories of Lord Krishna, but with his new record Sabbah gets to the center of the universe itself and investigates the nature of devotion. His seventh album on Six Degrees Records, Devotion has been in the making for at least nine years, since Sabbah started visiting India to record his first release in 1999.

The record features three distinct traditions of religious music representing Hinduism, Sikhism and Sufi Islam. “Jai Bhavani” (Praise to Bhavani), the gentle opening track features Anup Jalota, the pre-eminent singer of Hindu kirtans and bhajans in India and its call and response structure builds to a soaring, epic finale. The lilting and beautiful “Koi Bole Ram Ram” (Some Say Rama Rama) is sung by Rana Singh, a reputed Sikh gurbani singer whose understated harmonium carries the tune over multiple crests and valleys of tabla.

In the late 70s, Sabbah became acquainted with jazz maverick Don Cherry while touring with the famed “Living Theatre” in Europe. Meeting again when they both relocated to the West Coast, they collaborated in Sabbah’s “Tribal Warning Theatre.” Sabbah both acted in and directed the theater group, while Cherry composed the music. Kindred musical spirits from the start, it was no surprise when Cheb i Sabbah joined Cherry’s act. Cherry became Sabbah’s “mentor,” eventually insisting that Sabbah had found his gift to the music world and should return to spinning international sounds on the dance floor.