Haim Botbol (; born 1937) is a Moroccan musician.

Biography

He was born to a Jewish family in

Fes Fez () or Fes (; ) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fez-Meknes administrative region. It is one of the largest cities in Morocco, with a population of 1.256 million, according to the 2024 census. Located to the nort ...

renowned for chaabi music. His father Jacob Abitbol was a leader of the '' malhun'' musical tradition in Fes. The family name Botbol () or Abitbol () means "father of the drum" in

Darija Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...

. As a young performer, he excelled in various styles, from

aita Aita (), also spelled Eita (), is an epithet of the Etruscan chthonic fire god Śuri as god of the underworld, roughly equivalent to the Greek god Hades (). Images Aita is a relatively late addition to the Etruscan pantheon, appearing i ...

and chaabi to Gharnati and

raï Raï (, ; , , ), sometimes written rai, is a form of Algerian folk music that dates back to the 1920s. Singers of Raï are called () or (), i.e. 'young', as opposed to (, 'shaykh'), i.e. 'old', the name given to Chaabi singers. The tradi ...

. He was a multi-instrumentalist, but excelled with the oud and

bendir The bendir (, ; : , ) is a wooden-framed frame drum of North Africa and West Asia, Southwest Asia. The bendir is a traditional instrument that is played throughout North Africa, as well as in Sufism, Sufi ceremonies; it was played, too, in Ancie ...

. He wrote his own lyrics and composed his own music. With his family—including his father, his brother on the violin, and his brother Claude on percussion—he formed an ensemble performing classical works and poetry. From 1950, he formed a duo with the Algerian

Salim Halali Salim Halali (or Hilali; ; born Simon Halali; 30 July 1920 – 25 June 2005) was an Algerian singer who performed Algerian music and Arabic Andalusian classical music. He was a pop singer rather than a professional performer of traditional Arab ...

, covering a number of Maghrebi classics. In the 1960s, he incorporated various influences into his music, including malhun,

gnawa The Gnawa () (or Gnaoua, Ghanawa, Ghanawi, Gnawi'; ) are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco, that had been brought as slaves from the West African Sahel. The name Gnawa originated in the indigenous language of North Africa and the Sahara, Sahar ...

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: Arts and ent ...

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

, and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, composing over 80 songs. At the apex of his career, Botbol worked with the singer and producer Maurice Elbaz. One of Botbol's most notable songs is "''Jaya Tomobile''."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botbol, Haim Moroccan Jews 1937 births Living people