by HAJI MAJI
We just heard the Colombian flutes called gaita, then the Galician bagpipe of the same name, now let’s check out this version from the Mozabites of Algeria. The Mozabites are a Berber cultural group living at the north end of the Sahara in Algeria. Their ancient hilltop cities are built around oases in the Mzab valley. The ghaita played by the Mozabites, and other North Africans, is a reed instrument of the ubiquitous shawm family, the predecessor to the modern oboe. This rarity was recorded using the old acoustic method in 1924 by George Dillnut in Oran, one of only three Mozabite records released from that trip.