Al Swalf

Mohamed Rouane (born at Belouizdad, Algiers in 1968) is an Algerian musician and recording artist, well known in his own country for his performances of flamenco and "Casbah-style jazz" and especially for his use of the mondol. Beyond the business of being a musician, he is a creative force in Algeria, and his mondol playing credited with raising Algerian music to "higher spheres" in world music.In a feature article, Aljazeera called him an artist with the ability and mastery to be brilliant, able to render the mondol into a respectable instrument.He calls his style of music Casbah Jazz, and fuses jazz with Algerian musical forms to create something new.He has been popular enough to be a repeat instructor and performer at Algerian music festivals.He is also known as a teacher and guest performer at musical festivals in Algeria and Europe, performing not only in nearby Netherlands and France, but as far away as Poland. His music has been described as a fusion of chaabi with jazz, performed on an Algerian mandole.He has made it his personal mission to change the reputation of the mondol, from an instrument that he couldn't carry in public on the street because of its low reputation to one known on the world stage as an Algerian instrument, one capable of transmitting both Western and Arab feelings.He was inspired by the music of Sheikh M'Hamed El Anka (the "Master of Chaabi", to whom he dedicated his music) and his mondol playing, and Rouan looks to Chaabi to be part of the soul of his own music.

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