Notes of Exile

Maurice El Medioni is the backbone of our narrative, using his personal and musical journey to tell the story of a turbulent history for the Jews of Algeria. His story begins seven decades ago in the Algerian city of Oran. He was only nine years old when his brother bought an old piano in the local flea market. Maurice came back from school, sat in front of the piano, and hasn't stopped playing since. 70 years later, Maurice achieved international acclaim by winning a BBC World Music Award for his Cuban/Oriental crossover album. Maurice's musical story holds a unique insight into the most important events in the history of the world and in the destiny of the Algerian Jews. As a child, Maurice entertained Jewish-Algerian school friends with traditional French-Jewish songs. Anti-Semitic laws dictated by Nazi-occupied France banished all Algerian Jews from school, granting Maurice more time to devote himself to music. At age 13, Maurice's piano playing entertained American soldiers celebrating victory over the Nazi occupation of Algeria. They introduced Maurice to Boogie Woogie, Rumba, Jazz and other popular American music. A chance encounter with Arabic musicians introduced a teenaged Maurice to Arabic Rai music. As the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ensued, Maurice was part of the creation of a new Rai sound. In the 1950s, amidst Algerian civil war, his capacity to blend genres would lead him to become one of few Jewish performers in the Opera of Oran. In 1961, a year before the Algerian War of Independence liberated Algeria from France, tensions were especially high between Jews and Arabs. European rights were not granted equally for Arabs and Jews, turning the streets of Algeria into a dangerous place. It was then that a million French colonists and 160,000 Algerian Jews left for France and Israel. Maurice helped to establish what we now know as "world music". His life and musical journey will represent the exiled Jews of Algeria: From a peaceful Jewish/Arabic pre-WWII co-existence to a dramatic exodus of all 160,000 Algerian Jews to France, Israel and beyond.