Abdelkader Chaou (DZ)
From Algeria
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About
Abdelkader Chaou is one of those names in Algerian music that people bring up with real respect, and also a bit of argument. He built his own take on chaabi, both as a singer and as a mondol virtuoso, and he set out to make the style feel livelier and more modern. Not everyone was thrilled. Some critics said he distorted the tradition, while figures like Mahboub Bati, Mahboub Stambouli and Skandrani embraced what he was doing. He trained at the Conservatory of Algiers under the legendary Hadj Mohamed El Anka, but he went there for technique rather than to copy the master. He picked up violin, mondol, oud, piano, qanoun, rebab and derbuka along the way. His breakthrough came in the 1970s with songs like Ghazali Goudami, Lilah wan cheftou koudami and Djah rebi ya djirani. His repertoire swings between cheerful numbers and sadder ones drawing on Andalusian traditions, and in 2013 his peers honoured him with a national tribute concert.