Yvan Gastaut

 

This extract from a programme made by Mohamed Oukaci and broadcast on Algerian television’s first channel on March 10^th 1970, features the group Freedom recorded live, playing a number from their repertoire.

Largely influenced by the newly emerged generation of “baby boomers” in the 1960’s, passionate about new music like the twist or rock and roll, a new kind of band appeared in North Africa. Abandoning traditional instruments, they played their music with electric guitars (especially the Gibson, imported from the United States), bass and drums, they dressed in the “sixties” style and wore their hair long – and enjoyed huge success among the younger generation who adored pop music. Sometimes singing in English, sometimes in Arabic, these groups, avid followers of American and English music, particularly the Beatles, are a perfect example of the way Western culture infiltrated the Mediterranean in the years after decolonization. Among others, Freedom was one of the mythical groups that made a mark, introducing cultural modernity to Algeria.

When independence came in 1962, a bunch of high school and university students from Algiers, Hocine Kezime, Djelloul Derram, Mahfoud Benkaci and Rachid Lebbad, started a pop group, the Icosium ((Algiers’ name under the Roman Empire). They all came from the same neighbourhood, El Mouradia, where they converted an empty premises into a studio. In 1967, Icosium became Farhom and they occasionally brought in Farid Bendali and the French drummer René Joly. In 1969 they became Freedom with Saad Kezime and Rachid Bahri.

It was under this name that the group became famous in Algeria and beyond. Led by the Kezime brothers, Freedom produced two albums in London in 1972, Sabrina and Hayrane, pop, but with an Arab flavour. They did two long tours in England. Back in Algeria, they were at the height of their fame: the Freedom delighted a young generation fully aware of the late 60’s Western culture in which pop music played such a central part.

But after these first few beautiful years, President Boumediene’s regime darkened, and from 1975 theatres, cabarets, bars and nightclubs gradually closed their doors. Many performers had no work. Some left the country, like Rachid Bahri who had a successful career in France, others like the Kezime brothers stayed in Algeria and joined the Radio-Television-Algerian (RTA) orchestra while keeping the Freedom going. In 1986, a new recording studio opened in Ouled Fayet in the suburbs of Algiers, and in 2003 the band performed as part of the Year of Algeria. Despite the death of his brother Hocine in 2003, Saad Kezime accompanied by some of the originals (Rachid Lebbad) and some new musicians (Abdellah Beldi or Hamid Bekkaï) pushed the Freedom back up to the heights of its great successes in the past, mixed with their versions of well-known standards like My Way, Let it be, Georgia and Imagine, happily sharing their nostalgia with the Algerian public and confirming their “mythical” status for a whole generation.

 

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