finetune artist: DJ Cheb I Sabbah

b. 7 August 1947, Constantine, Algeria. Born into a family of classical Algerian musicians, Sabbah moved to Paris as a teenager and took up DJing, playing soul and R&B in Parisian nightclubs in the early 60s. Subsequently he alternated between DJing and working in the theatre, including a stint in the 70s with the experimental Living Theater Company, through which he met beat poet and artist Brion Gysin, whose experiments with "cut up" were a strong influence on the way in which Sabbah worked. The beginning of the 80s saw a move back to DJing in Paris, playing predominantly Brazilian music. Towards the end of the decade he moved to California, USA where he found a receptive audience for his favoured mixture of Arabic, African and Indian music. In the 90s he hooked up with the trumpeter Don Cherry (who he had first met 20 years earlier while with the Living Theater Company). Initially, Sabbah developed a theatrical element to compliment Cherry's music, then played records between the live sets and subsequently played tunes over which the musicians improvised. Leaving Cherry, Sabbah produced a number of remixes for other artists and an album which blended poetry, free jazz and Sufi trance music from Morocco. He also performed in numerous live shows with musicians from around the world, where he would DJ before and after the live sets and mix videos and dancers with the live performance. These were based around wherever the musicians were from. Shri Durga, his international debut, featured a group of highly respected Northern Indian and Pakistani classical musicians and singers performing traditional ragas over understated and sympathetic backing, with the emphasis on allowing the live performers space to shine. Maha Maya was a remix album with tracks from Shri Durga remodelled by Anglo-Asian producers including State Of Bengal, T.J. Rhemi, Bally Sagoo and Fun-Da-Mental.

Listen to DJ Cheb I Sabbah at Finetune.

Shri Durga (FunDaMental Organic Chill Mix)
Kese Kese
Tum Bin Shyam
Rupa Tujhe Deva (The Karsh Kale Gopi Mix)
Ganga Dev