Traditional Raï

Traditional raï is the original acoustic form of Algerian raï as sung in Oran and the Oranie from the 1920s to the 1960s by the cheikhs and cheikhas, before the electrified pop-raï of the cassette era. A solo singer improvises verses in Algerian Arabic over the gasba end-blown flute and the gallal frame drum, repeating the word raï, meaning opinion or advice, as a refrain while composing the next line. Its repertory of love, drink, exile, poverty and social complaint, delivered in a raw vernacular that scandalised respectable society, made it the documented root from which all later raï descends.