Maurice El Medioni, Algerian Jewish pianist revered among Jews and Muslims, dies at 95

• Published date: 02 April 2024
• Author: JTA/CHRISTOPHER SILVER
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

"I have not forgotten you," he wrote on March 31, 1954. "If I haven't written you earlier it is because I have been so busy." Nonetheless, El Medioni made clear his intention to bring his counterpart to Algiers and Oran to perform in concert

By April 1955, El Medioni was accompanying Elmaghribi, described by one newspaper as "the greatest Arab attraction of all time," in Algeria for a series of Ramadan concerts that made a remarkable impression on Jewish and Muslim audiences. In the mid-20th century, North African Jewish musicians continued to set the tone across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, including in the midst of wars of liberation.

Until El Medioni's death March 25 in Israel at the age of 95, the pioneer of the "pianoriental" style and a consummate musical innovator remained nearly as busy as he did decades earlier, albeit in a very different time and place then the one where he first made his mark.

Born in the Jewish quarter of Oran in 1928, El Medioni was heir to an enviable Arab and Andalusian musical pedigree, a lineage which included the 19th-century master musician Ichoua "Maqshish" El Medioni (c. 1826-c. 1899) and Messaoud "Saoud" El Medioni (1886-1943). His father's brother, known to most as Saoud l'Oranais, was the most significant Algerian performing and recording artists of the turn of the 20th century through the interwar years and a considerable influence on his young nephew who had already taken to the piano as a young boy in the 1930s.

The Second World War had a profound impact on Maurice and his family. Like all Algerian Jews, the El Medionis had their French citizenship removed by the Vichy regime and found themselves subject to anti-Jewish race laws. His famous uncle Saoud, who had established himself in Marseille just before the outbreak of war, was murdered in Sobibor.

For Moroccans and Algerians, Operation Torch, the massive American- and British-led landing in North Africa in November 1942, ushered in the end of World War II. It also brought Maurice face-to-face with American servicemen of color who introduced the budding pianist to the world of bebop, boogie-woogie and all rhythms Latin.

Blending sounds east and west on an instrument that favored the latter, Maurice soon positioned himself at the center of postwar nightlife in his native Oran, alongside and in partnership with Muslim musical collaborators like Blaoui Houari.

By day he developed his tailoring business; by night he was touring alongside rising stars and veteran...