Aissa El-Djarmouni (20th century)
Aissa Ben Rabah Merzougue, better known as Aissa El-Djarmouni, was born in Sid R'ghiss, Oum El Bouaghi, in 1886. Coming from a family of landless peasants, from the Ouled Amara (Djeramna) tribe, he experienced poverty, war and oppression in his youth. Being illiterate, he sang everything he felt without composition, helped by the poets Boufrira, Cheikh Mekki Boukrissa, Hadj Djebbari.
He started singing around 1910, accompanied by his troupe made up of Hadj Mohamed Ben Zine, Miloud Guerichi (flautists) and Mohamed Ben Derradji (berrah), traveling across Algeria and the Maghreb. He recorded two discs in Tunis as well as ten others in Paris. He made more than thirty recordings, hundreds of works as well as dozens of public performances, including one at the Olympia in 1937. He died in 1945, leaving a rich legacy to Algerian song.
He started singing around 1910, accompanied by his troupe made up of Hadj Mohamed Ben Zine, Miloud Guerichi (flautists) and Mohamed Ben Derradji (berrah), traveling across Algeria and the Maghreb. He recorded two discs in Tunis as well as ten others in Paris. He made more than thirty recordings, hundreds of works as well as dozens of public performances, including one at the Olympia in 1937. He died in 1945, leaving a rich legacy to Algerian song.