The Majazz Project is an archival platform and record label focused on reissuing Palestinian cassette and vinyl albums and field recordings, with a particular focus on sounds from the 1960s-1990s. Founded by Mo’min Swaitat, a London-based Palestinian actor, playwright, archivist, and filmmaker, the Majazz Project seeks to apply archival practice as a decolonial methodology and act of resistance. Swaitat aims to provide the archive’s interlocutors with an opportunity to interact with archival footage and sound that preserves and documents Palestinian heritage and resistance.
Swaitat describes the project’s inception and motivation in the caption of this short video in which he takes the viewer to the source of the archival material: the home of Tariq, owner of the now-closed Tariq Cassettes music shop in Jenin.
The Majazz Project archive contains an extensive collection of cassettes and vinyl from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs, and jazz. Swaitat comes from a long line of Bedouin musicians and storytellers, and the archive references his rootedness in music as a means of celebrating one’s culture and sense of belonging.
Emerging from his work on the Majazz Project, Swaitat created the Palestinian Sound Archive, an in-person and digital exhibition that “weaves tales of joy, grief, love, resistance, and steadfastness” and resist colonial erasure (Majazz Project, n.d.). Visit the digital exhibition here to listen to Swaitat’s carefully curated playlists of sonic stories.
Listeners can explore more of Majazz Project’s recordings on the project’s Bandcamp. A small selection of albums and descriptions from Majazz Project’s Bandcamp are featured below:
Every year on March 30th, Palestinians commemorate Land Day / Yom al-Ard, marking when six Palestinian civilians were killed and over 100 injured in 1976 whilst protesting against land expropriation across the Galilee.
Palestinian Sound Archive brings you a compilation of newly digitised music from Palestine, celebrating Palestinian heritage, culture and resistance.
This compilation features a number of artists, some of whom were assassinated because of their role in bringing this music to light. Featuring poetry by Toufic Zayyad, whose words were famously used throughout the first Yom Al Ard protests.
Some of the artists remain anonymous upon their request, to avoid being targeted, whilst others are still unknown.
The Intifada 1987 by Riad Awwad, Hanan Awwad and Mahmoud Darwish
Just one week after the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987, Riad brought his sisters Hanan, Alia and Nariman together in their living room and began recording The Intifada album on equipment he had made himself. One of these was co-written with their friend, the acclaimed Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish.
Riad printed 3000 copies of the cassettes which he began distributing in the Old City of Jerusalem and across the West Bank. The Israeli Army immediately confiscated all the copies they could find, the vast majority of which remain in the military archives to this day. Riad was arrested, interrogated and detained for several months.
Straight after his release, he formed a band, Palestinian Union, and put out a new album. He then founded a school, offering kids in the West Bank an alternative musical education, teaching them how to create their own electronic equipment.
In 2005, Riad was tragically killed in a car accident. His legacy lives on through his family, his timeless music and his powerful story, which continues to inspire 34 years on from the First Intifada.
Finally, we encourage readers of this blog to learn more about the role of librarians and archivists in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination by checking out Librarians and Archivists with Palestine.
References
Awwad, R., Awwad, H., & Darwish, M. (2022). The Intifada 1987 [Album reissued by Majazz Project in 2022]. Majazz Project. (Original work published 1987)
Centre for Contemporary Arts. (2024, May 4). Archival resistance. https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/archival-resistance
Hingley, O. (2024, October 2). Inside the Palestinian Sound Archive: preserving the audiovisual legacy of Palestine, one record at a time. It’s Nice That.
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine. (n.d.). Who we are. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://librarianswithpalestine.org/about/who-we-are/
Majazz Project. (2023, August 22). Palestine sound archive – أرشيف الصوتي الفلسطيني [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/PSR7NDWmVok?si=G6om5ypXOZOOh7R2
Majazz Project. (2024). Land Day Compilation يوم الآرض [Compilation album]. Majazz Project.
Majazz Project. (n.d.). Palestinian Sound Archive. Retrieved December 3, 2024, from https://majazzproject.com/
Nazzal, M. (2024, April 19). Archiving Palestinian sounds with The Majazz Project. The Skinny.
Swaitat, M. (2022). The Majazz Project and the Palestinian sound archive. This Week in Palestine, 290, 76-81. https://thisweekinpalestine.com/the-majazz-project-and-the-palestinian-sound-archive/