Gharnatie music has just lost one of its greatest singers, Haj Ahmed Piro, who passed on Wednesday evening in Rabat at the age of 92, his family announced, as reported by H24 on Thursday.
One of the rare great masters to have preserved the gharnati genre (from Gharnata, in Granada, the last Muslim bastion in Andalusia), Haj Ahmed Piro trained a whole generation of pupils who became maalmines (masters). They included Bahaa Ronda and Mohamed Amine Debbi, who in turn inherited his place at the head of the Chabab Al Andalous association orchestra.
Thanks to Piro, the general public discovered this genre of Al Ala music (also known as Tarab al andaloussi), which had been in danger of disappearing.
Nobody can deny his vital role in preserving the legacy of the great masters, Mohamed Bensmail (Oujda) and Mohamed Benghabrit (Rabat)–both originally from Tlemcen (Algeria)–who “revolutionized” the Gharnati, notably through the introduction of new instruments, during the first half of the last century.
His efforts in preserving this heritage–notably through the publication in 2013 of a book devoted to “Al Ihata Fi Angham Gharnata”–have not gone unrecognized.