ABSTRACT
Today, southern Spain plays host to a vibrant, collaborative music scene driven in large part by a northern Moroccan immigrant community, often in dialogue with Spanish-born musicians as well as with ex-pats from elsewhere in Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the greater Arab world. How do such intercultural projects work on a practical level? Taking as a case study one prominent contemporary example of this larger phenomenon—Jalal Chekara’s self-described “flamenco andalus”—this chapter sketches the contours of an analytical model for intercultural musical mixture. The chapter argues that three interactive dimensions shape the process and outcome: the musical competences of the participants; the musicians’ own notions of compatibility between styles; and the actual music-technical similarities and key differences between the musical systems in question. This chapter complements the growing body of scholarship on the ongoing cultural legacy al-Andalus, shifting the conversation from the overtly political framework of social memory and cultural identity to examine more closely the musical and social details of intercultural collaboration.
