Noon in Tunisia (1969) | Jazz meets Mezoued | Full Documentary

Noon in Tunisia is a German documentary by Peter Lilienthal , shot in May 1969 in Tunisia , featuring the legendary Avant-Garde & fuison pioneer Don Cherry, Henri Texier, George Gruntz and other jazz musicians in their encounter with Tunisian musicians.

The film project was preceded by the recording of the album Noon in Tunisia, in which a jazz quintet led by George Gruntz met Tunisian musicians in the Schwarzwald music production studio in 1967. Joachim-Ernst Berendt had pushed through the film project at the producing Südwestfunk. In Tunisia, the jazz band with trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Daniel Humair, saxophonist Sahib Shihab and bassist Henri Texier met the same musicians who played on the LP, including the musicologist and ney virtuoso Salah El Mahdi:
“They formed the main group that criss-crossed Tunisia with us for two weeks, supported by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture. But we also played with other local musicians, whose style often changed completely from place to place.” the oasis town of El Hamma (Gabès) and Nefta north of the salt lake Chott el Djerid, which the group crossed.

After three weeks, Lilienthal and his team from Südwestfunk (including Pete Ariel) had shot about a hundred hours of music. The film was cut in the rooms of the Literary Colloquium in Berlin. The film was shown on February 23, 1971 on ARD and repeated several times

Directed by Peter Lilienthal

Musicians :
Don Cherry
Henri Texier
Salah El Mahdi
George Gruntz
Daniel Humair
Hattab Jouini
Jelloul Osman
Sahib Shihab
Moktar Slama

Tahya Tounes 🇹🇳