(BJB) is a collective of semi-nomadic musicians, poets, storytellers and coffee grinders from the Egyptian Sinai desert. Members are drawn from residents of El Arish, an oasis city lying on the Mediterranean coast of Sinai and from followers of a Sufi sect of the Suwarka tribe who reside at the nearby settlement of Abo El Hossain.
The group’s songs and poetry recall the exploits of the ancient Arabian Bedouin tribes through stories from Sinai, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the Arabian Gulf, recounting theur boundless generosity , fables about trusty camels, warnings of the dastardly deeds of sheep rustlers and tales of unrequited love for the girl with beautiful eyes in the next settlement.
Blending the simsimiyya (a traditional Egyptian lyre) with desert flutes and reed pipes, BJB perform traditional melodies accompanied by infectious rhythms played on tablas, frame drums and clay jugs, as well as ammunition boxes and jerry can percussion salvaged from the former battlegrounds of the Six-day War of 1967.
The introduction of this unusual arsenal of junk percussion into BJB’s music by founder member Medhat El Issawy was at first viewed with some local scepticism. Although the musicians (who at this time were known as Takht El Arish) were simply continuing a time-honoured Bedouin tradition of making good use of the riches of Sinai in an environment where the modern world has eroded many traditional ways of life, change is seldom welcomed. Tribal songs are viewed by many as one of the last remaining outposts of Bedouin culture to have survived relatively unaltered for centuries.
Fortunately, any initial criticisms was soon superseded by unanimous agreement from audiences that the metallic ring of the battered petrol cans bought a distinctive and pleasing bass-end identity to the sound of the band’s music, and thus the musicians became known as "The Jerry Can Band".
A succession of Turkish, British, Israeli, and Egyptian rulers have all bought many changes to Sinai since the end of the 19th century, and the romantic image of a desert-dwelling people wandering under the stars now looks quite antiquated, not least because Egyptian skies are becoming increasingly obscured by light pollution and traffic fumes. New songs and poems however continue to circulate among Bedouin communities, paradoxically aided by the trappings of modern times in the form mobile phones and cheap MP3 players imported into the area via the Suez Canal (home to album guest vocalists and fellow smsimiyya champions El Tanbura). While the transmission and dissemination of storytelling and traditional music is evolving, contemporary Sinai Bedouin culture is still firmly underpinned by the same proud tribal values of honesty, loyalty and hospitality as practised by their nomadic ancestors travelling the Arabian plains.
El Mastaba Centre, in collaboration with 30IPS (UK) launched the first album of the group "Coffee Time" in 2009 and, in 2011, El Mastaba produced the same album in Egypt.