The musician Maurice el Médioni, who has died aged 95, provided a reminder that there was a time – in the period between the second world war and Algerian independence in 1962 – when Muslim and Jewish musicians worked together in Algeria to transform the country’s popular music.
He was a pianist who could play, and blend together, almost any musical style. His left hand might pump out stomping boogie rhythms while his right hand played Arabic or Andalusian styles. He could switch from French chanson and cabaret to Latin themes, and he played a key role in the development of the Algerian styles chaabi and raï.
