France, July 9 -- RFI: You say Jazzablanca is "the soul of Casablanca"... what do you mean by that?
Moulay Ahmed Alami: For me, Casablanca is a huge melting pot. It is a city that welcomes people from all over Morocco - people who have fled drought, people who hope to make their fortune... it's a business city par excellence, and the city with the most jobs.
As a result, it has been shaped by a whole host of influences, both Moroccan and international as it was under French protectorate, the Spanish were once settled here, and there's Portuguese influence too. After that, we Moroccans kept to ourselves for years, but now we're starting to open up again.
[The festival] is a huge musical and intergenerational melting pot. There are people ...