"The alphabet is missing in Western music, it's not as rich. It isn't written with words anymore, but with numbers. It has become such a commercial product the real meaning and value of the music has changed," says Taha through a French translator. (He speaks six languages, but not English. How cool is that?)

Taha once sent the French government into an uproar when his first band, Carte de Sejour, covered cultural icon Charles Trenet's Douce France." Trenet's ode to gentle France" took on a whole new meaning coming from a group of angry Arab kids living in France under the pall of racism. Over 20 years later, Taha hasn't forgotten the effect of a good cover song. Now he's protesting the unfortunate appropriation of one of punk's most memorable protest songs, "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash.

"It is a reminder of [the late] Joe Strummer," explains Taha. "The American army used his song in the first Gulf War and I just wanted to show it wasn't a song that adapts to war, but a song that adapts much more to peace."

With peace seemingly unattainable in a world so violent, especially in the Middle East, Taha's lyrical focus and his role as a cultural watchdog is more important than ever.
"Yes, yes," he says, "I try to keep my hope and it's something I will never stop doing, but at a time like this where we can sense a great political danger, I'm happy to be on the scene getting through my ideas."
Taha's mosaic of punk, electronic and rai may take some warming up to from Jazzfest patrons but, according to Taha, that's exactly the reason he's coming to Canada. He's faced much bigger struggles in his career than merely fitting under the jazz umbrella.

"It's not a problem for me, because sometimes when I listen to someone like Charlie Parker it can sound more punk than the Sex Pistols."
Amen to that, wise fellow.