Monthly Archives: June 2020

The brave blind girl who turned into more than a little queen: Reinette l’Orainese

26th June 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And on this occasion we will enjoy the outstanding singer, composer and oudist Reinette l’Oranaise, born in 1918 in Tiaret, Algeria.

I discovered this artist while learning more about my much appreciated singer and pianist Maurice El Medioni. He has collaborated with Reinette on many occasions. About Maurice, and also about his uncle, Saoud l’Oranaise, I will come back in future editions of MBS, as they are also benchmarks of the Jewish music from the North of Africa. In this meantime, it is the turn for this superb artist that I think deserves a prominent position in the Olympus of music.

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The brave blind girl who turned into more than a little queen

Reinette’s life could have had the same destination as Saoud’s: she could have ended her days in Sobibor. But no. Her fate was another. Her life continued until she died in Paris in 1998. In this picture, from the blog Ben Zaken Descendance, Maurice El Medioni is with her. He is alive and 91 years old.

· At the bottom you’ll find the video with her voice ·

Reinette, whose real name was Sultana Daoud, was born in 1918 in Tiaret, 220 kms to the East from Oran, in Algeria. She was the daughter of a Morrocan rabbi.

The infection of smallpox made her blind from 3 years old. But it did not prevent her study music with the mentioned Saoud El Medioni. According to Gharamophone, Maurice sais the little Sultana was Saoud’s first pupil.

The young Sultana learnt to play darbouka as well as oud  that, at that time, was an instrument exclusive for male performers. She also learnt also many pieces from the Arab Andalousi legacy, of which she is considered one of the referential keepers, without whom many pieces would just have got lost. This is especially thrilling for me, as the land where I am settled and from where I am writing to you now was that Al Andalus, that land where that music took its first shape, the music she would play and sing five centuries after the Moorish and the Sephardic Jews were expelled from.

This picture is from the same blog as the one above –>

Reinette and Saoud were inseparable. She was his taliba, his pupil, and she used to sing in his cafe in the Derb, Oran’s jewish quarter. In 1938, with the shaykh, the master, she moved to Paris, where he was going to set up a cafe in Montmartre. But he would send her back to Algeria very soon, encouraging her to make her name in her country. He did well. In January 1943 the German army, after the Operation Torch, made a roundup of Jewish in Marseille’s port and deported Saoud and his 13 years old son Joseph to Drancy camp and later to Sobibor, where they would be murdered.

If you want to know more about the Jewish musicians from the North of Africa, check the work Jews, Music-Making, and the Twentieth Century Maghrib, by Christopher Benno Silver.

What happened with Reinette back in Algeria?

Back in Algeria, her popularity started to rise. She would perform regularly in Radio Alger, she joined the female orchestra of Meriem Fekkai and she would collaborate with the most relevant musicians at that time. But in 1962, after the independence of Algeria, as well as more than one hundred thousand Jews, she had to leave the country and moved to France. There, she performed for the Jewish community from the North of Africa.

Only 23 years after her exile in France, she would get some attention from the media. According to the beautiful obituary by Philip Sweeney, some journalist from the newspaper Liberation realized about her. This would rekindle her sweetest moments. She would perform again in great theatres, she would be admired and she would end her days recognized as a cultural ambassador of her country, Algeria. 

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Click the picture to listen to Reinette l’Oranaise:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

MBS with a super star of the Yiddish films from the 30s

19th June 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And in this occasion we will enjoy the voice of one of the best singers of the History: Moishe Oysher, spellbinding both in popular music and in liturgical singing.

I hope you are well! I learnt about this artist when I started to search for cantors and I come back to listen him again and again: he is Moishe Oysher. 

While searching for facts about his bio, I realiced that I consider Moishe Oysher as a star but that his niece Marilyn Michaels may be even more famous. The Oyshers came from a family of at least six generations of cantors. Apart of Moishe and his niece Marilyn, his syster Fraydele, Marilyn’s mother, was also a recognized singer. You can listen the ladies here. 

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Poignant cantor, Yiddish cinema star and ‘Kosher heart throb’

Moustache is often a good idea. With this outfit, that defiant gaze and that outstandingly passionated way of singing, I can understand why Moishe became popular.

 

· At the bottom you’ll find the video with his voice ·
This picture is from the film Der Zingendiker Shmid (The Singing Blacksmith), directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, based on the play Yankl der Shmid, by David Pinski. Find here a very interesting documentary about the film.

Moishe was born in Lipcani in 1907, that nowadays is in Moldava. But at the time of his birth, Lipcani was part of Khotin district of Bessarabia guberniya of Russian Empire. With the birth of the state of Moldava, the river Prut that bathes the city would be the natural border with Romania. The border with Ukraine would be also very near, few kilometres to the North.

Today, Google Maps shows in Lipcani the place of the church of the Seventh-day Adventists and also of the Jehova Witnesses. The pressence of Jewish is kept thanks to the thrilling project of repair and documentation of the Jewish cemetery, started in 2013. Before the II World War, many of the inhabitants of the city were Jews. In 1941, they were deported to Brichany and Transnistria. Clic the picture if you are interested in a documentary about Lipcani with testimonies of survivors. In 1952, the Lipcani quarter would be buildt in the city of Ramat Gan, at the East of Tel Aviv.

But the young Moishe wouldn’t have to experience the terror. His destiny was another. From a very young age, he was captivated by the magic of the stage and started acting in theatre as soon as possible. In 1921, a 15 years old Moishe travelled to Canada to join his father, who emigrated to America when he was a kid. He was left in Lipcani, where he would get the spell of the music from both of his grandfathers.

Once in Canada, he joined the Actors’ Union in 1924 and started to work. The following years, he would move to USA, he would marry Florence Weiss, who would be co-starring some films with him (watch them singing together, here), he travelled to Latin America with his own company and, after his return in 1932, all the shows at the theatres had already done the castings. He was finding no job… but the time of the High Holidays was coming: he was luckily hired as chazan for the High Holidays at the First Roumanian-American congregation. His style keeping the prayers of Bessarabia, would enchant the public, as he does nowadays.

And what about the song?

There are many recordings by Moishe Oysher available. I selected this one of a cantorial melody that talks about the reconstruction of the Temple. It was composed by another chazan, Israel Schorr, born in 1886 in the Polish Galitzia, about who I will talk longer in a future MBS issue.

Oysher’s rendition of Sheyibaneh Bet Hamikdash is a 6 minutes joy of dynamic development in which his voice and creativity scale the greatest heights of artistry. Enjoy.

Clic the picture to listen Sheyibone Beit Hamikdash by Moishe Oysher:

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I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Magazine #24 June 2020 | Life returns, mini interviews, joint ventures and more

June 2020 | Life returns, mini interviews, joint ventures and more

How are you? I am quite ok. After more than one month of post transplant without growing at all, I thought it was dead… But no, my little avocado tree started to produce new leaves ?

Life came back. And it seems we can have some hope about retaking our activities. WOMEX is announced and even though the virus is still worrying, the pandemic seems to be more controlled, at least here in Spain (but the news from Latin America and about new outbreaks are dreadful).

I preview very hard times for our community of world music for at least the next two years, what do you think? Particularly in countries like mine, where the circuit of world music is supported almost in its entirety by public money, and cuts in the budgets for culture will be sure. That’s one of the reasons to join forces with Spain is Music (apart from the mutual understanding and shared passion for music), of which I have talked previously. Learn more below.

Find below also two more interviews with directors of festivals included in the project MOST, as well as some more useful initiatives.

Remember that you can send any suggestion of content for the next editions. And if you like this, tell me. And share it and let your friends know. 

And once more here you have our playlist to accompany the reading –>

Thanks for your attention.

Araceli Tzigane | info@mundimapa.com | +34 676 30 28 82 

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here.

Summary: 

· Recent news and calls. Please, consider to sign.
· Union means strength: joint venture with Spain is Music
· Mini interviews with festival managers: Dragoș Rusu from the Outernational Days and with Mirza Redzepagic, from the World Music Fest Zeman
· In the next edition…

RECENT NEWS AND CALLS, IN SHORT

  • Uphold culture in the EU budget. By Culture Action Europe. You can sign to support this call: “Ahead of the European Council meeting on 19 June, we call on the Member States to:
    • Double the budget of Creative Europe, as the core programme for reinforcing European cultural cooperation (#Double4Culture).
    • Make sure that the additional funds stemming from the Next Generation EU initiative, such as REACT-EU, reach cultural operators.”
  • TWMC Festivals Award 2020 is cancelled. By Transglobal World Music Chart. “A festival award doesn’t make sense without festivals. Many of the applicant festivals for this year’s edition have been cancelled. Many others that would have applied, haven’t finally done it, in this situation of uncertainty. Even if some live music acts were possible in Autumn, most of the Spring and Summer festivals aren’t taking place until 2021.
    We have been receiving the news about the cancellations and postponements with grief and we wish that all the organizers will overcome this fateful year with enough strength to resurge in 2021.” 
  • WOMEX 2020 is announced. I think many of us were waiting for this news. At least for me, this is very symbolic. It will be like recovering the life and the strength. The preparations for WOMEX are always exhausting as well as stimulating. Learn more about the insights of the responsible people in this online conference. 

Do you want to share any useful news for the community of the world music in the next edition? Let me know!

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA JOINS FORCES WITH SPAIN IS MUSIC

In the edition #8 of this magazine I introduced Pablo Camino’s brand, Spain is Music, a travel agency specialized in cultural trips and, specifically, in trips in which the music has a very relevant place and the public is an active participant of the popular art.

In previous occasions, Mapamundi has been provider for Spain is Music and now, the crisis of the pandemic, has serve us to reflect on how to reinforce our synergic relationship. Together, we are creating touristic packages, like From Quixote to Almodovar the biggest stories from Castilla-La Mancha. And also new shapes of events, like Folk Camp Spain. One of our main needs is to find tour operators in other countries, that had the marketing tools to reach the clients. The concept, production and customisation are our responsibility. As the Spanish we are, superb food, enchanting artistic patrimony and joy of life are guaranteed.

**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS

As mentioned in the previous issue of this magazine, thans to the MOST project I got to know about some festivals from the Balkans that I didn’t know before. Find below the little interview with Dragoș Rusu from the Outernational Days (Bucharest, Romania) and with Mirza Redzepagic, from the World Music Fest Zeman (Novi Pazar, Serbia).

MINI INTERVIEW WITH DRAGOȘ RUSU FROM THE OUTERNATIONAL DAYS (BUCHAREST, ROMANIA)

The Outernational Days festival started in 2016 in Bucharest. The previous editions have took place in several venues in the city. This year, they will produce an online event, as Dragoș explains below.They defined Outernational “as a place positioned outside of history; as a shapeless world that has been developing at the periphery of the International sphere. What makes Outernational music so distinct is its lack of exposure in mainstream and non-mainstream media, for reasons that are usually linked to ethnical biases.” 

 

  • MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 

DR: Originality and substance.

  • MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
    DR: To promote the Outernational concept. It is developed here.
  • MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
    DR: The main issues are related to insufficient funds and the unreliability of the Romanian government to support independent cultural activities.
  • MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
    DR: The main challenges are related to convince the audience to engage in consuming the cultural products (concerts, panels, lectures) that we propose through our festival.
  • MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
    DR: Outernational is a memorable and unique festival experience, one that will open your mind and offer a new understanding of the concept world music and the Balkan cultural heritage.
  • MM – Is this experience we are living now, the crisis of the coronavirus, changing your festival in any way (apart from postponing this year’s edition, if so)? 
    DR: For 2020, we wanted to move the festival out from Bucharest into the middle of nature, in a remote village in North East of Romania (Vaslui county). However, due to the coronavirus pandemia, we won’t be able to do the festival with audience for this year, therefore we decided to do a special edition, only on online – Outernational Virtual Festival will take place between July 25 and 26, there will be several concerts streamed live on our Youtube and Facebook channels.
Pictures’ credits:
  • Profile picture of the festival’s Facebook site
  • Dragoș Facebook profile picture

MINI INTERVIEW WITH MIRZA REDZEPAGIC FROM THE WORLD MUSIC FEST ZEMAN (NOVI PAZAR, SERBIA)

World Music Fest Zeman is a world music festival, born in 2018, that takes place in the City Park under the open sky of Novi Pazar. The idea of ​​the festival is to gather artists from different parts of the world who will present themselves with their art, in front of the local audience at Novi Pazar. The festival consists of concerts by world music scene artists, diverse music workshops and lectures, as well as competition for singers/vocal performers of Balkan music.

  • MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 

MR: Zeman Fest crew, consisted of musicians, is always looking for artists who can provide good musical experience as well as good show. Since the festival is happening in region which is at the border between different Balkan countries and culture, we are trying to provide different musical experience to the audience as well a positive cultural experience to the guest artists.

  • MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
    MR: Our idea is to bring good music to Novi Pazar and that’s the primary goal for which we started with the festival in 2018. Our objectives for the future are to put this festival at the spotlight of serious artistic events in region and in Europe, as well to provide great experience to the audience and the artists too. Since our town, Novi Pazar is officially the youngest town in Europe where 50% of the population are younger than 35 it has a great potential of developing the platform of cultural, artistic education and experience.
  • MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
    MR: As far as now we really haven’t had any big difficulties organizing the festival since we have full support by the local authorities with whom we have fair cooperation at any field of organization and that so we consider us really happy having that all. The small issues (logistic stuff etc.) is something that is part of the work so there’s no need to mention it.
  • MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
    MR: My personal opinion is that those challenges depends of the place. Most of the festivals are struggling with the finances because the funds for the culture are lesser every year and it it makes the job difficult for the organizers. Our main challenge is to gain the audience since this kind of happenings are not often in our town, but we are really optimistic about it since it is a natural proces of growing. With the good music you’re getting good audience.
  • MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
    MR: Young beautiful people, great energy, rich town history and a perfect venue with great music, that is Zeman Fest.
  • MM – Is this experience we are living now, the crisis of the coronavirus, changing your festival in any way (apart from postponing this year’s edition, if so)? 
    MR: At this moment we are still waiting to see what is going to happen in the next few weeks with the country regulations about the mass gatherings and public events. We are working on preparations of plan B and even plan C. Definetily the festival is going to happen, in which form we still don’t know but we are prepared and optimistic.
Pictures’ credits:
  • Profile picture of the festival’s Facebook site
  • Mirza portrait provided by himself

IN THE NEXT EDITION

Many things will show up but, for now, there are two contents that I have quite clear.

  • Interview with Béla Pap for the Challenges for Festivals series (portrait below, provided by himself). I know him for so long. I met him in Without Borders, the meeting in Bulgaria organized by Yasen Kazandjiev, the first time I attended. Béla directs Alt Productions. His Heritage World Music Festival is also participant in MOST.
  • Naxos Music Library. Ina Schroeder (portrait below from her Linkedin) will kindly answer some questions about this initiative that joins the complete catalogues or selected recordings of over 800 labels.

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS

Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 46 stations in 17 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook. 

This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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MBS with a piyyut sang by Yemenites in 1957 in Israel, recorded by a Bengali ethnomusicologist: Deben Battacharya

12 June 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And in this occasion we will enjoy a mesmerizing old recording of a Yedid Nafshi, dating from 1957, from the recordings made in Israel by the Bengali ethnomusicologist Deben Battacharya.

I hope you are well! I want to ask you something. If you like this, please share it with your friends. It is all I could want with this, to reach more people with these musics that captures the History of our civilization. Under the video you have a button to sign up.

In the last edition we payed attention to a contemporary artist, David Krakauer, and we talked about current events. But I can’t hide my addiction to the old music. That’s why I feel so thankful to people like Deben Battacharya. In 1957, he spent 2 months in Israel, recording the different people that gathered there from so many origins. In Yish’i, between Jerusalem and Ashdod, he meet the Yemenite community.

The recordings by Deben Battacharya in Israel 1957

This portrait of Deben is from the booklet of a collection of 4 albums with those recordings, that was released by Westminster in 1959 under the name of “In Israel Today“. This recording of Yedid Nafshi is also included in a much newer and easier to find compilation, released in 2014 by ARC Music (whose work of re-editing and disseminating Battacharya’s work is also outstanding), under the name of Music of the Oriental Jews from North Africa, Yemen & Bukhara. You can find more info about this compilation, here. It contains more outstanding beauties so I might come back to this album in the future.

In website The World Jukebox, you can also find information about the different albums released with those recordings as well as a brief information about Deben and his trip to Israel. And if you want to know more about Deben Battacharya, there is a large interview made by his friend Kevin Daly, here.

The recording of Yedid Nafshi is accredited to Nissim Matari (even though you’ll hear two different singers) of whom there are no references apart of this recording. But the booklet of the edition of 1959 explains that Yish’i “was founded in 1950 to house some of the Yemenites who had arrived to Israel during one of the largests airlifts in the world, known in Israel as “magic carpet”“. Deben met the settlers at the end of their day’s work. Then they moved to the village hall, where all the inhabitants, of all ages, men and women, gathered. Deben would edit 6 pieces in the collection of 4 albums, with the recordings of that evening. Let’s enjoy the result.

Clic the picture to listen Yedid Nafshi by Nissim Matari:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

MBS. David Krakauer’s special voice message for you + 3 minutes of musical spell

5 June 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And in this turbulent times, we are together to reflect and enjoy. Today, Mr. David Krakauer, the wondrous clarinetist from New York, provides us an amazing tune and a heartfelt message, specially for us as recipients of Music Before Shabbat. 

I feel so thankful to David that took a moment in this turbulent moments, specially for USA and for his city, New York, to send us a special message of good wishes and solidarity against racism.

The inspiration that a black musician provided him for creating an amazing composition is even more meaningful in these days. 

Listen David’s message, here

David Krakauer’s Klezmer à la Bechet (feat. Nicky Parott in the bass) 

I love the clarinet in klezmer. How not? A good clarinetist of klezmer makes the instrument talk, laugh and cry in an unpredictable flow that caresses your soul. 

The “à la Bechet” refers to Sidney Bechet, a black composer, clarinetist and saxofonist from New Orleans, born in 1897 with an innate talent for music that would develope from a very young age. He is widely known, but if you want to learn more about his biography, check for instance this. And you can listen him playing clarinet here. David Krakauer calls Bechet his “teacher he never met”, as he explains in this interesting interview.

And David Krakakuer? Well, he is also a master, composer and clarinetist, recognized as one of the best clarinetists on planet Earth, with a strong career both in modern klezmer and in classical music.

David was born in 1956 in New York, where he lives. I mentioned him in this edition, related to Meshuge Klezmer Band and David’s initiative Music from the winery. So, apart of his own career, David provides dissemination of the work of other artists too.

David started in classical music and recovered the music of his ancestors in his early 30s, when he became curious about his ancestors. His grandparents arrived to the USA from Eastern Europe at the end of XIX century and, after the religious prosecution they had suffered, they decided to leave all that behind and to talk only English.

Two generations after, as David explains in this other interesting interview, that tradition was lost at the USA, but the people started to want that music for weddings, that music that the old people of that time had listened when they were kids. That was the beginning of the revitalisation of klezmer. You can check David’s website for more details about his career and projects.

Clic the picture to enjoy the outstanding David Krakauer with this piece from the album A New Hot One:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory