October 16th, 2020. Shabbat is almost here
And the Yemenite music, the enchanting sound that is the mix of so many scents, with Suliman the Great and his family, will accompany us in the path to Shabbat.
How are you? Today there is not a festivity (or… not yet!). I hope all this special time has been fruitful, inspiring, full of reflection and growth for you.
Today I bring you the result of my wanderings in Youtube. Our protagonist is an artist that is not characterized by humility. Well, it is not true: he was not the one who proclaimed himself as “the great”. But it wouldn’t have mattered: how would it matter when you are an amazing artist and the patriarch of a saga of artists, one of which would be the first winner of your country of the Eurovision Song Contest?
I wouldn’t have been able to make this edition without the support of Igal Gulaza Mizrahi ?, the leader of the band Gulaza . I got this picture from his Facebook. It was done by Leat Sabbah. There is no info about this Suliman in English at the Internet and Igal gave me some relevant tips that allowed me to start the search in Hebrew websites.
Learn more below and, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom.
That’s all I ask you. Thank you in advance.
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Who was Suliman the Great?
– the mentioned page of GivatayimPlus,
– his profile in Geni.com
– the newspaper Mako
– the newspaper XNet
– the brief explanation that helped me to start the search, by Igal Gulaza Mizrahi, who told me:
“Suliman the Great was the son of parents who immigrated from Yemen. He was popular in our country in the past because he sang songs of the Land of Israel, songs of shepherds, and songs of Bedouin (which the immigrants from Russia loved so much). So they called these songs : “songs around the fire.” He also sings Yemeni. All his children were singers. The most famous is Yizhar Cohen (the first Israeli to win the Eurovision Song Contest in first place, in 1978).”
The song that won Eurovision was A-Ba-Ni-Bi. I don’t know if you know it, but in Spain it was suuuuuuper famous and everybody still knows it and there are many artists that have sang it with Spanish lyrics. This was the original performance at the contest.
Igal sent me the link to the Wikipedia in Hebrew too, where I learnt the real name of Soliman was Shlomo (that, by the way, are the same name) and the surname was Cohen.
So, Shlomo Cohen, or Suliman the Great, was born in 1921 in Tel Aviv, Israel. He married Sara Cohen. She was born in Yemen, near Sanaa, and her parents moved to Israel when she was 6 months old. The way would take months. It was done part by foot, and part in a British postal boat. After the arrival, the family faced many difficulties too. Note they entered the land when Israel as a state was not existing yet. There was a period of much uncertainty and violence. The father died when Sara was 10 years old. Her mother had to work from sunrise to night. She explains her life quite deeply in this interview. Sara and Shlomo met at very young age and they got married when she was 16 years old.
How did they become artists?
It was not premeditated. During his attendance at the army (note this was still during the Mandatory Palestina, with the land administrated by the British) the men used to gather around a fire, telling tales and singing songs. Shlomo soon stood out as a singer. He was given the nickname of Suliman the Great by one of this colleagues. The guys proposed him to request money for the performances. So it started with little expectations. And they were requested soon for many and many more places to perform.
Sara was a singer with Suliman, and a great one too! And they had four kids, who became singers and they all entered the band: the boys, Hofni, Pinchas and Izhar Cohen, and the girl, Vardina Cohen. They settled in Givatayim. Not everything was easy in their lifes. Sometimes they didn’t have enough to buy the essential furniture, but an accordion, a guitar and the personal music lessons from the father were never missing.
They recorded two albums: “30 years singing around the fire with Suliman the Great”, with 25 pieces, in 1978, and Singer of the Land with Suliman the Great” in 1994. Don’t miss to see Shlomo and Sara in this live performance at the TV. The picture above is from that performance.
Shlomo died in 2009 because of a kidney disease. It is said that he was singing even in the way to the hospital. About Sara, she was alive at least until August 2019, when the interview at XNet was done. I haven’t found any information about after. All the information about them is in Hebrew. I would thank any data. Blessed machine translators, by the way…
Who was the previous Suliman the Great?
According to Thoughtco, Suleiman the Great, or Suleiman the First:
“(November 6, 1494–September 6, 1566) became the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1520, heralding the “Golden Age” of the Empire’s long history before his death. Perhaps best known for his overhaul of the Ottoman government during his reign, Suleiman was known by many names, including “The LawGiver.”
His rich character and even richer contribution to the region and the Empire helped make it a source of great wealth in prosperity for years to come, ultimately leading to the foundation of several nations in Europe and the Middle East we know today.”
You can learn much more about his life and achievements, here. It is very interesting. Note there is a direct relation between Suliman’s reign and Yemen: in 1538 took Aden from the Portuguese and set a base to continue the attacks against the Portuguese, who were trying to control parts of India. This was the beginning of a period of conflicts between the Ottoman and the Portuguese.
Medley of Yemenite songs, by Suliman the Great and family
- The singer opens with “Dror Yikra” (with Yemenite melody). This is one of the best known and most common Shabbat songs in all Israeli communities over the generations. This is probably the first song written especially as a song for Shabbat, and not as a piyyut intended to be included in prayer or in the synagogue. The song itself is about today’s Sabbath as freedom and spiritual redemption for humans and the world. The author of the piyyut is Dunash ibn Labrat, a 10th century poet and linguist from Spain (note Spain was not a estate or country yet), a student of R. Saadia Gaon who moved to Spain where he worked.
- After that, they move on to Moroccan piyyut “Shalom Leben Dodi“. This is a piyyut written by Shlomo Ibn Gabirol, one of the greatest poets of Spain in XI century. There is a dialogue between the people of Israel and God, represented as, on many occasions in the piyyutim, by two lovers.
- In third place, they sing a Yemenite piyyut, “Im Nin’Alu” (Yemeni melody). A central song for celebrations in the tradition of Yemeni Jews. It is composed by seven stanzas, alternating Hebrew and Arabic. It was written by seventeenth-century Rabbi Shalomon Shabazi. It is very popular specially thanks to the versions by Ofra Haza. I have found some other renditions of this song and I will come back with it in a near future.
- And returns to finish again with “Shalom Leben Dodi“.
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