MBS a talk with a generous disseminator, Joel Bresler, and the quest for the multiples branches of an artistic seed

4th December 2020 – Shabbat is almost here 


And I am pleased to share a little conversation with another disseminator whose work has fed mine in several ocassions: Joel Bresler. And we’ll listen Ruth Yaakov’s Majo, Majo i Majo and discover how a song can produce many branches. 


Hello, how are you? I hope well. You know how I love old music. But from time to time I like to talk with people that are alive, because they can answer. I would love to make questions to Moishe Oysher or to Bienvenida Aguado but for now I just can dialogue with them in my fantasy. So on this occasion, I will be exchanging ideas with another disseminator whose work is exceptional: Joel Bresler, creator of SephardicMusic.org. He is also very fond of old music and not only old. He is, in his own words, an “obsessed” collector and discographer.

On this enlightening report, “The Music of the Sephardim” in Early Music America magazine, he and Judith Cohen (with whom I will talk soon) explain what is the Sephardic music and they mention several artists that have striven for authenticity and Ruth Yaakov is one of them. Find the video with her music at the bottom.

– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom – ?

Hannukah is coming soon and the last Hannukah is when this Music Before Shabbat initiative was born. Celebrate this birthday with me ?. All I want as a birthday present is to welcome more people here. Share this with your friends and with anybody who can enjoy it. Thank you in advance.

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Joel Bresler’s SephardicMusic.org

The website SephardicMusic.org has been a source of information for me in several occasions, specially related to the oldest recordings. For it didn’t seem to be supported by any organization, so I got curious to learn who was behind this jewel. And it was not difficult: Joel Bresler is the author and here below you have a little conversation in which he explains some interesting facts. I am really thanksful to him for his dedication! In the picture you see Joel with Mrs. Sylvia Cohen, who donated 78-rpm recordings for his project ?

Araceli Tzigane: As a disseminator of Jewish music, and moreover being a Spanish person, your website is a treasure for me. I feel I can understand what forces drives you to disseminate this music you love. Because I think this is not a business, despite you may earn some income from the sales from Amazon done through the website. These kinds of initiatives come from some transcendental need. Which is yours?

Joel Bresler: So glad you enjoy the website – that means a lot to me! I have never earned any money from the amazon links, so that wasn’t a motivation. I went from devotee to collector to discographer. Enjoyed the music, then started collecting it, then attempting to collect every recording ever made with at least one song in ladino. And by then, since I had built a “want list” of recordings that weren’t in my collection I turned it into a discography. First for LPs, cassettes and CDs. And then a separate effort for 78s. 

AT: In the website, in the About, you explain that you were transfixed by Sephardic music when you first heard it thirty years ago (now it must be around forty years ago, right?).

JB: Yes. 

AT: But what happened, why did you get transfixed? What was the specific song or recording? Was it just because of the music or also because you realized there were Jews who spoke Spanish out of Spain for 5 centuries or anything else?

JB: I love Renaissance music and also listened to a lot of Spanish Renaissance music. So my first Sephardic recording was the Hesperion XX double LP of Jewish and Christian music. They performed Sephardic music as Renaissance music which is actually not that authentic, but it was my start. 

AT: I’d like to highlight that you have another career, you are currently the Director of Technology Ventures at Northeastern University. It sounds very cutting edge. You are not the first Jewish person who I have met that works in something very technological and at the same time has an initiative related to the dissemination of Jewish culture, like a festival of live music or your website. Are you also a musician yourself? Do you have any other initiative, apart from your work and the website of SephardicMusic.org?

JB: I fell deeply for the American folk song Follow The Drinking Gourd and wrote a cultural history of it at www.followthedrinkinggourd.org . I have also prepared political parodies the last three us presidential elections, see:

2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-vY5WIZdw
2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_9CltI4G8&feature=youtu.be 
2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs7TXCy7uI&t=5s  

AT: What are the origins of your family? I believe Bresler comes from Breslau/Wrocław, the city that is currently in the South West of Poland, doesn’t it? Can you explain to me the background of your ancestors from both sides? Bresle is the Yiddish for Wroclaw. I believe you may not have Sephardic ancestors, do you? (according to your answer I might have to ask you something more).

JB: Hi, you have all this exactly right. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Karo, which as you may was the name of a very well-known and influential Sephardic rabbi. There were Sephardim who made it as far as Poland, so it’s possible even if not likely. Since it is such an influential name, it could be my ancestors adopted it for the prestige. We may never know. I’ll probably get a genetics test some day!

Related to Joseph Karo, Joel provided several links:

This is a picture of the Market Square in Breslau, between 1890-1900 at the time when it was Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) ca. View from the East. This is in Wikipedia and is of public domain. Might be one of these people any ancestor of Joel Bresler?

AT: So one side of your family comes from Poland. And the other side too? Your grandparents from your father and also from your mother, were from Poland? And do you know when did your ancestors arrive to the USA?

JB: Yes, all four grandparents from Poland (though one was US-born.) And perhaps some ancestors from Spain (much earlier!!. Key word here is “perhaps”!) On my maternal side, approx. 1920 or so. On my paternal side, my grandfather was here at roughly the same time; my grandmother was US born and so her parents like arrived late 19th century??

AT: In your website I found a link to the work of 2009 The Music of the Sephardim, by you and Judith Cohen. There you mention that: “But some musicians constantly invoke a mythological exoticism and the supposed antiquity of Sephardic song as an excuse to make of it what they will and justify it in the name of “creativity.””. I have to say that I totally agree and that the same happens with traditional music from Spain (not Sephardic, but rural traditional). The invocation of its antiquity, or of its coming from the tradition, is used to legitimate also mediocre works. Don’t you think it may happen the same in many other traditions? Doesn’t it happen with Askenazi or Yemenite Jewish music?

JB: I believe that after World War II, once musicians hear a song they can take it and perform it however they might wish to. It used to be difficult to find repertory – there were actually song-sharing groups active in the folk community in the 1960s. Now, with Itunes, Spotify, digitized field recording, Youtube, etc. It’s quite easy.

AT: Are you interested in receiving new recordings of Sephardic songs that are done nowadays? If so, how shall the people send them to you?

JB: My public account is joelbresler@gmail.org. I am always interested in new recordings. Although i am not doing a comprehensive discography of electronic recordings – a job for the next generation. 

AT: In this edition I will accompany your interview with a recording by Ruth Yaakov: “Majo, majo y majo” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-7V-MZfFo She is one of the singers you and Judith Cohen (old friend of mine, with whom I will talk here soon) mention that have striven for authenticity. She is really outstanding, one of those singers that are quite impossible to imitate. Do you want to share any insight about this recording or about the song or about Ruth Yaakov?

JB: Aside from deep admiration for her work and artistry, I don’t have too much to add. As opposed to scholars like Judith, I am “just” an obsessed collector and discographer! 


 

The Jews in Wrocław

So the origin of Joel Bresler’s surname and at least of some of his ancestors is Breslau, currently Wrocław in Polish. After the II World War and the Potsdam Agreement (August 1945) the city became part of Poland. I would have been in Wrocław last June, for a concert by Gulaza. It is one of the losses caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, the city is still there, waiting for me…. 

According to JGuideEurope, the oldest Jewish tombstone found in Wrocław (Breslau) dates back to 1203, indicating that by then Wrocław was home to a permanent Jewish community. In 1290, Wrocław had the second largest Jewish community in East Central Europe, after Prague. Click the link to learn more about the history of Jews in this city, that was a referential point in several moments.

This is the White Stork synagogue in 1979, by Stiopa in Wikipedia ?

The website of the Jewish Community of Wrocław explains that:

“The resurgence of the Jewish community in Wrocław took place after 1989. Scientific conferences, exhibitions and cultural events dedicated to Jewish issues began to be organised in the city. Scientific research on fascism and the Holocaust in Silesia was developed, as well as on the history of the Jews of Lower Silesia after the Second World War. In 1993, the Centre for the Study of the Culture and Languages of Polish Jews was established at the University of Wrocław, transformed in 2003 into the Study of Jewish Culture and Languages.

Until 2006, there was an independent Jewish religious community at Wrocław, which was then incorporated into the structure of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland and transformed into a branch of the ZGWŻ at Wrocław. The branch has its own rabbi: since 2013 it has been Tyson Herberger, who is the Chief Rabbi of Wrocław and Silesia. TSKŻ still operates in the city, as well as several organizations dealing with Jewish culture and education, including the Bente Kahan Foundation and the GESHER Foundation for Jewish Culture and Education. Aleksander Gleichgewicht has been the president since 2012.”

This is the White Stork synagogue nowadays in Google Maps Street View:
For further information, visit the mentioned links and the page about Wrocław in Sztetl.org.pl
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Listen to Majo, Majo i Majo by Ruth Yaakov

As Ruth Yaakov (born in 1960 in Israel) is one of the artists that, according to the article “The Music of the Sephardim“, have striven for authenticity, I have chosen a piece of her work. From the album Shaatnez (Piranha Records, 1998), by Ruth Yaakob Ensemble, I have chosen Majo, majo y majo, with a part of the lyrics of the piece El mancebo enamorado (The young man in love), that shares part of the lyrics with the story of the but also of the song of the Ciego raptor (The blind raptor). Under the picture you’ll find the lyrics that Ruth Yaakov sings in this recording. But before, let’s go deeper into this piece.

In the popular anonymous pieces that have been transmitted orally it is very normal that versions and divergences arise. This is a case in point. I have located several references and recordings that exemplifly it well.

The Maale Adumim Institute for the Documentation of the Jewish-Spanish (Ladino) Language and Culture has several versions, published in their El Trezoro de Kantes de Sefarad (Sefarad Song Treasure). There are many other recordings named El mancebo enamorado, but I have selected the ones that have at least one stanza similar to what Ruth Yaakov sings. The stanza of majo, majo i majo is present in many occasions between any other lyrics, usually related to love, but in some ocassions it is sang together with the lullaby “nani, nani”.

  • This one from the Bulgarian tradition, sang by M. Tiferet, recorded in Yafo in 1978
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Kobi Zarko, recorded in Jerusalem in 1989
  • This one from the Greek tradition, sang by Dasa Liza (date and place of the recorded not indicated)
  • This one, that includes just one of the stanzas, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Ilter Yitshak, recorded in Bat Yam in 1978
  • This one, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Politi Mazal, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (the first part is another piece)
  • This one (tradition not mentioned but I feel it sounds Turkish), sang by Karavani Hanna, recorded in Jerusalem in 1984 (just the first stanza is shared with the other versions)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Levy Ventura, recorded in Jerusalem in 1985 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo between many other stanzas)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Mizrahi Rivka, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo after other two)
  • This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Zevulun Estrea, recorded in Beer-Sheva in 1978 (this includes the stanza of “akodravos dama” (remember, lady) at the beginning and the one of “los males son kurados” (ailments are cured) that is also present in other versions)
  • This one (tradition not indicated), sang by Vardi Zaavi, date and place not indicated. This includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo in the middle.

Some of the stanzas and ideas of the lyrics of this piece are shared with another piece, with very different meaning: the blind raptor. I found the lyrics at the website of Pan-Hispanic Ballad Project. This song registered by David Romey in Seattle between 1948 and 1950 starts like the other and the last stanza is also shared, but the story is quite different. In this, the foreigner pretends to be blind to beg at the house of the girl he loves and kidnaps her. His mother wonders where his Flor (flower, used as the girl’s name) is.

So far I am sure you want to listen to the announced recording by Ruth Yaakov, so here you are!

Click the picture to listen to the recording:

 

Lyrics

Majo i majo i majo
Agua en el mortero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero.

Akodravos damma
De akel pan i sal
Ke durmimos djuntos
En un kavesal
Ke durmimos djuntos
En un kavesal

I dezir ansí
yo ya me cansí;
Ke de vuestro fuego
yo ya me cansí.
Ke de vuestro fuego
yo ya me cansí.

Majo i majo i majo
Agua en el mortero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero
No ay ken s’adjideye
De este forastero

I mash, mash and mash
water in the mortar.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.

Remember, lady,
that bread and salt
we ate together
on a pillow.
We ate together
on a pillow.

And to say so
I got tired.
I got tired
of your fire.
I got tired
of your fire.

I mash, mash and mash
water in the mortar.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.
No one take pity
on this foreigner.

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:
Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

MBS with Victoria Hazan, the Sephardic Anatolian voice of fire ?

November 6th, 2020. Shabbat is almost here

And our star today is Victoria Hazan, an extraordinary Anatolian singer who moved to the USA in 1920 and recorded an album, Todas mis esperansas (all my hopes), that is a wonderful legacy. 


Hello! How are you? I hope well. A few days ago there was an earthquake that has been specially destructive in Smyrna. Just by chance I had been listening to Victoria Hazan around that time. She was born very near Smyrna, in Salihli, and settled in Smyrna before moving to the USA. Somehow I found her mentioned while wandering at the Internet.

So, let’s learn more and enjoy the outstanding performance by Victoria Hazan. She has several songs about that kind of passion that drives you crazy and in this one she uses the metaphor of the passion as a fire: I have chosen Me kemi y me enflami and you’ll find the lyrics at the bottom, under the video.

– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom –
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Victoria Hazan, the voice of fire

The main facts of the life of Victoria Hazan are quite well know. She was alive until 1995, until she was 99 years old, and there are many pictures of her in different moments of her life, thanks to Maurice Ninio, who I think that was her brother, but I am not sure. In the website SephardicMusic.org there are many pictures, like this one on the left and there is even one of her grave. I have chosen this one, a portrait with a direct and defiant look, by this elegant lady of the sweet and melismatic voice.

She was a singer and a composer and she also played oud. She was born as Victoria Ninio in April 15, 1896, in Salihli, in the province of Manisa, in Anatolia. It is one hour to the East of Smyrna.

In Salihli there is the Sardes Synagogue. According to eSefarad it is “the third oldest Jewish temple known after the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the mudbrick in Babylon.” Learn more in this article about five synagogues in Turkey.

This is the recent status of the synagogue of Sardes. I hope it hasn’t suffered much after the latest earthquake. The picture is by Carole Raddato in Wikipedia:

Victoria’s family’s tradition was to be cantors. She married to a hazan, Israel Hazan, from a family of cantors too, and she adopted her husband’s surname and kept is even during her second marriage. In 1915 she moved from Salihli to Smyrna and in 1920, to New York. The marriage with Israel was already there, in 1925. After he died, Victoria married again, with Joe Rosa in 1936.

She became president of the United Sisterhood Benevolent Society in Bronx. She gave concerts in the synagogue, singing and playing lute, singing her songs, with compositions of her own, in Turkish, Ladino, French, Hebrew, Greek and Armenian. We have her recordings thanks to the insistence of the community: for many years after her arrival to the New World, she rejected to record, arguing that she had no money. But she finally accepted and recorded several pieces, that would be released by Kaliphon Records and Metropolitan Records (below you’ll find more information about the record labels).

The selected song, Me Kemi y me Enflami, is dated on 1942. The specific dates of the different recordings are available here. In 2001, Global Village released Todas mis esperansas, with 24 pieces.

I have chosen Me kemi i me enflami, but all the pieces are amazing. You can listen to many others in the blog by Panos Savvopoulos, where these pictures above are from.
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A relevant source for Victoria’s bio has been also: https://www.wikiwand.com/tr/Victoria_Hazan

About the Jewish community of Manisa province

Being the synagogue of Sardes so old, I wondered what was the history of the Jews in that land, in the province of Manisa. According to Mathilde Tagger in this article for SephardicStudies.org

Manisa, formerly known as Magnasia or Magnésie, is situated in the North East of Izmir (38°36N 27°26E). A Jewish ‘romaniote’ community existed there from the Byzantine period, praying in the Etz Ha-Hayim Synagogue. After 1492, Jews expelled from Spain settled there, joining a hundred or so romaniote families. These newcomers founded two synagogues: Lorca and Toledo.

Lorca and Toledo are two cities of my country, Spain. Lorca is in the SouthEast, in Murcia region, and Toledo is the city where my company, Mapamundi Cultural SL, is settled. So these stories are very moving for me. It seems there are not Jews nowadays in the province.


About the record labels Metropolitan and Kaliphon

Me-Re record company was created in the early 1940s by Aydin (or Ajdin) Asllan (a poly-lingual Albanian) and the violinist, Nick Doneff. Soon they splittled the company. Aydin made Balkan and Doneff made Kaliphon.
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An aside: If you like old recordings, don’t miss to check the Bandcamp of Canary Records
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Canary Records are nowadays releasing much material from that time and they explain here that Doneff was a Bulgarian violinist. They explain that Ajdin Asllan was born in Leskovik near the present-day southern border of Albania on 1895. He arrived in New York in 1926 and made made a record label called Mi-Re in 1937. After 5 releases he stopped, until 1942, when he joined the Bulgarian violinist born in 1981 Nicola, or Nick, Doneff (he is the violinist in the recording of Victoria Hazan’s song and the picture on the left is he) and relaunched it as Me Re. They stayed together very shortly and, as mentioned, Asllan would make Balkan and Doneff would make Kaliphon, that would be provider of recordings for Balkan. Canary mention that a third label appeared, Metropolitan, but it is not clear who was in charge. If you want to learn more about this, don’t miss this article. The picture is from Discog.

Doneff played with other artists, like, for instance, the singer and oudist Armenian born in Smyrna Marko Melkon Alemserian, who you will enjoy too if you like rebetiko. Here you have an example of their work together. They both played in Victoria Hazan’s album.


Listen to Victoria Hazan in Me Kemi y Me Enflami 

This piece was recorded in 1942. The singer is Victoria Hazan and the musicians are the already mentioned Nick Doneff on violin, Melko Melkon on oud and Garbis Bakirgian on the kanun. Find the lyrics in Ladino and in English below.

 
Click the picture to listen to the recording:

 

Me kemi y me enflami
cuando te vide yo a ti.
En sentirte a ti cantar
me pareses un bilbil.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, biju,
ke vo salir loco.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, ????,
ke vo salir loco.

Tus ojos ke me miran,
el corason me keman.
Con estas miradas tuyas
cuantas almas kemaran?

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu ????,
ke vo salir loco.

Ven a mi lado, ven ke te rogo,
ven mas presto tu, biju,
ke vo salir loco.

I burned and became inflamed
when I saw you.
In feeling you sing
you look like a nightingale to me.

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly, you, jewel,
that I will go crazy.

Come to my side, come on, I’m begging you
come more quickly, you, ????,
that I will go crazy.

Your eyes look at me,
they burn my heart.
With these looks of yours
how many souls will they burn?

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly, you, ????,
that I will go crazy.

Come to my side, come I beg you,
come more quickly you, jewel,
that I will go crazy.

 

 

The translation into English is mine.

There is a word that I don’t catch and in the original booklet it is not written. It is just written “biju”, from the French “bijou”, but I listen a variation in her singing, that’s why I put the question marks.

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

 To know more about our artists, click here.

World Music Central interviews Jako el Muzikante

Check the comprenhensive interview by Ángel Romero with Jako el Muzikante and learn how the Galician artist Xurxo Fernandes incarnates the historic character of the hustler of the café aman.

The interview unveils all what is behind the work Ven al Luna Park, with statements like this:

The Sephardic identity is based on their language, a language in danger of extinction. My fascination with Ladino is linked to a feeling of debt to the community from which I learned so much, and publishing this work in that same language is an acknowledgement I want to give.

Read the complete interview here.

MBS back to 1497 and a tragic story in the sweetest voice: Bienvenida Aguado

24th July 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And we come back to the eternal Bienvenida Aguado and this tragic story, kept alive since 1497 in the Sephardic diaspora 


Hello! How are you? In this occasion we come back to the Sephardic legacy, with a lady that was already our protagonist in this edition of MBS. One of my very favourite female singers, Bienvenida Aguado, born in Çanakkale, Turkey, in 1929, settled in Israel from 1979 and passed away in 2016. I hope you’ll enjoy her unbelievable melismata and the sweet timbric of her voice.

As usual, you have the video at the bottom. And if you like this, as usual, please: share it with your friends! Thank you in advance.

 

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The greatest female singer of the Sephardi-Turkish style

There is not much information about Bienvenida Aguado, as she was not a chazzan, neither a professional singer.  But we are lucky to have a bunch of recordings in audio and in video, made mainly by Susana Weich-Shahak. This picture is from one of the albums released with those recordings.

Bienvenida was born in Turkey and, despite that she moved to Israel in 1979, she returned to her native land every Summer, according to the booklet of the album Judeo-Spanish songs from the Eastern Mediterranean. Bienvenida Aguado and Loretta Gerassi.

Bienvenida sang both in Judeo-Spanish and in Turkish. Here you have an example of her singing in Turkish.

The song about the tragic story of the Duke of Gandía, murdered in his 19 years old

According to the booklet of the aforementioned album, written by the wonderful Edwin Seroussi, “the medieval Spanish romance continued its existence in the Sephardi oral tradition with significant modifications while retaining themes and the major structural characteristics of the Hispanic genre: lines of sixteen syllables (two hemistiches of eight syllables each), assonant rhymes and melodies of four short phrases covering two lines (four hemistiches) in forms like ABCD (like in this piece) or ABCDCD”.

The event mentioned in this song dates back to 1497 and tells the story of the murder of Juan de Borja y Cattanei, II Duke of Gandía (he is the man in the portrait). He was stabbed and his body was thrown to the river in Rome, when he was only 19 years old. The last time he was seen alive was in a place called the square of the Jews.

He was the firstborn favorite son of the pope Alexander VI and his preferred lover, Vannozza Cattanei, and brother of Cesare Borgia.

There are several hypothesis about the reason: the jealousy one, according to which his younger brother Jofré killed him because Juan was his wife’s lover, and the political one, that blames Cesare, who would take Juan’s place in the heart and the political plans of the Pope, their father. But, so far, this is an unsolved case and many other possibilities, like a punishment by enemies of their family, make also sense.

The song explains how the body of the Duke was found in the river by some poor fishermen. With no doubt, he was a rich and important person, because of the clothes he had. They though he was the son of a king. He had a ring in his finger that would make one hundred poor become rich. And the son of Alexander was been search…

If they returned him alive to his father, he would make them noble, and if they returned him dead, he would give them some presents.

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Click the picture to listen to La muerte del Duque de Gandía by Bienvenida Aguado:

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

Music Before Shabbat, with Izak Algazi Efendi. A declaration of crippling love ?

15 May 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with Izak Algazi, born in Izmir in 1889. Let’s listen his “Reina de la Grasia”, queen of the grace, a recording from 1929, that is a declaration of a crippling love.


I first learned about Izak Algazi from Jako el Muzikante, who told me about this hazzan after a conversation about Izak Maçoro, who was our star some MBSs ago

So, after three editions with klezmer, I return to the Sephardic heritage and to some old music. Izak Algazi was mentioned quite recently in Ladinokomunita, a fascinating email group with participants discussing in Ladino, some natives of the languaje and other people that have learnt it, many of them quite devoted to the continuity of the languaje. They mentioned the presence of a street called Algazi in Izmir, name in his honour.

Izak Algazi was very recognized for his artistry during his life. He was the son of another well-known hazzan from Izmir, Salomon Algazi. Izak had a brilliant career in Turkey, he made many recordings for several record companies and even Mustafa Kemal, before becoming Atatürk, gave him an autographed Quran as a present.

Algazi left Turkey in 1933, as the chances for a Jewish to develope any position in public life started to dissapear in the process of turkification. He settled in Paris for 2 years to complete his rabbinical studies and moved to Montevideo in 1935, because he was invited to join the Sephardic Synagogue. Professor Edwin Seroussi, who knows his biography from at first-hand, has helped me to understand a bit better the situation that caused these events, so I thank him very much.

You can find a list of his recordings on SephardicMusic.org, website, where it is mentioned that he recorded this song in 3 occasions: 1909, 1912 and 1929. Below you can hear the last one. In this same link you can read a brief bio.

And what about the song of crippling love?

By the way, I have to thank Joshua Cheek for helping with the term of “crippling” and  some more tips of the English languaje. And I said it is a song of crippling love, because of the lyrics. And it is curious because Izak Algazi’s wife’s name was Reina!!! And reina means queen. The questions is that the lyrics say:

Reina de la grasia
Madre de la bivez
Onde ke te tope
Por verte otra vez.
Vo murir, vo murir
Si tu mas non te vez
Queen of the grace
Mother of the life
Where could I found you
to see you once more.

I’m going to die, I’m going to die
if I don’t see you again

I wonder if Reina made him a lot of “love sorrows” before getting married and having their three kids. Anyway, with sorrows or not, let’s enjoy the amazing voice and the almost unbelievable melismata of Izak Algazi:

Clic the picture to enjoy Reina de la Grasia,
by Izak Algazi:

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

 

Hazan David Kadoch – Tikun Hatal

8 April 2020 – Pesach is almost here

As announced, this week this musical moment has moved ahead two days, as, today, Pesach begins. Let’s enjoy the voice of David Kadoch, hazan of the Abir Yaakob Congregation in Thornhill, Ontario.


I hope you and all your beloved ones are well and healthy. Here we are still in confinement. My father was two nights at the hospital but now he is at home and recovering and I am happy to share one more musical wonder with you.

I discovered David Kadoch by chance, searching for Sephardic music at the Youtube (the true is that I do this very often: it was a matter of time that I found him). He has a huge collection of wonderful recordings in his channel, specially focused on Moroccan Sephardic repertoire.

But the recording I share with you today is in the channel of Darké Aboutenu, an initiative born in 2017 in Canada, with the aim of disseminating the culture of the Moroccan Jewry. Check their website, where you can also join their mailing list.

The portrait is from David’s Facebook profile. And the recording in the video below is Tikun Hatal, the prayer for dew, recited in the Sephardic tradition on the first day of Pesach. I feel it really moving and I am happy to bring you a hazan that is alive and active nowadays and so generous with all these material available at the Internet. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of David Kadoch:

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


Chag Pesach Sameach

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

Cantor Hans Bloemendal – Kaddish

3 April 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Get relief with Dr. Hans Bloemendal, chief cantor of the Main Synagogue in Amsterdam, born in 1923 in the German city of Fulda, sent by his father to Amsterdam after the rise of Nazi regime and settled there until the end of his life in 2015. Let’s listen to his Kaddish.

I have been discussing with myself between the idea of chosing something joyful to cheer up or something more introspective, for this occasion in this difficult time.

Today I complete 3 weeks of confinement. My father is at the hospital from the last night (I think and wish he will be well and at home before Pesaj) and many people have died. You are also confined and I hope you and all your people are well. The election of a Kaddish, in this amazing rendition, feels like optimal.

Dr. Hans Bloemendal was chazzan at the Main Synagogue in Amsterdam from 1949. During the war he went into hiding. His family was killed in Sobibor.

His contributions to the world were not only his art: he developed an initiative of books for kids and he was also a teacher and a researcher in biochemistry and molecular biology. This info is available in the bio here. I really recommend to read it. And the picture is from here.

The picture that illustrates the video below, with the recording, is of a grandfather with his blind granddaughter in Warsaw in 1938. The author is Roman Vishniac, who travelled across central and Eastern Europe, photographing the Jewish communities, both in the cities as well as in rural areas, before de II World War. If you didn´t know him (I confess I discovered him yesterday, thanks to this picture in the video, and I spent hours looking at his works), his bio is also worth of reading. It is curious that he was also a biologist.

One last thing. Next week this email won’t be sent before Shabbat, but before Pesaj.

Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of Dr. Hans Bloemendal:

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 Jewish 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

Cantor İsak Maçoro – Avinu Malkenu

27 March 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with İsak Maçoro, Sephardic cantor, born in 1918, in Hasköy, a quarter in Beyoğlu, in the European side of Istambul, where many Portuguese and Spanish Jewish settled from the end of XV century. Let’s listen his rendition of Avinu Malkenu.

I know this is not the time to pray with Avinu Malkenu. We are not in the Yamim Noraim, but I feel the message is perfectly suitable for our current situation. If you read this at some moment of the future, today we are finishing the second week of confinement in Spain because of the crisis of Covid-19. Most of the world is suffering this threat, that is costing many lifes and changed our everydayness overnight.

I got to know Cantor İsak Maçoro at the Youtube some years ago, searching for Sephardic piyyutim. The picture of him and a short bio can be found in the website eSefarad. And in the channel of Youtube of Janet & Jak Esim, of which I talked in the previous Music Before Shabbat, there are many more videos of him. You can even see him singing live.

For this occasion I have chosen this recording from 1960, from the Youtune channel of Ozkan Sagliksunar.


Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of Isak Maçoro:

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.

Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Bienvenida Aguado – La mujer de Terah

20 March 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with the emblematic Sephardic singer Bienvenida “Berta” Aguado, born in Çanakkale, Turkey, in 1929, settled in Israel from 1979 and passed away in 2016.

Let’s face this terrible time we are suffering in most of the world with the most sublime beauty. She is one of my favourite singers of any time. She is inimitable and unforgettable and her singing is absolutely unique.

Thanks to the works by Susana Weich-Shahak there are many recordings of Bienvenida, an unbelievable singer, who made enchanting intrincate filigrees with her voice, that you could almost don’t believe, in an old Ottoman style.

For this occasion I have chosen La Mujer de TerahTerah’s Wife, about the prenancy of Abraham’s mother and about his birth and some events in his life. This video is part of the collection of Jak Essim, who is a singer settled in Istambul and works with his wife Janet. You can also find more info about this song in this link about an album with works by Susana Weich-Shahak.

Clic the picture to enjoy the recording of La Mujer de Terah:

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. 


Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

Jako el Muzikante – letter from Hadrianopolis

28 February 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with Sephardic music from Hadrianopolis, by Jako el Muzikante

Xurxo, the real name of the artist that incarnates the character of Jako el Muzikante, explained to me that this song was written by a poet from Hadrianopolis (Enderne in Ladino, Edirne in Turkish) about who it was rumored that was dead.

The responsible of that rumour was Hayim, another man, mentioned in the song. The poet answered with this humour and grace to announce that he was alive. I have translated the lyrics into English. Enjoy!

CLIC THE PICTURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO
Esta letra vos eskrivo:
I write this letter to you,
to tell you that I am alive
and to prove that I am healthy
I write to you with my hand.

 

Thanks to God,
my health got strong,
ah, it became so good
that I make hold in the floor where I step.Hayim, my dear,
I always try to give you joy.
I would never leave
without your permission.

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 email with… …. this button to sign up: send it to your friends

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.