Tag Archives: Ladino music

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

 

Jako el Muzikante – Madam Gaspard

17 Abril 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

Enjoy with Jako el Muzikante and a piece about the everydayness, hoping to recover ours soon: Madam Gaspard and her visit to the market. 

I hope you have had a great Pesach, despite the situation. Here we are in confinement for 5 weeks now and, even though we can go to the grocery stores, the feeling of everydayness, with the latex gloves, the masks and the extra spacing, has gone.

The song for this occasion talks about Madam Gaspard who goes to the market and buys many animals. The lyrics are cumulative, as you will feel, and talk about this:

Madam Gaspard went to market.
She bought a dog:
a dog that says “wua wua wua wua”,
a cat that says “nya nya nya nya”,
a parrot that says “pa pa pa pa”,
a cock that says “ku ku ku ku”,
a chicken “ki ki ki ki”.
Do you know, my good-wife,
how much did she pay?

 

This song is included in the album “Ven al Luna Park”, by Jako el Muzikante, alter ego of Xurxo Fernandes. He learnt it from the collection of Victor Besso, researcher born in Salonica in 1905. According to the booklet, Yakov Algava learnt it from the Constantinoplian singer Karakesh Efendi and he recorded it in two different records in 1909.The mentioned animals can be more, as many as the imagination of the singer allowed. In the booklet of the album it is explained one occasion in Izmir in which it lasted one hour. It is a big challenge for any singer and Xurxo makes it wonderfully in this live shot.

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

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 Terah, Terah’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.

Janucá con alegrías – Jako el Muzikante

[NOTE: this message was sent before Shabbat of Hannuka of 5780/2019]

Jako el Muzikante and Mapamundi Música wish you

Janucá 5780 en alegrías! Hannukah 5780 with joy!

May you always find the light in your path. 

Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory

 

Hannukah Shabbat 5780

[NOTE: this message was sent before Shabbat of Hannuka of 5780/2019]

Shabbat Chanukah is almost here

and we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist. Click the picture to listen and, 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