Re: Judeo Arabic/North African music

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Francesco,

Thanks for that wonderful insight on the relative freedom of
Judeo-Arabic interpretation of songs.

Are most of the songs of the series indeed in Hebrew, or are they in
Arabic (or other languages)?

Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Francesco Spagnolo <yuval (at) powerlink(dot)it>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 7:40 PM
Subject: Re: Judeo Arabic/North African music


>>Another in the Tresors de la Chanson Judeo-Arabes series:
>>El Kahlaoui Tounsi
>>Melodie 79109-2
>
>
>And here's the contact info for the editor of the series:
>
>Michel LEVY, Paris
>phone (office): +33 1 49237770
>mobile: +33 6 14277644
>
>
>As for the content of the series, you were right: even if one knew
Hebrew,
>there would be no way to detect any specific Jewish content. BUT: as
I have
>been told by several non-Jewish Algerians (most of the musicians in
the
>series are Algerian "pied-noirs"...), everybody in Algeria (and
Tunisia)
>simply knew that the musicians were Jewish, and that for at least two
main
>reasons. First, the topics of the songs (mostly, love) were dealt
with in a
>more "liberated" way than in songs sung by Muslims performers;
second, even
>female singers were more free that their Muslim collegues.
>In other words, what was perceived as tipically "Jewish" about these
>musicians was the fact that, through their larger freedom of
expressing
>themselves, they ended up giving voice to the less free parts of the
>society they lived in, which was of course mostly Muslim.
>
>Among others Judeo-Arabic recordings, remember another Piranha cd
(1996),
>by Algerian pianist and singer Maurice El Medioni (et son
Pianorientale),
>which stars also David Kracauer and Frank London... the songs are in
Arabic
>and French, often mixed in the same song.
>
>Best,
>Francesco
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