Re: Judeo Arabic/North African music

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Hi, Francesco.

I'm sure Judith can say a lot more on the subject, but there is a nice
version on "Masters of Turkish Music, Volume 2", re-released from a 78
dating from 1949. It's sung by Safiye Ayla (a woman) with keman, kanun, ud
and clarinet accompaniment. The notes say it is a well known urban "turku"
(folk song) from Istanbul. The name is "Katibim". Uskudara is the first
word of the incipit.

In addition to the Gerineldo version, Judith does a suite on her recording
"Primavera en Salónica" and Francoise Atlan does it on "Romances Sefardies:
Entre le Rose et le Jasmin". 

The multi-language version is "Fel Sharah Canet Betet Masha", again done by
Judith, this time on "On my way I met?; also by Helene Engel on "Chansons
Judéo-espagnoles", and "Chansons Traditionnelles Juives", Italy's own
Liliana Treves Alcalay on "Sefarad canti giudeo-spagnoli raccolti e
interpretati", list member Isabelle Ganz' Alhambra on "The Art of
Judeo-Spanish Song", the Gerard Edery Ensemble on "Romanzas Sefarditas" and
Gloria  Levy, "Sephardic Folk Songs Sung by Gloria Levy", released in 1959
(she learned it from her Sephardic Egyptian mother) which I believe gives
her pride of place as the earliest commercial recording of the song.

Pesach sameach,

Joel










Evidently Eartha Kitt did a version of the song(!) in 1952, likely based on
this recording. 

Past that, I don't know when it dates from. A great song!At 10:34 AM 4/1/99
, you wrote:
>>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
>
>All songs are in Arabic. No Hebrew involved -- I wrote the word "Hebrew"
>instead of "Arabic" in my posting by mistake: sorry! These songs are
>(were?) part - as far as I can understand such things - of the local,
>non-Jewish, culture, and at the same time are somehow perceived as
>"Jewish". Pretty much like, I don't know, Jerry Lewis in the US (can this
>compare?)...
>Of course, French language plays a big role in this picture, since the
>Jewish singers were all speaking French as well, and were able to adjust to
>living in France more easily that the Arabs. In fact, what distinguished
>the Jews in those countries was their direct access to European education
>via the school system established all over North Africa and the Middle East
>by the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
>Many among these Jews also spoke Italian -- like in Libia and Tunisia, but
>also in Egipt and Syria -- and sometimes had an Italian passport. They were
>all connected to the Italian-Sephardi (mainly from Livorno/Leghorn)
>diaspora.
>A good aural documentation about this mixture of different cultures can be
>found in Gerineldo's version of "Uskudara" - a suite of different poetical
>compositions on the same Turkish melody, which carries on from Turkey to
>Morocco. One of the songs is a mixture of Arabic, French, Italian and
>English.
>I am actually curious to know more about this particular multilingual song,
>its origins, where it was collected, etc.; and I'm sure that Judith Cohen
>can say a lot about this. Judith?
>
>Hag sameah,
>Francesco
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Joel Bresler
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