Rabbi Louk

[Meydele <Meydele...>]

Rabbi Louk is an astounding, charming performer who is, indeed, world famous.  
I attended a 
concert by him at UCLA May 9.  He was backed by 4 instrumentalists, at least 2 
of whom were not 
Jewish, but are Moroccan Moslems.  I am told that about 1/3 of the audience for 
this Sunday 
afternoon concert were Moroccan Moslems.  He is the rabbi of the Moroccan 
synagogue in North 
Hollywood, an area of the San Fernando Valley suburbs of LA(the dreaded 
"Valley" as in "Valley 
Girls").  He has a beautiful clear singing voice and is an absolutely virtuosic 
performer.  His 
love of the music and the texts pours out of him in a totally engaging way.  
His command of the 
maqam improvisational style is immediately apparent even if you aren't that 
familiar with that 
style of music. I have forgotten the name of the synagogue, but if you email 
Prof. Edwin 
Seroussi at UCLA (seroussi (at) ucla(dot)edu) he can give your friend specific 
contact information.  The 
Moroccan Jewish liturgical style is most beautiful and heavily influenced by 
the music of 
Andalusia.  If any list subscribers ever have an opportunity to hear Rabbi Louk 
- no matter what 
your own background is (I'm a secular Yiddishist) - drop everything and go!

Shira Lerner

PS - Prof. Seroussi is a marvelous speaker on sephardic (including Moroccan) 
Jewish music, by 
the way.  Your friend might want to consider involving him in some way.  I 
expect that he'll be 
back in Israel after the end of spring quarter (mid-June)at UCLA.  He was only 
here for 2 
quarters as a visiting professor.



---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+