RE: Piaf/Montand/Aznavour

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

My pre-menausal memory bank brings up a datum saying that Piaf was born to 
a Jewish prostitute in Paris, but I almost nothing about Charles Aznavour. 
 I wouldn't argue about him.

In doing a little research, I found that Piaf's mother's name was Anetta 
Maillard (an Italian cafe singer who sang under the name Line Marsa) and 
her grandmother's name was Aicha Kabyle.   Can't find any more info now. So 
who knows.


Reyzl



----------
From:  Kame'a Media[SMTP:media (at) kamea(dot)com]
Sent:  Thursday, July 08, 1999 12:18 PM
To:  World music from a Jewish slant
Subject:  Re: Piaf/Montand/Aznavour



Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky wrote:

> Oh, there are so, so many examples of this.   The same applies to other
> fields as well, for example, Romanian architecture (forgot his name) or
> Russian ballet (forgot her name too) or Russian classical musicians
> (Feltsman).  After I wrote what I wrote, I went downstairs and found a
> biography on Charles Aznavour playing on the Bravo cable station, but I
> missed the first half.  I can't remember the info I once knew about him 
and
> Edith Piaf, but wern't/aren't at least one of them Jewish too

Not Piaf.You may be thinking of another of her many proteges, the
aforementioned
Yves Montand (Real name: Yvo Levi).
Piaf writes in her biography that, first thing she did when the Nazis 
occupied
Paris,
was to take a Jewish lover...

Aznavour is Armenian.  (Real name: Aznavourian). I have never read /heard
anything about him being Jewish, but who knows?
Yiddish singer Dave Cash (Presente Ses Fantaisies Yiddish) sings a Yiddish
version of
Aznavour's "La Mamma".

Wolf


> That
> documentary in fact, spoke about several great French performers who were
> the chief exponents of French music in the 20th century, including Jacque
> Brel (who was Jewish) and what in their backgrounds propelled their
> phenomenal ambitions to become who they became.   Aznavour credited 
severe
> poverty as the factor that propelled him, but as I say, I missed the 
whole
> beginning where full backgrounds of the stars were given.

> Reyzl
>
> ----------
> From:  Paul M. Gifford[SMTP:PGIFFORD (at) flint(dot)umich(dot)edu]
> Sent:  Wednesday, July 07, 1999 1:32 PM
> To:  World music from a Jewish slant
> Subject:  RE: Julio Inglesias Jewish?
>
> Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl (at) flash(dot)net> wrote:
> >
> > Assuming that he is really Jewish (as opposed to having a little Jewish
> > blood in him), what is interesting to me in all of this is that here we
> > have another Jew who aims for the best of the popular music of his
> country,
> > a la Striesand in America, Yves Montand in France, Emil Gorovitz in
> Russia
> > before emigrating to Israel (then America), I forget the name of the
> singer
> > in Egypt, and a whole slew of other Jews too numerous to mention who
> worked
> > very hard to become the chief exponents of their country's music.  This
> > goes for performers, composers, record producers, etc.
>
> To add to this list, there is Gica Petrescu, now about 80, who is
> Romania's best-known popular singer (folk music, tangos, a little bit
> of everything).  Dorel Livianu, another similar singer, recorded a lot
> there in the '30s and emigrated to Israel in the early '50s. A friend
> of mine who played a lot with Petrescu in the '70s told me this,
> although he probably changed his name to hide his origins. Maybe
> it wouldn't have been possible in Romania to have such a career with
> a Jewish name.
>
> Paul Gifford
>





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