Re: Songs of the Sephardim

[Carol Freeman <tsipra...>]

Ari Davidow wrote:

> I love it! Ruth has a very special voice, imho. It is also the type of
> voice that I remember from listening to sephardic singers in Israel,
> which is a more arabic sounding way of singing--closer to Fairuz,
> than, say, listening to Flory Jagoda (who I also love, but who sings
> quite differently) or to the more medievally ethereal stuff that Lauren 
> Pomerantz does.
>

Hi Ari and all -
Just a note suggesting you keep in mind that when listening to traditional (not 
revival)
Sephardic singers - artists who grew up and learned their music within a 
traditional
context - that there is no such thing as one "Sephardic vocal style." Singers 
tended to
sing in the style of the urban music popular in their locale. Though her 
pronounciation
has an American flavor, Flory Jagoda's singing is very much like that of other 
female
Bosnian sevdalinka singers. Victoria Hazan sings exactly like the other great 
Izmir
singers (Turkish, Jewish, and Greek) of her era. The two would sound bizarre 
doing their
own repertoire in each other's vocal styles. You wouldn't want (at least, I 
wouldn't want)
to hear a Bosnian Jewish singer do her songs in "a more arabic way of singing," 
or vice
versa. I can think of some specific songs that I have learned from many 
different singers
from different parts of the Ladino speaking world - while the melodies are 
usually quite
similar, I've had to somewhat relearn the song each time because the stylings 
are just so
different.   Carol

>
>



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