Re: JEWISH-MUSIC digest 2097

[Shayna Silverstein <shaynasilverstein...>]

Hey Robert-
My reaction as well- what!who!where!how!when to get nitty gritty details on 
this fascinating bitty.  I will ask Ted (fyi, Ted Levin is the ethnographer 
behind the Smithsonian Folkways recording of Bukharan Jews, among other 
recordings, and has published "One Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical 
Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York)", the last chapter of which 
is on the Bukharan Jewish community in Queens) if and what information can 
be gathered re the cantor.  Hopefully more later...
Shayna

From :          "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>     
To :    World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>     
 
CC :    shaynasilverstein (at) hotmail(dot)com   
Subject :       Re: Afghani-Jewish and in NY?    
Date :          Tue, 04 Dec 2001 17:14:05        
Nu, Shayna?  (as they probably *don't* say in Mazar-e Sharif)  Is this
cantor still around, and still ... cantoring, in Queens?  Who he?  Where to
be found?

If you don't know, can you advise how to get in touch with Ted Levin?

--Robert Cohen, who sometimes can be found in a different section of Queens,
NY



On the subject of Afghani music, I asked around work (Silk Road Project-
check out for new and traditional music from Central Asia and the former
Silk Road trade routes, www.silkroadproject.org) and retrieved the
following story from musicologist Ted Levin.

He doesn't know of details on Afghani-Jewish music per se, but through his
journeys in Queens, NY has heard the chanting of a chazzan from outside
Mazar-e Sharif.  This city and region have historical implications in that
Alexander the Great marched through there, are the birthplace of Zoroastor,
and were at one point home to a large Jewish community.  Both Mazar-e
Sharif and Baghlan (to the east) were also points along the Silk Road.  
Migration
flow happened in the 20th century and this particular person came to NY
while others went to Bukhara, Turkey, Iran....this particular chazzan's
chanting sounds Persian to some extent and differs from the music of
Bukharan Jews of Central Asia (a number of whom are also in Queens).



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