Re: comments on Passover CDs

[George Robinson <grcomm...>]

I will gratefully bow to Judith's considerably superior knowledge in this
area. My responses are purely personal or, when musical, are conditioned by
my own musical background which is not, as many of you know, originally in
Jewish music. I'm inclined to agree with her on the Bene Israel set but I
try to err on the side of being overly generous with the star ratings (which
I hate, but that is the price of the ticket).
Personally, I've always thought of sprightly as a positive quality. My
Oxford dictionary gives it as "vivacious, lively, brisk," none of which seem
to be bad things in my mind.

As for Maghribi, this was my first encounter with him but you may be sure it
won't be the last. Wow, what a great musician!

George (I like to think of myself as sprightly, in a slightly dogged way)
Robinson

"I don't believe that one should talk about hope
unless one is working towards something. We only
have the right to hope if we are struggling."

    --Aung San Suu Kyi
      Nobel Peace Prize winner
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judith R Cohen" <judithc (at) YorkU(dot)CA>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 6:17 AM
Subject: comments on Passover CDs


>
> It was a pleasure to see Samy Maghribi's cd reviewed: Samy was my first
> oud teacher years ago and I have fond memories of sitting in his office
> at the SPanish & POrtuguese (neither Spanish nor Portuguese now)
> synagogue in Montreal listening to him chat with the King of Morocco's
> Secretary, about how he had to sing for Canadian political leaders who
> "are good people but don't know how to appreciate this music like His
> Majesty does..." (in French, for my benefit: otherwise he used Arabic).
>
>    I dson't actually find the Bene Israel Bombay recording very good.
> FOr years I've recorded Toronto and Hamilton area men from this
> community - not professional musicians: their day jobs are things like
> urban planning or office jobs - singing and they're wonderful; the
> voices on the Diaspora Museum recording for some reason don't seem
> nearly as good, maybe they were having an off-day...
>
> As for Raices, I've always found their approach far too Spanish for
> Sephardic music, and "sprightyly" in my personal dictionary tends to be
> a negative rather than positive attribute... they ARE good musicians,
> but it tends to sound more like a CAstillian folk group than like
> Sephardic music...
> > Garcia Sanchez has a
> >                   lilting, sparkling voice and the accompaniments are
sprightly.
>
> For Shoshana's splendid collection, which has been out for many years
> now, see my comments in my discography linked to Klezmershack.
>
> Look out for the upcoming COchini Jewish WOmen's SOngs CD originally due
> out in February but somewhat delayed....
> Judith
>
>
>
>


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