Luz and Haza

[Judith R. Cohen <judithc...>]

hi, from Spain, re Katie´s question and Joan's comment: (Katie, I'm the one you 
ended up not inviting to the JCC for a concert ñlast year when I was in Detroit 
for an ethnomusicology meeting!):

Fortuna is Jewish but NOT from a Judeo-Spanish speaking background; her family 
is from, I believe, Syria, and is part of an extremely wealthy Jewish extended 
family whose members include the renowned architect Moshe Safdie . I can't 
remember whether I included her and Consuelo in the part of my discography 
which appears on the shortened version clickable through Klezmershack.

Consuelo has some Jewish ancestry but is not Jewish. 

As far as I can see from their liner notes and from having heard Consuelo live, 
when I was in New Mexico a couple of years ago to do some lectures and 
concerts, their knowledge of the Judeo-Spanish song tradition is a little on 
the tenuous side in terms of background, context, and so on. This has nothing 
to do with their musical abilities, which in both cases are fine.
 as I learn more
 AS for Joan's comment about "about the mystical traditions of the Sephardim", 
from what I can see, some of what Consuelo sings is from the liturgical 
repertoire, and so I suppose is mystical in that sense, but the rest of it is 
no more mystical than anything else. It's her brochure which goes on about how 
"all Sephardic music is mystical" which is utter nonsense but sells well. And 
fits in with the romanticization of the Crypto-Jewish heritage in the American 
southwest: not that it doesn't exist - of course it does - but there is a 
(mystifying, though perhaps not mystical) tendency to over-"mystificate" many 
aspects of Sephardic history and culture.

About Ofra Haza, I believe it has much more to do with what Katie suggests, the 
Jewish tradition of avoiding instruments as mourning for the Temple; I've heard 
a few great recordings of Muslim music from the Arabian peninsula, with 
instruments. What I always did wonder about Ofra Haza is why she didn't sing - 
at least from what I heard - the Yemenite Jewish WOMEN's tradition, which is 
not sung in Hebrew but in Yemenite Judeo-Arabic. (And also relies on copper 
trays, kerosene tins, etc for instrumental accompaniment). There are some good 
exampkes on Amnon Shiloah's old "Morasha" compilation.
....
Here in Spain people continue to revile Israel and often Jews in general while 
continuing to hold "Festivals of the Three Cultures " (one of which I'm singing 
in today once I get off the net and onto the train) and include Sephardic songs 
on their cd's, usually with very little idea of how to sing them.
Judith

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