RE: Luz and Haza

[Katie Marcus <kmarcus...>]

Judith, of course I know who you are, you don't need to remind me. :)  ALthough 
if you have a new press kit or demo cd to send to our office I'd greatly 
appreciate it.  We are no longer doing an Encore concert series here at the 
JCC, but rather a summer music festival, beginning in 2004 (so if anyone on 
this list has a press kit and/or demo cd please forward it for consideration in 
this festival.)  I'm hoping we can include a wider range of traditional Jewish 
music to present to the community- instead of only klezmer/yiddish, as well as 
contemporary.  Also, if anyone has information about music workshops that they 
do that could be offered during a festival- our committee still has not decided 
on the exact nature of the festival, so I'm trying to gather as much 
information as possible.

Re Haza:  Ofra did release songs in Judeo-Arabic, traiditional songs that had a 
small relation to the traditional melodies (from what i understand). They are 
on "Yemenite Songs", "Kirya" and probably a few others. However she loaded some 
very unconvential instruments on top of the traditional melodies (like electric 
guitars and keyboards.)  I think it sounds great.  Adding new instruments to 
traditional tunes, I think, helps the continuity of the music.  In addition, 
it's a great way to introduce new musical traditions to audiences that may not 
be familiar with them, including elements that they will recognize.



Katie Marcus
Program Coordinator
Jewish Life & Learning
Jewish Community Center of Metro Detroit
6600 West Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 432-5470
(248) 432-5552 (FAX)


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
[mailto:owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org]On Behalf Of Judith R. Cohen
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 1:51 AM
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Cc: judithc (at) yorku(dot)ca
Subject: Luz and Haza


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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