Re: Luz and Haza

[Judy Ginsburgh <judy...>]

Katie,

What is your e-mail address?  I was not able to determine it from your last
e-mail.

Judy Caplan Ginsburgh, Professional Singer
1999 Louisiana Professional Artist of the Year!
judy (at) jewishentertainment(dot)net     -    judy (at) judymusic(dot)com
 www.judymusic.com
Hot off the Press!  My Jewish World - a new early childhood music curriculum
http://uahc.org/cgi-bin/pressdisp.pl?list=301786
Director: Jewish Entertainment Resources - We Help You Find Jewish Talent!
www.jewishentertainment.net
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"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on
both hands. You need to be able to throw something back."


----- Original Message -----
From: "Katie Marcus" <kmarcus (at) jccdet(dot)org>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 8:06 AM
Subject: RE: Luz and Haza


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