Sephardic Songs Of Love And Hope Sephardic Songs Of Love And Hope
The time and even some of the music may remind you of one of those dreadfully over-earnest ethnic music shows on public radio (possible title : Shalom!), but if given a chance, this tape could well wind up next to your cassette player for some time to come. Mind you, it’d be awfully easy to wax self-righteous about how you should listen to this; if any people have earned the world’s ear, it’s the Jewish Sephardim. They’ve basically been reamed steadily for the last 900 years, from the Spanish Inquisition (from which they’ve fled from the Turks) right up through the Holocaust. And these songs, collected by Frankel mostly from the American diaspora, are written in Ladino, the nearly extinct Sephardic language that is to Spanish what Yiddish is to German. But one doesn’t have to know the history behind this music to hear the history in it. Between stately cadences and ornamental passages so mindful of medieval and early Renaissance music, and the insistent melodies of the oud, what we have here is that strangely resonant sound of East and West colliding. We’re just lucky we have Frankel’s lovely alto (like Joan Baez, but better) to guide us through the wreckage. Only those blinded by the incandescence of pop music will fail to be moved by these songs of incalculable loss and inexhaustible resilience.
--- Gordon Anderson
Judy Fankel's voice it too lovely to convincingly sing words like “When I get drunk I take a bath in the mud.” a line that should properly be sung at a stagger. But it is excellently suited to the rest of the 'Canticas Sephardis de Amory Esperansa' on this album. Frankel interprets Ladino songs from Greece, Rhodes, Spain, Israel, Instanbul, Venezuela, and other communities to which Sepharic Jews scattered after their expulsion from Spain on April 10, 1492, the same day that Columbus set sail.
A couple of the tracks are lesser-known versions of songs from the Jewish Liturgy, some are love songs, one is Frankel's own tune for a poem commemorating the Jews of Greece who died in the Holacaust. All are beautifully sung; Frankel at her best recalls the young Baez, pre-politics pre-Dylan, before her diamonds rusted--back when the was good. The accompaniment alternately features the oud and nylon-string guitar, the beat augmented in places by dumbek and palmas (hand-clapping). The liner notes though graphically far from elegant, supply all lyrics, translations and credits.
Wherever they settled Jews absorbed (and often influenced) the music of their host country. In preserving the music of that period, handed down for generations, Frankel has created an album that should attract anyone interested In Jewish music. Spanish music--or simply in melodious song.
---by Elio Chazan
(Scalerica de Oro and Sephardic Songs Of Love And Hope)
These two lovely recordings make a fine introduction to the music of the Sephardim. Jews who took their Spanish culture and Ladino language around the Mediterranean after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. If you haven't liked Sephardic music before, give it another chance, for Frankel's assured and unpretentious delivery is in welcome contrast to more-often-encountered recordings by some sub-par Sephardic revival groups. Frankel's sources are singers hailing from Bulgaria. Turkey. Greece, Rhodes, and Egypt, and they've shared with her many songs not generally available. Frankel is at home with Straight Spanish styling yet easily shades into more exotic delivery, accurately ornamented, for Near Eastern material. Her voice is graceful, ravishing on quieter songs. Her pronunciation, though foreign, is easy on the ear.
If you can only afford one of these recordings, choose the more recent (Sephardic Songs of Love and Hope). The accompaniments are more sophisticated and varied - John Bilezikjian's oud. Gordon Lustig's never-corny guitar and multipercussive effects are particularly arresting. While the simplest songs are strongest, the occasional full ensemble is welcome, though vocals are distant in those live mixes. Where the first recording is all amor, the second includes two particularly lovely sacred songs, levitated through Frankel's meltingly warm delivery into dreamy celestial lullabies.
For folks wanting to learn some Sephardic songs, there's no better place to start. Global Village has generously provided full text and translation for every song, and Frankel's strong lead will be easy to follow.
-- JP
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