The whole night Yiddish, Klezmer & Ladino music.
1- Yiddish Glory, The Lost Songs of World War II.
This album contains songs collected during the 2nd World War by ethnomusicologist Moisei Beregovsky. The songs are written by Jewish soldiers of the Red Army, refugees, victims and survivors of Ukrainian ghettos. They are stories of ordinary people who, by writing songs, tried to alleviate their suffering. After the war it was thought that the songs had been lost, but they were recovered in the 1990s in the archives of the National Library of Ukraine. Coincidentally, the Yiddish professor Anna Shternshis heard about these songs. She soon realized that it was Yiddish songs from the Second World War. And that eventually led to this album. CD. Yiddish Glory, The Lost Songs of World War II. Label: Dix Degrees Records (2018). VIDEO
2- Leo Fuld.
After living in the United States for most of his life, Leo Fuld returned to Amsterdam in 1994. He wanted to record one more album. It became: The Legend, the result of his work with producer Mohammed El-Fers and arranger Kees Post. They wanted to provide the Yiddian songs of Fuld with Arabic arrangements. That sounds like an unlikely plan, but for Fuld it was nothing new. In the fifties he had already performed in Lebanon and Egypt where he had worked with Arabian orchestras. A few months after the recording of this album (1997), Leo Fuld died at the age of 85 in Amsterdam. CD. Leo Fuld – The Legend. Label: Hippo Records (1997), code: Hippo 97002. VIDEO
3- Amsterdam Klezmer Band.
The fifteen-year anniversary of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band was celebrated in 2012 with the album Mokum. The original festive and wedding music of East European Jews is also the basis of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band. But like the same Jews after the occurrence of music in the nineteenth century, all the influences they encountered sucked up, as the Amsterdam orchestra does. Melancholy certainly gets a place, but also freedom and happiness pass in steamy passages. As a result, Mokum is not only an ode to Yiddish music, the album is above all a stage for the free vision that contemporary musicians can give to age-old music. CD. Mokum – Amsterdam Klezmer Band. Label: Essay Recordings (2012). VIDEO
4- Di Gojim.
The literal meaning of the Hebrew expression Di Gojim is ‘the non-Jews’. An excellent name for a group with six Frisian men who are not Jewish but who are fond of klezmer. Di Gojim was founded in 1988 and was one of the first Dutch groups to explore the long history of klezmer. Di Gojim is not limited to replaying numbers from the nineteenth century but gives a contemporary and exciting twist. During the energetic shows the band alternates a laugh and a tear. CD. East wind – Di Gojim. Label: Syncood productions (2000), code: 5760, cd 251. VIDEO
5- Yasmin Levy.
The Israeli singer Yasmin Levy is the best-known interpreter of repertoire in Ladino, the language of Sephardic Jews. This group lived for centuries throughout the Mediterranean after being expelled by the Inquisition from Spain in 1492. Ladino is a beautiful language with both Latin and Hebrew roots. Mano Suave sounds very Spanish. Yasmin Levy loves flamenco, but a closer look also reveals accents from Jewish and Arabic music. About half of the songs on Mano Suave are traditional Sephardic songs, the other half Levy wrote himself. CD. Mano Suave – Yasmin Levy. Label: World Village (2007), code: 450003. VIDEO
6- City of the Future, Yiddish Songs from the former Soviet Union.
Yale Strom is one of the world’s leading ethnographer artists of klezmer, Roma music and history. He has done extensive ethnographic research in Eastern Europe. His findings helped shape the repertoire of his klezmer band Hot Pstromi, based in New York. Since the start of his ensembles in 1981, Strom has composed original ‘New Jewish’ music that combines klezmer with Roma, jazz, classical, Balkan, Arabic and Sephardic motifs. On this album are Yale Strom’s arrangements of Yiddish songs from the former Soviet Union. CD. City of the Future, Yiddish Songs from the former Soviet Union. Label: Arc Music (2015), EUCD 2617. VIDEO
7- Liat Cohen.
In the 21st century it does not often occur that musical compositions claim a Jewish-Spanish filiation. This album has simple arrangements, complex pieces and new interpretations of traditional Ladino melodies performed by the internationally acclaimed classical guitarist Liat Cohen. CD. Variations Ladino by Liat Cohen. Label: Buda Musique (2007), code: 860155. VIDEO
