Post by Fridgemagnet on Apr 16, 2004 12:38:21 GMT
BBC Radio 3 flew in Yasmin Levy from Israel to give a short set in the New Year world music awards ceremony. Witty yet quietly spoken, she introduced the first song, and then started singing. I was quietly pottering away, when the next thing I knew I’m pinned to the wall with my jaw hitting the floor. She only found out she could sing a few years ago, and boy is she making up for lost time. She’ll bring a tear to your eye, put a spring in your step, make you think it’s spring, summer, autumn, all at the same time.
There’s a family musical tragedy that goes with Yasmin too. The whole world owes Mr Lomax and son a debt of gratitude for spending years driving round the US recording all the blues music they could find before it disappeared. From these Library of Congress recordings we have a permanent record of the music that inspired just about all popular music today, and the world is culturally richer because of their efforts. Yasmin Levy’s father Yitzhak did a similar thing with traditional Ladino music (a cultural Jewish-Spanish cross), but he ordered his wife to destroy the entire collection upon his death. He died, she lit a big bonfire. All lost. Forever. It’s not fair to blame Mrs Levy, as she was only keeping a promise to her husband, and Yasmin was just a year-old child at the time. Yasmin’s mother made amends by teaching Yasmin the Ladino language, culture and music, and you can check out the result from Yasmin’s debut album “Romance and Yasmin”. Some of the songs are 600 years old; others a bit more recent. Difficult to tell if you don’t speak Ladino, as that’s the language all the sleeve notes are in. Also the CD jewel case is backwards, Hebrew style.
Summary: Aching beauty, in a sort of Arabic-flamenco style.
www.yannaubertagency.com/artists/yasminlevy/
www.israel-music.com/?product=1459
There’s a family musical tragedy that goes with Yasmin too. The whole world owes Mr Lomax and son a debt of gratitude for spending years driving round the US recording all the blues music they could find before it disappeared. From these Library of Congress recordings we have a permanent record of the music that inspired just about all popular music today, and the world is culturally richer because of their efforts. Yasmin Levy’s father Yitzhak did a similar thing with traditional Ladino music (a cultural Jewish-Spanish cross), but he ordered his wife to destroy the entire collection upon his death. He died, she lit a big bonfire. All lost. Forever. It’s not fair to blame Mrs Levy, as she was only keeping a promise to her husband, and Yasmin was just a year-old child at the time. Yasmin’s mother made amends by teaching Yasmin the Ladino language, culture and music, and you can check out the result from Yasmin’s debut album “Romance and Yasmin”. Some of the songs are 600 years old; others a bit more recent. Difficult to tell if you don’t speak Ladino, as that’s the language all the sleeve notes are in. Also the CD jewel case is backwards, Hebrew style.
Summary: Aching beauty, in a sort of Arabic-flamenco style.
www.yannaubertagency.com/artists/yasminlevy/
www.israel-music.com/?product=1459