November 19th, 2022 – Shabbat is almost here!
And today we will listen to Aharon Amran and to Gulaza
Hello, how are you? I hope well. Today, when this email is being sent, I am in Budapest. I started writing from home. I had the surgery last Friday and although I am not 100%, as I have an wound of 5 cms, I have travelled to Budapest for the European Folk Network meeting. I hope to be able to visit some of the synagogues and share a photo in the next edition. I hope my recovery will allow it.
So forgive me for this edition shorter than usual, I have to measure my strengths these days. But in any case, I didn’t want to miss this quasi-ritual of communicating with you every Friday to share a magical moment with music.
Today I bring back a singer who has been with us recently. Why? Because yesterday, Igal Gulaza passed me the link to a wonderful recording. Well, you have a lot of wonderful recordings of Aharon Amram on Youtube, to tell you the truth, but I wanted to share this one because we can enjoy both performances, Amram’s and Gulaza’s, both fascinating, of the same melody from the Yemenite tradition.
Then, please, spread the word.
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About Aharon Amram
Do you like Yemenite Jewish music?
There are several editions dedicated to it:
- MBS with the crystallisation of a song and the Diwan of Yemenite Jews
- MBS with a piyyut sang by Yemenites in 1957 in Israel, recorded by a Bengali ethnomusicologist: Deben Battacharya
- MBS with a pioneer diva: Shoshana Damari
- Music Before Shabbat with Suliman the Great, but the one of XX century!
About the piece
This melody is the same in the recording by Amram and by Gulaza. The one by Amram is from the album “Levavi Yachshka – Sa’i Nofu Nafutsi” (לבבי יחשקה – סעי יונה נפוצי) (according to his Youtube channel). And the one by Gulaza is from their first EP. Igal explained to me that he learnt if from an old Yemenite woman and that Amram registered many traditional melodies under his name, what has produced a legal battle over it a few years ago
The lyrics are different between them. In the video of Gulaza you have the lyrics but I haven’t been able to find the ones by Amram. In his Youtube channel it says the music and the lyrics are his. Gulaza’s lyrics are by Igal.
It’s time to enjoy the music:
Click the picture to listen to Rait Lech Ayam by Aharon Amram:
Click the picture to listen to Al’chaiba by Gulaza:
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