Ladino

In Yasmin Levy’s music there is an undeniable tension between the purity of Ladino (the Judeo-Spanish music of Spain) and the fiery heart of flamenco. For her fourth album Sentir she has finally found a vision that integrates effortlessly these various musical directions. Produced by the acclaimed Javier Limón (who has worked previously with the likes of Portuguese fado star Mariza), the album’s programme draws songs not only from Ladino (’Mi Korason’, ’Londje de Mi’) and flamenco (Javier Limón’s ’Nos Llego El Final’) traditions but also contemporary material (by Javier, Yasmin) and even Leonard Cohen (in a remarkable and fresh version of ’Hallelujah’). An important factor in Yasmin’s life and musical direction has been the legacy of her father Yitzhak Levy, who died when Yasmin was only one year old. ’Una Pastora’ allows Yasmin, by the miracle of modern technology, to duet with him. With Sentir, Yasmin’s music truly becomes ’of the world’.

Jordi Savall, Montserrat Figuras and Hespérion XXI pioneered the revival of early Spanish repertoire more than two decades ago… Their experience reaps tremendous dividends with the two-CD set Diáspora Sefardí. This is music of the Sefardim, the Spanish Jews exiled in 1492, but extends beyond the expected repertoire to include later music from those who settled as far away as Rhodos, Sofía and Sarajevo.
The first disc is a programme of romances, Montserrat Figueras giving deeply impassioned performances pitched between heartrending elegy and searing eroticism…
Throughout, the playing is superb, but inevitably the musicians really come into their own on the second CD, a set of instrumentals and improvisations, including the slow-burning rapture of Axerico. Here is 130 minutes of incredibly evocative, primal music with the potential to go way beyond the early music market and become a huge hit with followers of folk, world, jazz and perhaps even rock…
The Sephardic Jews, scattered through the world after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, kept alive for centuries not only their language, Ladino, but an extraordinary repertory of "folk" songs, many of them quite sophisticated. As Ladino culture began to slowly fade away over the course of the 20th century, musicologists collected and transcribed these melodies from Ladino-speaking communities in Sarajevo, Sofia, Saloniki, Smyrna, Jerusalem, and other cities. Beginning in the 1970s, these extraordinary songs were revived (to considerable excitement) for concert audiences…