JEWISH MUSIC

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GULAZA (Yemen/Israel)
Unveiled songs from the Yemenite women

“I came out mesmerized. […] Igal stamps his personality on his sources; his voice being almost erotic as it suddenly drops in range. Whether on the album, or on stage, he brings a fiery passion to these ancient texts.” Nathalie Freson, Worldmusiccentral.com.

JANUSZ PRUSINOWSKI & IGAL GULAZA MIZRAHI (Poland)
Like the Sun and the Moon

From sacred to quotidian, a musical meeting of Yemen and Poland

Janusz Prusinowski, multi-instrumentalist and fascinating singer. Awarded twice by the Ministry of Culture of Poland, nominee to one of the biggest honours in his country, the prize for the “common good”. Deeply inspired by the absent presence of Jewish culture in his homeland.

Igal Gulaza Mizrahi, ancient Yemenite music researcher. Graduated with Honors from “Beit Zvi” School of the performing arts, winner of 13 honorary scholarships. Singer and actor in various theater productions, including at the National Theatre of Israel – “HaBima”.

The meeting between these two world views and backgrounds results on a emerging surprising new music.

JANUSZ PRUSINOWSKI KOMPANIA
Jewish memory

The Jewish presence that lasted for centuries in Poland was tragically interrupted. But the Jewish sway in Polish culture, in urban landscapes, in cuisine and, of course, in music, was not erased. It’s still visible in the tangible heritage of the synagoges and other buildings in the cities, like Krakow, Lublin or Łódź, and its also alive, maybe subtler, in the inmaterial legacy of the Jewish tunes that survived in the memory of the old goyim friends and neighbourgs.

This program by Janusz Prusinowski Kompania is based on different sources: the living traditions learnt by the artists from the village musicians, the works of notation by Oskar Kolberg and several archives and publications (like the work of Tadeusz Kiszczak Melodie ludowe z Mazowsza, partly feeded on the violinist Michal Rubin’s repertoire).

Janusz Prusinowski, about Jewish music in Poland:

I know Polish Jewish music from memories of my parents, who were born and lived before the war. As a young person I was fascinated by Jewish music and culture, especially living in Krakow where I was studying.

I listened to archive recordings (from the US, beginning of XX Century) learning to play this music on the accordion, participating in Jewish Music Festival in Krakow, reading Polish – Jewish writers (such as I. B. Singer). I played Jewish freilechs, doinas and nigns on the streets of Krakow those days.

Then I heard village mazurkas and obereks and turned totally back to Polish village music. And in the repertoire of fiddlers and singers there were tunes called “Polka żydówka” (Jewish polka) and other tunes. And when I asked the musicians, they told stories of how they were playing in the bands with Jewish musicians or how the music they remembered sounded. Before the war, of course.

Few days before his death, in the Autum of 2016, I visited Piotr Gaca (in the picture), one of the most appreciated village masters. He asked me – checking my memory and inner organisation – how many Jewish polkas I remembered. I was not sure – then he said “four”. And played all of them by numbers.

So Jewish melodies – like the whole culture – become element, part of Polish, in the multicultural meaning, musical culture.

And as such I play them, those Jewish melodies, both from living tradition and from notes, because they are beautiful, and because they belong – somehow – to me, as a heritage of this culture and land.

Oskar Kolberg, probably the main researcher of traditional tunes in Poland, was interested mostly in Polish and Slavic music and culture. Jewish melodies are very rare in his notebooks, but the ones he collected are beautiful. Sometimes he describes the tunes as Jewish, sometimes not, but they are so different, that quite easy to recognize. Nobody expected that this people would disappear.

Furthermore, Polish and Jewish cultures have quite much in common, so I can understand better Polish culture thank to Jewish music/culture knowledge. It is a bit like with the Bible – great part of it belongs not only to Jews, but to all people from the culture of the Bible.

Jewish music