{"id":2522,"date":"2020-11-06T15:27:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T14:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2020-11-06T15:37:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T14:37:57","slug":"mbs-with-victoria-hazan-the-sephardic-anatolian-voice-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/musicbeforeshabbat\/mbs-with-victoria-hazan-the-sephardic-anatolian-voice-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"MBS with Victoria Hazan, the Sephardic Anatolian voice of fire ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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November 6th, 2020. Shabbat is almost here<\/strong><\/h4>\n

And\u00a0our star today is Victoria Hazan, an extraordinary Anatolian singer who moved to the USA in 1920 and recorded an album,\u00a0Todas mis esperansas<\/em>\u00a0(all my hopes), that is\u00a0a wonderful legacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Hello! How are you? I hope well.\u00a0A few days ago there was an earthquake that has been specially destructive in Smyrna. Just by chance I had been listening to Victoria Hazan around that time. She was born very near Smyrna, in Salihli, and settled in Smyrna before moving to the USA. Somehow I found her mentioned while wandering at the Internet.<\/p>\n

So, let’s learn more and enjoy the outstanding performance by Victoria Hazan. She has several songs about that kind of passion that drives you crazy and in this one she uses the metaphor of the passion as a fire: I have chosen\u00a0Me kemi y me enflami<\/em>\u00a0and you’ll find the lyrics at the bottom, under the video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom –<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Please, if you like this, share it with your friends.<\/span>\u00a0Thank you in advance.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"Share<\/a><\/td>\nShare this with a friend, right from here<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Victoria Hazan, the voice of fire<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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The main facts of the life of Victoria Hazan are quite well know. She was alive until 1995, until she was\u00a099 years old,\u00a0and there are many pictures of her in different moments of her life, thanks to Maurice Ninio, who I\u00a0think that was her brother, but I am not sure. In the website SephardicMusic.org there are many pictures, like this one on the left and there is even one of her grave. I have chosen this one, a portrait with a direct and defiant look, by this elegant lady of the sweet and melismatic voice.<\/p>\n

She was a singer and a composer and she also played oud. She was born as Victoria Ninio in April 15, 1896, in\u00a0Salihli, in the province of Manisa, in Anatolia. It is one hour to the East of Smyrna.<\/p>\n

In Salihli there is the Sardes Synagogue. According to eSefarad it is “the third oldest Jewish temple known after the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and the mudbrick in Babylon.” Learn more in\u00a0this article<\/a>\u00a0about five synagogues in Turkey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This is the recent status of the synagogue of Sardes. I hope it hasn’t suffered much after the latest earthquake. The picture is by\u00a0Carole Raddato<\/a>\u00a0in Wikipedia:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Victoria’s family’s tradition was to be cantors. She married to a hazan, Israel Hazan, from a family of cantors too, and she adopted her husband’s surname and kept is even during her second marriage. In 1915 she moved from Salihli to Smyrna and in 1920,\u00a0to New York. The marriage with Israel was already there, in 1925. After he died, Victoria married again, with Joe Rosa in 1936.<\/p>\n

She became\u00a0president of the United Sisterhood Benevolent Society in Bronx. She gave concerts in the synagogue, singing and playing lute, singing her songs, with compositions of her own, in Turkish, Ladino, French, Hebrew, Greek and Armenian. We have her recordings thanks to the insistence of the community: for many years after her arrival to the New World, she rejected to record, arguing that she had no\u00a0money. But she finally accepted and recorded several pieces, that would be released by\u00a0Kaliphon Records and Metropolitan Records (below you’ll find more information about the record labels).<\/p>\n

The selected song,\u00a0Me Kemi y me Enflami<\/em>, is dated on 1942. The specific dates of the different recordings are available\u00a0here<\/a>. In 2001, Global Village released\u00a0Todas mis esperansas<\/em>, with 24 pieces.<\/p>\n

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I have chosen\u00a0Me kemi i me enflami<\/em>, but all the pieces are amazing. You can listen to many others in the blog by\u00a0Panos Savvopoulos<\/a>, where these pictures above are from.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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A relevant source for Victoria’s bio has been also: https:\/\/www.wikiwand.com\/tr\/Victoria_Hazan<\/a><\/div>\n
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About the Jewish community of Manisa province<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Being the synagogue of Sardes so old, I wondered what was the history of the Jews in that land, in the province of Manisa. According to <\/span>Mathilde Tagger<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span>this article for SephardicStudies.org<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Manisa, formerly known as Magnasia or Magn\u00e9sie, is situated in the North East of Izmir (38\u00b036N 27\u00b026E). A Jewish ‘romaniote’ community existed there from the Byzantine period, praying in the Etz Ha-Hayim Synagogue. After 1492, Jews expelled from Spain settled there, joining a hundred or so romaniote families. These newcomers founded two synagogues: Lorca and Toledo.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lorca and Toledo are two cities of my country, Spain. Lorca is in the SouthEast, in Murcia region, and Toledo is the city where my company, Mapamundi Cultural SL, is settled. So these stories are very moving for me. It seems there are not Jews nowadays in the province.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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About the record labels Metropolitan and Kaliphon<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
Me-Re record company was created\u00a0in the early 1940s by Aydin (or Ajdin) Asllan (a poly-lingual Albanian) and the violinist, Nick Doneff. Soon they splittled the company. Aydin made Balkan and Doneff made Kaliphon.<\/div>\n
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An aside: If you like old recordings, don’t miss to check the\u00a0Bandcamp of Canary Records<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/span><\/span>Canary Records<\/a>\u00a0are nowadays releasing much material from that time and they explain\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0that Doneff was a Bulgarian violinist. They explain that Ajdin Asllan was born in Leskovik near the present-day southern border of Albania on 1895. He arrived in New York in 1926 and made made a record label called Mi-Re in 1937. After 5 releases he stopped, until 1942, when he joined the Bulgarian violinist born in 1981 Nicola, or Nick,\u00a0Doneff (he is the violinist in the recording of Victoria Hazan’s song and the picture on the left is he) and relaunched it as Me Re. They stayed together very shortly and, as mentioned, Asllan would make Balkan and Doneff would make Kaliphon, that would be provider of recordings for Balkan. Canary mention that a third label appeared, Metropolitan, but it is not clear who was in charge. If you want to learn more about this, don’t miss\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0article.\u00a0The picture is from\u00a0Discog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Doneff played with other artists, like, for instance, the singer and oudist Armenian born in Smyrna\u00a0Marko Melkon Alemserian, who you will enjoy too if you like rebetiko.\u00a0Here<\/a> you have an example of their work together. They both played in Victoria Hazan’s album.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to Victoria Hazan in\u00a0Me Kemi y Me Enflami\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

This piece\u00a0was recorded in 1942. The singer is Victoria Hazan and the\u00a0musicians are\u00a0the already mentioned Nick Doneff\u00a0on violin, Melko Melkon on oud and Garbis Bakirgian on the kanun. Find the lyrics in Ladino and in English below.<\/p>\n

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Click the picture to listen to the recording:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n