oySongs.com - Jewish music

Email: Password:

Forgot Password?

ARTIST

ALBUMS

SONGS

SHEET MUSIC

PICTURES

BIO

NEWS & REVIEWS

Ramon Tasat - News & Reviews

Kantikas de Amor i Vida: Sephardic Duets from Bosn

Chronicle, January 2007
What a pleasure to hear a live performance of music. Recently I attended Kantikas de Amor i Vida: Sephardic Duets from Bosnia to Buenos Aries performed by Flory Jagoda and Ramon Tasat at the Bnai Keshet Congregation in Montclair, New Jersey. It was a wonderful evening of Sefardic music by two of the most remarkable performers of our time. Flory Jagoda was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia where the Sefardic Jews have lived since the 16th century. She grew up in a musical family and absorbed the sounds of traditional Sefardic Jewish music. The Jewish community thrived in Yugoslavia until the Nazis came-and then life was changed forever. Flory and her parents fled to the Italian occupied Split and then they were sent to Korchula, one of the Dalmatian Islands off the coast of Yugoslavia. Out of 80,000 Yugoslavian Jews, only 6,000 survived; in Flory's extended family of forty-one, only five survived. She eventually married an American serviceman and moved to the United States where she has sought to preserve and maintain the Sefardic musical heritage. She sings traditional Judeo-Spanish ballads and she is a prolific composer and lyricist.

Born in Argentina to Sefardic family originally from Syria and Turkey, Cantor Ramon Tasat is a singer and guitarist of extraordinary talent. Like Flory, he learned Judeo-Spanish ballads from his grandmother and he developed a passion for his Sefardic music heritage. He continues to study and record not only Sefardic music but Jewish music of all cultures. His recent recording, Yom She Kulo Shabbat: A Road to Paradise is a masterpiece-a most creative recording of Zemirot, traditional Shabbat Songs with melodies from Iraq to London.

Both Flory and Ramon have recorded numerous solo CD's and not surprisingly, a CD together-Kantikas de Amor i Vida. (You can order their CD's from their respective websites). Yet hearing them sing live was a real treat. A live performance is an opportunity to experience music in the moment. It is a chance to experience what, at that exact moment, the performer feels about the words and the melody of the song. A live performance is not as perfect as a recording, but it allows an excitement and energy that are very special. When Flory and Ramon sang, we the audience were transported to the warm and sunny Mediterranean, accompanied by the harmony of their beautiful voices.

« Back

oySongs - love Jewish music

Give e-Gift