The Very Best of Jewish-Arab Song Treasures

An excellent collection of 15 tracks representing the most important names from the tradition of 20th-century Jewish North African popular song. A composite of styles stemming originally from the old civilization of Muslim Spain, the music of the Jews of North Africa long co-existed with and complemented the Arabic tradition. It was not until the violent rifts of de-colonialisation that most Jewish artists and their audiences moved to France, elsewhere in Europe, or Israel, where they were discovered by a new generation of European listeners in the 80s. This collection contains some great names, including a terrific track by Reinette l’Oranaise, on which her voice and lute are as powerful as anything she ever recorded. There are equally strong choices by Line Monty and Blond-Blond, a lovely half-tango by Rene Perez, a piece of Oriental piano from Maurice el Médioni, as well as the stars Cheikh el Afrite and Raoul Journo and Zohra el Fassia. An interesting mix of languorous crooning and rabble-rousing choruses, sensuous lutes and shrieking gasba pipes.