Sephardi sacred sounds

Music fest features examples of Judeo-Spanish revival.

PAT JOHNSON REPORTER

In the past few years, there has been a tremendous revival of klezmer music, the plaintive, evocative sounds of Eastern European Jewish tradition. Vancouverites will have the opportunity to experience a different kind of renaissance this month, as the band Echoes of Gerineldo brings to life the musical tradition of Sephardi Jewry.

"It's a different sort of revival," said Judith Cohen, a Toronto professor who is part of the band, which will play at the Sacred Music Festival in Vancouver, Nov. 10 to 12.

Unlike klezmer, which is largely instrumental and encourages dancing, the Sephardi sounds are more vocal-based and do not tend to promote the same kind of party atmosphere.

The Sephardi tradition survived the dramatic Diaspora of the Jews from Iberia in 1492. As Sephardim spread throughout North Africa and around the Mediterranean, the sacred songs retained their words, but the musical accompaniment was altered by the musical traditions of the new lands to which the Jews migrated.

Cohen, who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology specializing in Sephardi music, said that, after centuries of separate evolution, Sephardim were singing the same songs to very different tunes. Though the language of the Spanish Jews is generally referred to as Ladino, Cohen said there were numerous dialects and the use of the term Ladino as a blanket descriptor is overly simplistic. She prefers the term Judeo-Spanish.

Echoes of Gerineldo is a loose-knit group of performers who get together occasionally to perform Sephardi traditional tunes. This concert will be the first in which Cohen's 15-year-old daughter, Tamar Cohen Adams, will perform with the group.

Because Cohen is an adjunct professor at York University, there is an obvious educational component to her performances. Yet, she stressed, the concert is not a museum piece.

"We try to be fun as well as being educational," she said. "It's a concert. It's supposed to be fun."

The Sacred Music Festival take place from 1 to 10:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's Wesley Church on Saturday, at Temple Sholom on Sunday and at the UBC First Nation's Hall of Learning (Longhouse) on Monday. Saturday events include a Havdalah service from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The group Crossroads, which celebrates Jewish, Arabic and Sufi melodies, performs on Sunday, between 1 and 5 p.m. Echoes of Gerineldo will play Sunday night after 6 p.m. and Zeelia performs Monday night at 7 p.m.

Other performances include ancient mystical harp music, Christian gospel and music from the Andes, India, Vietnam, Persia, Turkey and Canada's First Nations.

For more information on the Sacred Music Festival, call 604-732-6632 or visit the festival's Web site www.sacredmusicvancouver.org.

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