Israeli Bus Station music, 1993
When I was in the former Leningrad years ago, I remember browsing the street stands for cassettes of incredible local bands. Good street music is always found in lousy, crowded marketplaces, and it comes on poorly recording cassettes.
The subject of Mizrahi (of Jews from the former Ottoman Empire) music came up on the Jewish music mailing list a while back. Longing and nostalgia were expressed for those cassettes available at the bus station or in the open air food markets. As was to be expected, Dr. Judith Cohen, wandering ethnomusicologist and author of our Short Bibliography of Sephardic Music (and many articles and publications) had been there and written about it. We are delighted to make her 1993 article on "Israeli Bus Station Music" available online,