"Out of Babylon" - new CD of Baghdadi-Jewish music
From JMD in the UK comes announcement of a new and interesting CD
Out of Babylon—on Celestial Harmonies, released 2007
The music of Baghdadi-Jewish migrations into Asia and beyond.
Babylon became the spiritual centre of Judaism and was to remain so for over
a thousand years. This legacy of Babylonian Jews was so profound that their
descendants many of who migrated elsewhere yearned for Jerusalem in their
prayers but considered Bagdhdad their home and that is where their culture
took shape. There are fewer then 20 Jews left in Babylon ( Iraq) today. The
songs in this compilation were chosen from field recordings collected
separately by Professor Marageret Kartomi and Dr Sara Manasshe. This CD
compilation is one of the outcomes of six years of research investigating a
rare case of musical heritage maintained over two chains of migrations over
the past 200 years or so, and focused on situations of culture contact in a
series of Diasporas across a continent to Asia in the colonial era and
eventually across several continents to Asia, Australia and North America
The songs were recorded in a variety of acoustic environments, as dictated
by field opportunities.
CD £12.95
Website: www.jewishmusic-jmd.co.uk