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If you can remember the 1940s and 1950s then you are old enough to remember the heyday of vinyl children’s records. Perhaps you sat for hours on end listening to the phonograph as its spinning turntable produced stories and songs that only seemed to improve with each playing. This was the golden age of American vintage kiddie recordings.
Yet, it took a pioneer to ask: why not create kiddie records that would be relevant for Jewish children?
Chanukah celebrations are joyous occasions with lots of holiday gifts, decorations and parties.
The eight-day festival of Chanukah retells a story about hope, the importance of maintaining Jewish traditions, and the symbolic power of light.
The early settlers of Israel looked towards their roots for musical inspiration. For many this meant the tones and tunes of Eastern Europe. However, there were were also those who wanted to create a new style of music that would belong uniquely to Israel and reflect their new country. The songs written in this new “Israeli” style combined familiar Eastern European motifs, traditional Sephardic melodies and more exotic Middle Eastern and North African influences. For many these more “Eastern” exotic influences seemed closer to biblical music and reflective of the land of Israel. This new musical style is generally known as Mizrahi music.
A pioneer of this new style of Israeli music was Josef “Jo” Am
ar. A noted Moroccan-born Israeli singer and hazzan, Amar began his singing career in the late 1940s in Morocco before he moved to Israel in 1956.
Bob Berkman’s pianola brings a rich new sound to vintage early 20th century Jewish musicThe first time I heard Bob Berkman’s CD, Klezmerola, I just couldn’t stop playing it. I loved the old time sound that Bob was able to achieve with his pianola. I loved the way the sound of the pianola (player piano) augmented the impact of the music that had once defined a generation of Jews and now was fading from memory.
I am delighted that the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University can now boast a collection of 47 Jewish songs by America’s premier pianolist, Bob Berkman.
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