Hello, how are you? I hope well. You know how I love old music. But from time to time I like to talk with people that are alive, because they can answer. I would love to make questions to Moishe Oysher or to Bienvenida Aguado but for now I just can dialogue with them in my fantasy. So on this occasion, I will be exchanging ideas with another disseminator whose work is exceptional: Joel Bresler , creator of SephardicMusic. He is also very fond of old music and not only old.
Find the video with her music at the bottom. The website SephardicMusic. And it was not difficult: Joel Bresler is the author and here below you have a little conversation in which he explains some interesting facts. I am really thanksful to him for his dedication! In the picture you see Joel with Mrs. Sylvia Cohen, who donated rpm recordings for his project? Araceli Tzigane : As a disseminator of Jewish music, and moreover being a Spanish person, your website is a treasure for me.
I feel I can understand what forces drives you to disseminate this music you love. Because I think this is not a business, despite you may earn some income from the sales from Amazon done through the website. These kinds of initiatives come from some transcendental need. Which is yours? Joel Bresler : So glad you enjoy the website β that means a lot to me! I went from devotee to collector to discographer. Enjoyed the music, then started collecting it, then attempting to collect every recording ever made with at least one song in ladino.
First for LPs, cassettes and CDs. And then a separate effort for 78s. AT: In the website, in the About, you explain that you were transfixed by Sephardic music when you first heard it thirty years ago now it must be around forty years ago, right? AT: But what happened, why did you get transfixed? What was the specific song or recording? Was it just because of the music or also because you realized there were Jews who spoke Spanish out of Spain for 5 centuries or anything else?
They performed Sephardic music as Renaissance music which is actually not that authentic, but it was my start. It sounds very cutting edge. You are not the first Jewish person who I have met that works in something very technological and at the same time has an initiative related to the dissemination of Jewish culture, like a festival of live music or your website.
