Private Release

Monday, February 17, 2025

Modo Corp Ation - (1999) Snutt CDr

Satter – SPCDR1

VA - 2025 - To Say I Was Here: Arabic, Greek, Judeo-Spanish, and Turkish Speaking Jewish Recording Musicians, 1907-69

Canary Records – none

The discs that were the dominant commercial recording medium during the first half of the 20th century are composed of a mixture of shellac (the secretion of the Asian lac beetle), carbon, and over 80% finely ground stone. They are literal rocks that remember the music of people who are now gone. They remain monuments to their lives and the art of the performers who made them.

The practice of leaving stones on graves is a way of expressing the permanence of the meaning of the lives of the dead. The old, stone 78rpm discs are rarely revisited, but in listening to them again and surrounding them with context, we hope that the music can take root in the hearts of people living today. Experiencing them dignifies the musicians' contributions, expressions, and lives.

Each spiral-inscribed disc they left behind can be both a memorial to them, telling us that they were once here, and an opportunity to contribute to the permanence of the memories of the musicians and their audiences.

=======

"[Nagoski's work opens] up a counter history of modern life in which artists outside of the mainstream are granted a central role, and the affective labor they performed is recognized as constitutive to the communities they served. The archive of old records is a conduit to a history of American life that takes seriously immigrant communities and how they are given shape by listening practices. In turn, contemporary listeners (who may not identify with the groups represented) are encouraged to make the music live again as a form of aesthetic experience, but one that holds an invitation towards ethical contemplation.

...

The precise pathway between the post-Ottoman world and the outsider arts scene that Nagoski operates in is circuitous, abstract and suggests the outline of a science fiction narrative, or a utopian impulse. ... [The] music rejects political violence associated with identity politics and instead opens up a discussion of shared needs, as symbolized by the sociality that music uniquely provides—structuring community and providing the language of memory that gives life its mythic powers."

-- Jeremiah Lockwood, Reseach Fellow at the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at UCLA

Tracklist

1. Badriyya S‘ādeh – Maʿa s-salāmeh yā ḥilū (Peace Be Upon You) (03:29)

2. Ibrahim Effendi – Koniali (Sweetheart From Konya) (03:18)

3. Joseph Moskowitz – Turkish Melodies (03:03)

4. Shehadi Ashkar – Taxim Hujaz Car (03:17)

5. Moses Cohen – Wana Mali, pts 1+2 (What Is Wrong With Me?) (06:32)

6. Amalia – Turnam Nerdan Galior (Crane, Where Are You Coming From?) (03:14)

7. Moise Effendi & Smyrna Quartette – Telegrafin Teleri (Telegraph Wires) (03:07)

8. Isaac Angel & Stamboul Quartette – Bir Yun Oladjak (There Will Be a Day) (03:56)

9. Zaki Mourad – El helwa di wei keffa di, pts 1+2 (He Is the Best of Us) (06:45)

10. Isaac Algazi – Anna ke'av zedoni (Like a Cloud, My Wickedness) (02:53)