If the ancient Israelites had sung Leonard Cohen’s seminal contribution to the world of song, Hallelujah, it would have sounded high and haunting, like Yasmin Levy’s version.
This Jerusalem-born Sephardi’s latest album, Sentir, is a collection of Ladino inspired songs, in the language of old Spain, heavily influenced by flamenco, Spanish guitar and arias of soaring Middle-Eastern beauty. Levy has lead a bejewelled life. Her father, Yitzhak Levy, a Turkish Jew who emigrated to Israel, devoted his life to the preservation of Sephardi songs and music in the face of Ashkenazi domination in the newly-formed Jewish state – songs that had been passed down, from generation to generation, for over 500 years – and it was his influence, even though he died when she was only a year old, that marked her path on life.
This is music to tear at your soul, to inspire and impassion. Levy’s voice is as pure as Andalucian mountain air with echoes of the City of David. Inspirational, dramatic and stunning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OE05MxJLOo&playnext_from=TL&videos=5CyuO5toVLk
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