This album, replete with rusty looking grenade and handful of bullets was sent to us by Dave in San Francisco. We love the headlines especially, Hagannah Blows up Gang Nest. The album and the other we have collected over the past couple of years spring from an era in which the military side of Israel was the catalyst for a whole genre of albums. When we see the Six Day War Recorded Live! as if it was The Who: Live in Leeds, we begin to wonder. What role did these albums play in the life of those who bought them? Were they purchased as symbols of pride and identity alone after the Six Day War? Or were they really listened to as if they were musical magic? Here is a track from Chaim Herzog's The Six Day War Original Radio Broadcasts. Click here to listen. And if you once owned any of these albums, we would LOVE to hear the story of what compelled you to buy it and how you experienced the recording.
Fewer of our finds have been as alluring as the Hannah Ahroni Sings Songs of Israel which we discovered on one of our collecting sorties in the thrift stores of Boca. A beautiful songbird cutting a ripe, exotic, and confident figure, laughing casually against the backdrop of a freshly harvested wheat field. How many young Americans were enticed to move to Israel by this record cover alone when it was released in 1962?
Ahroni (also variously spelled Aharoni and Aroni) was the most succesful of a gaggle of Israeli female solo performers who broke in America at the same time -- Yaffa Yarkoni, Shoshana Damari and Geula Gill were also soulful and stunning -- but there was something about this cover that haunted us and forced us to track her down. When we went round to meet her last week, Uptown in Manhattan, we had the same sense of trepidation as if we were visiting Kathy Ireland or Elle Macpherson.
We are delighted to report, age has dimmed little of her beauty. Her apartment is covered with mementos from a career which saw her play Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Caesar's Palace which she opened with a month long residence alongside Johnny Mathis. A hallway plastered with album covers was as beautiful to us as anything in the Louvre.
We heard tales of her career which blossomed under the guidance of her manager and husband, the legendary Chaim Tishman, who carefully surrounded her with talent. Tishman persuaded H.B. Barnum, Aretha Franklin's producer, to make A Taste of Hanna (RCA, 1963) the record which made her a household name on American television where she starred in an hour-long special with Paul Anka, and shared a bill for a month with Harry Belafonte at the Hilton Plaza in Miami. Rock out to these two tracks soaked in sobbing vocals and heart-tugging horn arrangements, her version of ATaste of Honey, a song made famous by Herb Alpert, and a haunting version ofHava Nagila.
Hanna's real fame came in South America where her show "An Hour With Hanna Ahroni" made her a legend in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. The song which put her over the top, Viva Espana, which she originally recorded as a throwaway during a recording session in Germany, was faintly audible all over Europe in the early '70s. Enjoy it here on German TV and marvel, as the German producers do, in her polyglot abilities...
Israel and Folk Music have always gone together like Mr. Roarke and Tattoo. Partially because the genre's love of flowery lyrics gave Israeli poets permission to let themselves loose ideologically. And partially because like most things, electric guitars were in scarce supply in the nascent state, so the stripped-down style was the perfect sound for the day. A rich and varied folk industry was the result. Acts like Ron and Nama, The Lirons, and the Ofarim unleashed fine vinyl in the sixties and seventies. One of the combos we have come to love through our collecting is The Paravim (The Suburbs) who were known as Israel's Simon and Garfunkel. Not only did they they physically resemble the American duo and translate their material into Hebrew, they even split up though musical differences were not this cause on this occasion. One of them became Ultra-Orthodox. Here we present two tracks from their 1972 release, The Paravim Sing Simon and Garfunkel (In Hebrew.) The first is their version of America, a track about clinging onto big dreams amidst bruising realities, which was no doubt quite fitting in 1970s Israel. The second is a rollicking rendition of El Condor Pasa, the traditional folk tune plundered from the Andes with new lyrics applied Graceland style, resounded as an Israeli folk song.
Eight years ago, Roger Bennett and Josh Kun began an important journey, scouring the world to collect thousands of vinyl LPs from attics, garage sales, and dusty archives. Together, once-loved and now long-forgotten audio gems tell a vibrant tale: the story of Jews in America.
This album, replete with rusty looking grenade and handful of bullets was sent to us by Dave in San Francisco. We love the headlines especially, Hagannah Blows up Gang Nest. The album and the other we have collected over the past couple of years spring from an era in which the military side of Israel was the catalyst for a whole genre of albums. When we see the Six Day War Recorded Live! as if it was The Who: Live in Leeds, we begin to wonder. What role did these albums play in the life of those who bought them? Were they purchased as symbols of pride and identity alone after the Six Day War? Or were they really listened to as if they were musical magic? Here is a track from Chaim Herzog's The Six Day War Original Radio Broadcasts. Click here to listen. And if you once owned any of these albums, we would LOVE to hear the story of what compelled you to buy it and how you experienced the recording.
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