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I know it's a dumb question but what the heck is a Cantor???

blizz

Singer of Jewish religious material?

A chief liturgical singer in the Jewish and some in Christian traditions. I think here the recordings are from the Jewish tradition.

Clay

From Latin "cantare," "to sing." Root of cantata, cantilena, cantatrice, cantus (as in "cantus firmus," plainchant or Gregorian chant), etc. J.S. Bach's official title in Leipzig was "cantor," but in that and similar cases the duties of the position did not involve his singing; rather, he was in charge of all the music performed in the Lutheran churches in connection with the services.

Some rare stuff indeed. For the collector of Judaica certainly more interesting than the stacks of sides by Jossele Rosenblatt or Moishe Oysher. Even so, I was hoping for "Old Banjo Eyes" on Pathé.

I recently came across a few Victor records from the early to mid-'twenties, of cantors singing Jewish works. I'm not Jewish, and I was unfamiliar with this music. I was quite unexpectedly blown away by its quality.

For those unfamiliar with the genre, here's a copy on YouTube (not my posting) of one of the records I have, by Cantor Joseph Winogradoff -- a magnificent voice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54cHC_LLtEY

And here's a brief biography of Cantor Winogradoff, along with several more downloads, though they're .rar files:

http://yiddishmusic.jewniverse.info/winogradoffjoseph/

Uncle Vanya, would Jossele Rosenblatt be the man identified on Victor records as Josef Rosenblatt, Cantor First Hung. Cong. Ohab Zedek? I have some of those in this small collection.

Some of this music is really lovely.

Clay

This is probably the rarest record in my collection :

Re: Jossele Rosenblatt
He was regarded as the Caruso of cantors and not without reason. He had incredible range and depth. Even Caruso himself was a fan and saw him in concert. At the end of the concert Caruso mounted the stage and kissed him, saying he wish he had his gift. Declining the role of Jolson's father in The Jazz Singer, he agreed instead to play himself in a scene. Yes, his records are plentiful but I don't think it makes him less interesting than others. I buy them whenever I see them.