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I recently went to an 81 year old fellows house to repair his broken CONCERT disc phonograph. Very nice machine, similar in appearance to a Victor X. The phonograph was full of old Turkish/Jewish/Greek records. This man's grandparents were from Turkey, moved to Greece, then to the USA. The phonograph belonged to them, now it is his. One of the records is kind of rare, a 1913 recording of Judeo-Spanish music in the Ladino language by Haim Effendi. Apparently, this was a group of Jewish folks that originated in Spain and over time moved east to Turkey. Along the way, their Spanish language incorporated many of the local language words until it became a language all it's own. Not many folks speak that language today, maybe one generation left, then it is gone.

Anyway, the fellow with these records graciously allowed me to record 16 of his records and post them to YouTube. Here are the recordings of this record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lqsgfbOe2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_svESF2Lmps

Enjoy!

P.S. - There is a lot of information for the ORFEON label, but this one says ORFEOS. The discography for this recording says it is one the ORFEON label..???

Good music and a great singing voice.
Thanks for making it available!

James.

Quite interesting and unique! I could not recognize any Spanish word in the singing (the titles are very similar to Spanish, though), and the music sounds Arabic, including what seems to be a "oud" (a type of guitar). Thanks for finding, recording and posting it!

Here is another disc from that collection. The label is blank except for the number 1439 on one side and 1440 on the other. The dead wax is stamped E-1439 on one side and EV-1440 on the other. The recording is a vocal with oud accompaniment.

You can hear the recordings on YouTube below:

https://youtu.be/EzJqlXudJwg

https://youtu.be/JuVtRG9yxQk

Anybody recognize the music/language?

Thanks!

This doesn't necessarily help, as it includes most if not all of the Arab world, as well as Persian cultures, but it's definitely 24-tone music (and therefore not Greek, Bulgarian or Balkan, likely also not Turkish).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_maqam

edit: referring to EV-1440. E-1439 is Spanish, and could either be Ladino or al-Andalus (Spanish Islamic) music.

I found out this is a Ladino Sephardic recording. The vocal artist is Jack Mayesh, oud played by K Bozajian. It was released on the Electro Vox label with these same matrix numbers. The song title of 1439 is ONDE QUE TOPE UNA ES PLAZIENTE, 1440 is YO SOPORTA CON PASSENCIA.

Thanks to Aydin Chaloupka for the help!

Cliff

Mazel Tov!

Just brought home the rest of the collection to digitize, including a dozen or so 12" discs. About 120 records total, all Greek, Turkish, and Ladino.

OBOY!

Found a Turkish SAHIBININ SESI sleeve today. First one I've seen! The Turkish version of HIS MASTER'S VOICE...

Good idea to upload this to you tube to preserve it for all to enjoy.