I've given up all pretense of posting these at Sundown. Now I just hope to get them posted before Sunrise.
You know I love my Christmas music from faraway lands. But what about Hanukkah? When it's Hanukkah, it's Hanukkah all over the world. Are there foreign Hanukkah songs (you know, other than in Israel)? Or, at least, are there World Music sounds of Hanukkah? Not really that much, though I'm always looking. And I'm not talking about Klezmer, which is clearly World Music; I'm looking for some nice Indie Pop or Rock or Blues from...France or Italy or Japan or Brazil. Heck, I'd settle for some Hanukkah Folk from England. Somehow, Hanukkah music mostly seems confined to American and Isreali musicians. Why is that? Somebody work on that, please.
You know I love my Christmas music from faraway lands. But what about Hanukkah? When it's Hanukkah, it's Hanukkah all over the world. Are there foreign Hanukkah songs (you know, other than in Israel)? Or, at least, are there World Music sounds of Hanukkah? Not really that much, though I'm always looking. And I'm not talking about Klezmer, which is clearly World Music; I'm looking for some nice Indie Pop or Rock or Blues from...France or Italy or Japan or Brazil. Heck, I'd settle for some Hanukkah Folk from England. Somehow, Hanukkah music mostly seems confined to American and Isreali musicians. Why is that? Somebody work on that, please.
One of the great "modern" Hanukkah songs was written by Jewish-American composer Flory Jagoda. Born in Bosnia, Flory was raised in the Sephardic Jewish tradition. Sephardic Jews were of Spanish ancestry and their Ladino language was derived from Spanish. "Ocho Kandelikas", written in 1983, is probably Flory's best known and most enduring song--possibly because it gave people looking for Hanukkah music something else to play beyond the big three ("Dreidel", "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah", and "Maoz Tzur"). All of the elements combine to give "Ocho Kandelikas" an instantly exotic sound. Covered many time by many artists, last year's Afro-Cuban version by Nigunim In Clave may be my all time favorite. Nigunim In Clave is essentially a one-off featuring players from Zion80 and vocals from Dan Saks of Hanukkah music favorites The LeeVees and The Macaroons. You can purchase "Ocho Kandelikas" on Bandcamp.
I'm always coming back to this one because The Temple Rockers' "Festival of Lights" is the highlight of the season for me. An entire album of Hanukkah Reggae music? It doesn't get much better than that. We previously featured this album and I don't want to repeat myself. However, I do want to mention one little thing that I haven't before. "Festival of Lights" features all of the popular melodies of the holiday, many of which you probably know. There's the big three, of course (mentioned just above), and the known but slightly less known to we goyim "Sevivon", "Al Hanissim" and "Mi Yimalel" ("Who Can Retell"). But there are a couple of traditional Hanukkah songs you might not know because they so seldom get covered in this country. And one of my favorites of those is "Kad Katan", which is about the cruse that held the oil. You'll find that one on "Festival of Lights" as "A Lickle Jug". Still, I'm going to play "Days Long Ago", here, because I love llistening to Linval Thompson. Hard copies available from The Temple Rockers, downloads from Bandcamp and Amazon.
Normally, I turn to Israel for (to me) exotic yet contemporary sounding Hanukkah music, but I'm coming up fairly dry this year (of course I really haven't had the time to look much). This doesn't really fit the theme, tonight, but it is new and it is from an Israeli band (or at least their label is based in Jerusalem). As it was released December 3, it took me a couple of days to find it. The Faithful Anonymous is a new band and I can't really find anything about them on line (what part of "Anonymous" don't you understand?), but "Dreidel Memories" is a pretty cool song--sort of Indie Pop Rock, I guess--and it's available via Amazon. Not exotic, but a definite score for a Hanukkah hound.
"Hashem Melech" ("The Lord Is King") isn't really a Hanukkah song, but it is a popular song on Hanukkah playlists in Israel (if for no other reason than you can dance to it). Israeli artist Gad Elbaz recorded the song in 2013 and revisited in in 2016. In the latter version, he's joined by American rapper Nissim Black. You can get the 2013 version of "Hashem Melech" here and the 2016 version here.
Gad Elbaz did release a song last Hanukkah which is much more of a Hanukkah song as it speaks of "candles in the night" that "celebrate the light". But "Shine On" is also a song that's appropriate at any time of year as it speaks to the pride and perseverance of the Jewish people. Elbaz is joined on the record by The Holocaust Survivor Band--a group formed by actual Holocaust survivors (and the daughter of one)--and the video is especially poignant for it's opening. "Shine On" is available at Amazon.
Jews have been persecuted throughout history. Driven from their homes, they've settled far and wide. There's a sizable Jewish population in Scandinavia. Holiday music hunting is always a quest and, of late, one of my quests has been to find some contemporary Scandinavian Hanukkah music. Came oh so close, earlier this year, when I stumbled upon this Ladino band from Finland. Sheine Ite, at last report, was still trying to finish recording their debut record (there has never been a Ladino record released in Finland), so you won't find any Hanukkah songs from the group...yet (although they do cover Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in an old performance video). But, I've got my fingers crossed because I love the sound of Sheine Ite, which is Jewish Folk, Finnish Folk and Flamenco all rolled into one. It might be the Flamenco that gives Sheine Ite a kind of a Jazzy feel. This isn't a Hanukkah song and you can't get it anywhere, but I love it. "Ven a Mi Lado" translates as "Come To Me". Anybody got any Contemporary Scandinavian Hanukkah songs? Please share. And....it's not letting me embed the video for some reason. I've embedded them on another site without a problem, so I don't get it. Normally, that's the kind of thing that would tick me off and I'd say, "Forget them, then" and delete the whole paragraph. But I really do like them, so check out the video for yourself.
Well, let's get back closer to music you're used to. This is an oldie but a goodie from an Israeli band, The Fountainheads (sometimes listed on the digital music platforms as Ein Prat Fountainheads). We featured it when it was new back in 2011, but not during our nights of Hanukkah. At the time, you couldn't purchase "Light Up The Night" anywhere, but, at some point thereafter, it was added to iTunes...so now you can, if you want to. We'll see you for Night Five at some point in the next month. Maybe even tomorrow. Wouldn't that be special?
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