4-star review - de Volkskrant
"Nani Noam Vazana: A ship’s horn power voice with flamenco drama!"
“The irresistible songs of singer-songwriter Vazana give the endangered language Ladino new life”
“The roots of singer Noam Vazana, also known as Nani, who lives in Amsterdam, are fascinating. Her jewish parents were born in Morocco but had to leave for Israel in the 1950s. Nani grew up there, surrounded by a myriad of languages, including Hebrew, fragments of Arabic and the endangered Ladino language. With her Moroccan grandmother, for example, Nani could only communicate in this wondrous language. Ladino is a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew that today is still spoken by an estimated sixty thousand people.
Vazana must be the only singer-songwriter in the world who writes songs in Ladino. In the Bimhuis she played songs from her new album Ke Haber, which is a preservation of an ancient culture and a unique migration mix.”
“The irresistible songs of singer-songwriter Vazana give the endangered language Ladino new life”
“Vazana’s musical practice is also extraordinary: she plays the piano, sings with a ship’s horn power voice and occasionally plays the trombone. Her melodies float around flamenco, graceful Arabic music, dance music from the Balkans and even guitar music from the Andes Mountains. Hard to comprehend, but Vazana sings and plays all this so naturally that after two songs you stop trying to analyse it.
Many songs came from conversations with Nani’s grandmother. They celebrate the strong female culture of times gone by. For one, an irresistible cheerful song about seven ways to prepare aubergines. Vazana sings it with flamenco-like drama in her voice with such power that it almost seems like she is making a political statement. But then maybe there is a deeper meaning about this method of preparing aubergines.”
“In any case, she gives the Ladino a boost of new vitality and even if only for that reason Vazana’s work is invaluable”
