Neta Elkayam, world-renowned Israeli singer of North African music who connects the spirits of her Moroccan Jewish mothers to audiences around the world. With musical production by Amit Hai Cohen, the duo creates an intimate and energetic sound, melding music from the Moroccan Jewish repertoire with jazz melodies, as well as rock, pop and other contemporary influences.

Presented in partnership with Jews in ALL Hues.

The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (The Weitzman) in Los Angeles and the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (Lowell Milken Center) partnered to create this cross-country offering.

Secret Chord Concerts is a free on-demand video series featuring 15-25 minute performances from celebrated Jewish musicians representing a broad range of styles, heritages, and histories and recorded live in front of intimate audiences in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Set list with credits and explanations:

Black is the Color / khal l3ayun (the black eyed beloved) / كحل العيون / כחאל לעיון
(English, Judeo-Moroccan Arabic)

Written by Albert Suissa, Inspired by Nina Simone, Arranged by Amit Hait Cohen, Lyrics Performed in English and Judeo-Moroccan Arabic by Neta Elkayam

A nod to Nina Simone’s “Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair” mixed with “khal l3ayun,” a song about dark eyes by Albert Suissa, a Jewish Moroccan composer and lyricist born in 1930’s Casablanca.

Muhal Nensa (I will never forget) / محل ننسى / מוחאל ננסה
(Judeo-Moroccan Arabic)

Written by Samy Elmaghribi, Arranged by Amit Hai Cohen, Lyrics Performed by Neta Elkayam in Judeo-Moroccan Arabic.

A 1960’s love song by musician Samy Elmaghribi, a Moroccan Jewish musician born in the city of Safi in 1922. This is the first recording of the duo arrangement for Neta and Amit. There are several recordings of Neta and her band performing the song, including an electro-jazz version originally recorded at one of the last Moroccan Jewish shops in Jerusalem’s Machaneh Yehudah Market – a video which has garnered more than a million views.

Shitafon (Flood) / שיטפון
(Hebrew)

Written by David ben Hassin, Arranged by Amit Hai Cohen, Lyrics Performed by Neta Elkayam in Hebrew

A Piyyut by Rabbi David ben Aharon Hassin, a Jewish poet born in the city of Meknes considered to be one of the great Moroccan poets of all time. The lyrics talk about the struggle of ben Aharon Hassin’s to survive a great flood from which he was eventually saved. The 17th century poem is written in Hebrew and is rich with symbolic images from the Torah and the Midrash.

Muima (Mommy) / ‏ميمة / מווימה
(Judeo-Moroccan Arabic)

Written by Moshe ben Hamo, Arranged by Amit Hai Cohen, Lyrics Performed by Neta Elkayam in Judeo-Moroccan Arabic.

This song is based on a poem by Moshe Ben Hamo and was originally recorded in the 1970’s by singer Jasmine Almagribia. In this arrangement, Elkayam intends for the lyrics about abandoning our mothers to act as an allegory of our tendency to forget deeply rooted traditions (like our mother tongue) and to call for change.

Credits:
Presented by The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia and the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Coproduced by Daniel Samuels and Lorry Black. All video and audio recorded and edited for this episode by Mageworks Productions.