I grew up listening to European operas, oratorios and lieder. The classical way of singing, while glorious, eventually lost its attraction on me. I remember attending a spiritual “workshop” in college. The man closed his eyes and hummed a few notes. There was no discernible technique nor did the voice project. He said, “This is spiritual. It comes from the depth of suffering.” And I knew it was the rawness of the human voice that had moved me.
In our house, we receive two to five music CDs a day. Dore cannot audition them fast enough and many sit in boxes and eventually are forgotten. He has his favorites and I have mine. We don’t always agree, and Dore has a much wider taste in music than I do. But we can always agree on the very best, when the soul comes through the voice and moves us.
Our favorites: The Senegalese singer and guitarist Baba Maal, the American born Mexican-Lebanese-Jewish singer Lhasa de Sela, (now deceased), Ravid Kahalani of Yemen Blues and the Iranian singer Hamad Nikpay.
We live in a treasure trove, surrounded by yet to be discovered jewels. It is the luck of the draw when Dore picks out a CD to listen to. But that voice, that voice that possesses the power, that calls to us, remains rare.
Photo by Raymond Van Tassel
When an instrument being played calls out,that is different than a voice.