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
