STN Entertainment Recrafting Sephardic Music 4 ntre la mar y el rio" might sound like the lat- F1 est Julio Iglesias hit, but you're perhaps less likely to hear the Latin Romeo crooning the tune than your grandmother. The song springs not from the mind of some high- gloss music studio artist but from the annals of Sephardic Jewish history. Like "Avre to puerta cerra- da" and "Al pasar por Casablanca," the song's Judeo- Spanish roots hark back to the time, prior to 1492, when Jewish culture flourished on the Spanish/Portuguese peninsula. Judith Wachs and the three co-members of the group Voice of the Turtle have made it their mission to revive the long-ignored world of Sephardic music. "The history has not been forgotten; the music has not been forgotten," says Wachs, who founded the group in 1978. Voice's four musicians and vocalists —including Derek Burrows, Lisle Kulbach and Jay Rosenberg — began playing together prior to that as a medieval and Renaissance music group. But "once I heard one (Sephardic Jewish) song," Wachs says, "I thought it was the next big thing." Most of the Sephardim fled Spain in 1492, at the on- set of the Inquisition, taking their culture and tradi- tions to Turkey, Greece, Morocco and Bulgaria. The musical signature of this Ladino-speaking population mingled with the traditions of their adopted lands, breed- ing new offshoots. The songs run the gamut from "heartbreaking to al- most vaudevillian," Wachs explains. Some have famil- iar cadences that are performed on recognizable instruments such as flute, harp and violin. Others hark back to medieval times and employ chants and unusual vocal stylings. And some find their shape through un- familiar instruments such as the baglama, shawm, chalumeau and rebec. Voice of the Turtle's repertoire continues to expand. "If we were to do this for another 100 years, we wouldn't run out of new things to play," says Wachs, explain- ing that the group unearths Sephardic music by in- terviewing people directly or studying field recordings (those performed usually by older people, often at cele- brations, and often without instrumental accompani- This Week's Best Bets Cr) LU Cf) LLJ CD CC LLI CD L1J 98 Motor City Comic Con Comic book publishers, artists, characters and paraphernalia converge on the Novi Expo Cen- ter for Michigan's largest con- vention of its kind. $10 admission. (810) 645-6666. Fri., 2-8 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (—/ The Voice of the Turtle sings a cultural blend of Arabic, Spanish and Eastern European folk music and performs with over 20 exotic instruments. ment). Voice members then meticulously recraft the work, making sure their interpretations "reflect the in- tegrity of the piece." For their Detroit-area concert, Voice of the Turtle will perform an evening of Passover songs, which appear on its upcoming recording (the group's tenth). The perfor- mance will include 23 different versions of "Had Gadya": in Yiddish, French, Italian, Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, etc. Though Wachs credits her group with increasing the popularity of Sephardic music ("It's in most musicians' repertoires now," she says), she also realizes that such foreign sounds can be off-putting for new audiences. - - d 2 V i •- - - - Copilerfield The illug*fitst and - magi-,07S new shoNte " - agic Is Back," features the fearless e magician walking through the blades of an enormous industrial fan. Fox Th. 29432.50. (810) 433-1515 "No one should be intimidated by the fact that it sounds so esoteric," she says. "When you come out of a Voice of the Turtle concert, you'll be smiling." —Liz Stevens ft The Voice of the Turtle will perform at 8 p.m. Sat- urday, March 24, at West Bloomfield High School Theater. Reserved tickets, $28; general admission, $20; senior/student tickets, $15. Special discounts for JCC members. Call (810) 661-7649. Peter and the Wolf Joan Collins The Detroit Symphony Orches- tra's CutTime Players perform Prokofiev's musical tale with vo- calist Valerie Yova at Pontiac Northern High School. Free. (810) 357-1111. The TV-vamp-cum-trashy-fiction writer makes a stop at Borders Books and Music in Farmington Hills where she'll sign copies of her latest novel, Infamous. (810) 737-0110. Sat., 1 p.m. Annual Piano Festival The Lyric Chamber Ensemble gathers nimble fingers from across the state to perform on four Steinway grand pianos on the stage of Orchestra Hall. $10- $25. (810) 357-1111. Sun., 3:30 p.m.