Yasmín Levy’s music is a revelation. Blending and sorting influences from Ladino (Jewish-Spanish) culture, Gypsy, and Flamenco music with other Middle Eastern aural aromas, the result is stunning. Levy is the kind of interpreter who could sing about a floor mop in an exotic language and leave you paralyzed by the emotion of it.
Her style is richly sensuous. Accompanied by some splendid Spanish guitar, the Mediterranean sabor of it all splashed a bit of sun on even a winter’s morning in Indianapolis. Yet this is not music for the casual vacationer hoping for a bit of melodic bronzing before lunch.
Levy’s theme is often abandonment. Whether the Gypsy with no country or the lover with no choice but to leave because ‘quiero olvidar el aroma de tu cuerpo, quiero olvidar el sabor de tus labios’, Levy’s song is as often as not a lament.
From an aesthetic point of view, that is just as well. The deep sadness that comes through in this genre accounts for its well-echoing beauty. Even to sing of amor is to weep over love lost or to cringe in the face of its anticipated departure or to cut off a beautiful thing because one knows it will turn bad.
The flamenco touches are gorgeously done, the genre’s staccato clap punctuating a vocal line laid down with superb maturity by the singer. It is not difficult to believe Levy’s reviewers who say that she presents an exquisite live concert.
No one will ever say that Yasmín Levy’s music lacks feeling. Yet there is so very much more here than just passion.
La Judería is indeed a revelation.
Canter Bridge 