La Nona Kanta

I was catching up on Nextbook podcasts on my recent business trips (the reason for my lack of posts over the last week) and enjoyed one in particular: La Nona Kanta - Flory Jagoda. Jagoda is a Sephardic folksinger originally from Bosnia who performs traditional Sephardic songs passed down through her family as well as her own compositions. She has become a sort of grande dame of Sephardic Music in the US, recording a series of albums, authoring a songbook and receiving a NEA Heritage Fellowship.

The thing that caught me, though, wasn' t the story it was the music. It was the rhythm. I didn't grow up with Sephardic music but I got hooked a while ago. It has passion and lyricism but it doesn't have this rhythm. Not a flamenco rhythm. Something else. Maybe a Bosnian influence? Anyway, go listen to the podcast and you'll hear it too. I'm going to pick up a couple of her albums and listen a lot closer.