Bas Sheva's passion - from cantorial to exotica

Bas Sheva, that songbird of exotica, got her start singing Jewish liturgical work. As I noted in my previous post about her, Sheva, born Beatrice Kurzman, sang on the 1953 quasi-liturgical album "Soul of My People" before she went on to the Tiki classic "The Passions." I was just pointed to a rare video of Sheva performing the liturgical cantorial work she grew up on. The video is a clip from her 1949 film Catskill Honeymoon.

Bas Sheva 1949 Pioneer Cantoress


And here's Sheva singing "Jealousy" from Passions. I know I've showcase it before, but I want to do so again. Just for comparison purposes, mind you. Not because it's one of my favorite tracks ever. Really. Listen carefully, though. If you get past Baxter's wonderful Tweety Bird exotica and focus on Sheva's voice, the similarities in her vocal performance are striking. It's clear, to me at least, where she honed her ability to express passion in song.

Bas Sheva: Jealousy

Hat tip to YouTube user YidVidz for uploading the Catskill Honeymoon videl and to shuon25 of the schuon25 blog for assembling the Jealousy video.