Here’s a style I’m pretty sure you don’t have a major collection of: Arab-Andalusian music. Algerian singer Lili Boniche (1921-2008) was one of the few gents to mix Jewish Sephardic music with traditional Arabic influences and make it bridge both worlds successfully. As this collection attests, he was comfortable delivering tangos, rhumbas and even traditional Middle Eastern sounds in an intoxicating way that challenged you to either dance, pray or do both at the same time.
The music here as some songs such as “Ana El Owerka” mix crying strings with old school tango to create a passionate atmosphere, while reed sounds reminiscent of a Greek village are evoked on “Ma Bine Eh.” Boniche’s voice is attractively and nasally French, melding the best of the Mediterranean and Middle East as on his Byzantine vocal sounding “Golo Le Fene” while reeds and strings chirp along the festive and joyful “Inchalla Terbah.” A bit of bohemia from the Left Bank is felt with strings and sax on “Bambino” and a simple background for Boniche on “Alger Alger” takes you to an underground cabaret. Time travel at its best.
World Village Records