Music

The Devil’s Interval and Yair Dalal

Sep 8, 2017

Iraq history, Jewish history, Music

Babylonian Jewish tradition, Devil’s interval, Dudu Tassa, Iraqi Music, Jewish music, Mosul, Sara Manasseh, Shbahoth, Yair Dalal

I heard that the blues musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in return for his guitar-playing genius, that Paganini was the devil’s violinist and the devil himself is a fiddle player. That was reported as fact to a folklore researcher and quoted in his article The Devil and the…
Keeping music alive

Jul 25, 2017

Mosul, Music

Iraqi Music, Jewish music, Mosul, Songhoy Blues

I was once told by police to stop playing or next time our instruments would be confiscated. It’s a trivial story in the scheme of things. We were in Amsterdam in around 1980 in a city centre spot where busking wasn’t allowed, so next time we got the train to Gouda and played there instead.…