SEPHARDIC MUSIC:
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Jack MayeshDiscography
For more information, see also these record label pages: Mayesh; Me-Re. BiographyJack Mayesh was born on July 7, 1899 in Kuşadası, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He immigrated first to New York City, where he married Flora Salmoni, of Rhodes, in 1924. The family moved to Los Angeles around 1929, where Mayesh led a successful profession in the wholesale flower business. (The company, though no longer owned by the family, still bears his name, see here.) When colleagues in the floral industry of Japanese descent were interned at camps during World War II Mayesh wrote a song, "Los Japones", dealing with their ill treatment. While Mayesh never recorded the song, it has been performed in concert by Vanessa Paloma. Mayesh was proudest of serving at various times as cantor at the three principal Los Angeles Sephardi congregations. In addition to Hebrew repertory, Mayesh also set Greek and Turkish melodies to Ladino lyrics. For example, Mayesh did his own version of Missirlu and transformed a song first known in Turkish as Benim güzel bülbülüm then in Greek as Kanarini into Ven canario He made nine recordings for his own Mayesh Phonograph Records label from late 1941 to late 1943. During a New York excursion in summer, 1948, Mayesh made three more recordings for Me-Re (which bear Balkan matrices), all in Judeo-Spanish. These latter recordings had more elaborate accompaniment, an "Oriental Orchestra" led by Theodore Kappas on kanun, with violin and 'oud. According to his son, these were the best and most popular of his secular recordings. As one contemporary remembered his influential recordings, "Mayesh was the Bing Crosby of the Sephardic world. In New York, as a kid, everyone had some of his records. He was a household word." He died on February 11, 1969. Sources: (M. Jack Mayesh, personal correspondence; "Remembering Papa".) Stern, Stephen, 1980. Dorn, 1991 Photos
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Copyright 2008 - 2012, Joel Bresler
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