This playlist is the advanced release of Splendid Singing Birds: Jewish Women’s Songs from Kerala, one of the longstanding projects of the Jewish Music Research Centre. Led with diligence, profound dedication and meticulous scholarship by anthropologist Barbara Johnson, the project relies on fieldwork carried out in India and Israel for over four decades. Johnson’s work, in collaboration with singer and translator Tzipporah Lane, unravels the symbolic and aesthetic layers of the Malayalam language song repertoire, anchored in the life of the Jewish communities of Kerala, on the southwest seacoast of India.
Splendid Singing Birds: Jewish Women’s Songs from Kerala
Collected and Translated with Commentary by Barbara C. Johnson
Section I: Songs of Origin and Community Identity

Sarah Cohen, Ruby S. Hallegua

Miriam Daniel, Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer, Simcha Yosef

Kerala women, Moshav Nevatim

Hannah (Dolly) Japheth and Ruby Daniel

Yocheved Ben Eliyahu

Venus Lane

Miriam Daniel

Jacobai E. Cohen

Venus Lane

Venus Lane

Leah E. Ben Eliyahu

Hannah (Dolly) Japheth

Ruby Daniel and Rahel Kala

Venus Lane
Section II: Songs for Special Occasions

Sarah Cohen

Miriam Daniel, Rahel Nehemiah, Toba Sofer, Simcha Yosef

Leah Madai

Sarah Cohen

Sarah Cohen, Ruby S. Hallegua

Rahel Kala, Venus Lane, Simcha Yosef

Sarah Cohen, Seema Salem, Ruby S. Hallegua

Sarah Cohen, Seema Salem, Ruby S. Hallegua

Rivka Wadekeotam

Rivka Hai, Molly Pal, Simcha Yosef, Venus Lane

Rahel Kala, Venus Lane

Sarah Cohen, Ruby S. Hallegua.

Miriam Eliyahu

Sarah Cohen, Ruby S. Hallegua

Simcha Yosef, Hannah Yitzhak

Miriam Daniel, Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer, Simcha Yosef

Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer and others

Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer, and others

Rahel Kala, Venus Lane, Hannah Yitzhak, Simcha Yosef

Rahel Kala, Venus Lane

Simcha Yosef, Hannah Yitzhak

Rahel Nehemia, Toba Sofer and others

Rahel Kala, Venus Lane

Simcha Yosef

Hannah (Dolly) Japheth

Sarah Cohen

Sarah Cohen

Sarah Cohen
Section III: Biblical narratives

Nirit Singers

Leah Madai, Rivka Yehoshua

Rahel Nehemiah, Toba Sofer and others