Les Plus Belles Chansons Judeo-Arabes (Various Artists)

Judeo-Arabic: yesterday's splendors, today's nostalgia. Born in the Maghreb, the majority of Judeo-Arab singers today live in France, often in settings reminiscent of the 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s, years of creative daring. Whether they are "Algerians" like Reinette l'oranaise, René Pérez, Luc Pérez, Luc Cherki, Lili Labassi or Cheikh Raymond, "Tunisians" like El Kahlaoui Tounsi, Raoul Journo or Cheikh El Afrite, "Moroccans" like Samy el Maghribi, Cheikh Mwijo or Boutboul, they remain the actors-witnesses of a music, shared for centuries with their Muslim "compatriots", whose origins date back to the blessed times of Andalusia, the nerve center of a Mediterranean cultural ferment where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side for seven centuries (from the 9th to the 15th century) in the same cultural atmosphere of respect and brotherhood.