The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostes… Read Full Bio ↴Early Work:
The pre-2002 Charming Hostess (also known as Charming Hostess Big Band) was a rock band that embraced a genderfuck sensibility (the women often wore mustaches while the men wore dresses). Early Charming Hostess music drew on women's vocal traditions (primarily from Eastern Europe and North Africa), and integrated them with American folk forms both white and black. Charming Hostess was founded in the fertile anarchy of Barrington Co-op (aka Barrington Hall), and nurtured by the West Oakland arts community, along with other coeval bands such as Fibulator and Eskimo. Half of Charming Hostess was also in Idiot Flesh/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The final effect was of a hoedown where bodacious babes belted the blues in Bulgarian while a Punk-Klezmer band rocked out in accompaniment.
The genre of this incarnation of ChoHo is described by the band as "Klezmer-Punk/Balkan-Funk". Recordings of Charming Hostess Big Band include "Eat" (Vaccination, 1998) and the more recent "Punch" (ReR, 2005) Charming Hostess Big Band was: Jewlia Eisenberg (voice, direction), Carla Kihlstedt (voice, fiddle), Nina Rolle (voice, accordion), Wes Anderson (drums), Nils Frykdahl (guitar, flute, saxophone, percussion), and Dan Rathbun (bass)."
Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, Cynthia Taylor,
Jason Ditzian, Shahzad Ismaily, Ches Smith.
- plus, often Ganda Suthivarakom and/or Pameliya Kursten (all vocals).
Honored guests on 2010 The Bowls Project album include:
Marc Ribot, Jenny Scheinman, Megan Gould, Jessica Troy, Nils Frykdahl, Dawn McCarthy, Ganda Suthivarakom, Boris Martzinovsky, Aaron Kierbel, and Nir Waxman.
Current Work:
The Bowls Project, an album and installation from Charming Hostess released Summer 2010.
The Bowls Project Album:
Based on inscriptions from ancient Babylonian Jewish amulets, The Bowls Project, Tzadik sings of mysticism and magic, angels and demons, and the trials and joys of love and sex. Especially audible are the voices of Talmudic-era women: their work, hopes and dreams. Weaving together Babylonian devotional songs, apocalyptic American folk music and a radical take on ritual power, The Bowls Project marks the deepest and most creative work by Charming Hostess yet.
The Bowls Project Installation & Sound Sculpture:
As a performance installation and interactive sound sculpture that takes place in a 40’ vaulted dome. Featuring new music composed and performed by Jewlia Eisenberg and Charming Hostess, The Bowls Project is based on texts from ancient Babylonian amulets. The culmination of five years of research, The Bowls Project will
run June through August 2010 at Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts. An estimated 15,000 people will visit and interact with
the installation.
The Bowls Project Background:
Bowl amulets were common 1500 years ago in the area
that is now Iraq. Simple bowls were inscribed with a
householder’s secrets and desires and then buried under
the doorway to protect the home. The bowl texts are
about “secrets of the home”: love and intimacy, angels and
demons, and the trials and joys of daily life. Audible in these
texts are the individual voices of women from this period
-their work, hopes, and dreams. These spiraled inscriptions
are among the few existing records of female voices during
the time and place of the Babylonian Talmud.
All Work:
The music primarily springs from three women with an emphasis in the body--voices and vocal percussion, hand claps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. The work grows from diaspora consciousness: both Jewish and African. Stylistically, Charming Hostess incorporates doo-wop, Pygmy counterpoint, Balkan harmony and Andalusian melody. Contemporary influences on the band include Meredith Monk and Reinette l'Oranaise. The music often explores existing text and overlays the composer's (Jewlia Eisenberg) own questions of authenticity, montage, and the effect of music on non-verbal languages.
The 2002 CD (Trilectic, Tzadik Records) explored the political/erotic nexus of Walter Benjamin and his Marxist muse, Asja Lacis. The 2004 CD (Sarajevo Blues, Tzadik) sets Bosnian poetry by Semezdin Mehmedinović as a form of love and resistance to the brutalization of war.
Imam Bey's Mosque
Charming Hostess Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Before that, his wife too; as if God had taken her to Him, to protect her. So she wouldn't see.
Here's what I think:
There are neither major nor minor tragedies. Tragedies exist. Some can be described. There are others for which every heart is too small. Those kind cannot fit in the heart.
The song “Imam Bey's Mosque” by Charming Hostess is a poignant tale of loss and tragedy. The lyrics speak of Imam Efendi Spahic, a man who lost his entire family in a tragic incident when shells fell on Dairam, killing his children, grandchild, and his wife who was saved from seeing the tragedy by God's intervention. The singer then reflects on the nature of tragedy, stating that there are neither major nor minor tragedies, and that some are too heavy to bear in the heart.
The song portrays the intense grief and loss experienced by Imam Efendi Spahic, as well as his spiritual resilience in the face of this tragedy. The reference to God's intervention in sparing his wife from witnessing the tragedy adds a layer of mysticism and spirituality to the narrative. It suggests that there is a higher purpose or plan at work, even in the midst of unimaginable suffering.
The final lines of the song speak to the universal nature of tragedy, suggesting that no one is immune to its effects, and that some are simply too great to comprehend. This is a powerful message that speaks to the human condition, and highlights the importance of empathy and compassion in times of hardship.
Line by Line Meaning
Imam Efendi Spahic had three children and a grandchild that were killed by the shells that fell on Dairam.
Tragedies exist, some of which are so great that they cannot be grasped. Such a tragedy occurred to Imam Efendi Spahic; he lost his three children and grandchild to a fatal shell that struck down on Dairam.
Before that, his wife too; as if God had taken her to Him, to protect her. So she wouldn't see.
Imam Efendi Spahic's fatal loss was not limited to his children only; before that, he also lost his wife, who was spared from witnessing the horrors of war by God's mercy, by being taken in His protection.
There are neither major nor minor tragedies. Tragedies exist. Some can be described. There are others for which every heart is too small. Those kind cannot fit in the heart.
This verse encapsulates the essence of pain and loss. No tragedy is major or minor; they exist, and their effects can be felt on every aspect of our lives. Some tragedies can be described, but there are others for which words fail, and the heart is not enough to bear the enormity of the pain they bring.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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J Lo
Jewlia used the traditional melody from the Yunus illahi as a setting for a piece from Imam Bey's Mosque, a prose-poem by Semezdin Mehmedinovic (from his book, Sarajevo Blues); in English it says, "Here's what I think. There are neither major nor minor tragedies. Tragedies exist. Some can be described. There are others for which every heart is too small. Those kind cannot fit in the heart."
nalincikeseri
This is a hymn by Yunus Emre a Turkish poet and sufist. I am not sure if this version uses a translation of original Turkish verses. But this version is much better than the most of the Turkish version, musically. Unfortunately I am not able to translate the original verses since it is a very mystical and esoteric text and most probably I would have not be translating even a single verse correctly.
Siyah Ekran
Allah Allah.
15 ft gelatinous cube
What about just the words in (Serbo-Croatian?). I don't speak it but I have enough linguistics training that I could probably piece together a few bits and pieces of the meaning. Also, even a very wooden/literal translation would help. I'm trying to start a Balkan brass band and want to create an arrangement of this song.
15 ft gelatinous cube
Any have lyrics for this song?
nalincikeseri
By the way you might be interested in other wersions of this hymn: watch?v=dbakZyfHsTE watch?v=pY3omwfCIHY First one is a traditional version of the hymn and the second one is symphonic
nalincikeseri
Why was you born to this earth, Yunus? Let your tounge call His name day and night If your ways don't meet the Saints (Evliya) The caravan has gone, we are left alone in the mountains
nalincikeseri
And a lousy translation of this verses; Oh, you sleep, don't you wake up yet? The caravan has gone, we are left alone in the mountains Criers are calling it, don't you believe? The caravan has gone, we are left alone in the mountains Long since "Emir Hac" has passed away Muhammed is the religion and faith to all Shan't go without the signs, roads are egregious The caravan has gone, we are left alone in the mountains ((Rest is in the following post))