The Living Legend of Andalusian Music

In Honor of Iraqi-Jewish Artist Oded Halahmy, namesake of the recently inaugurated Oded Halahmy Gallery at the American Sephardi Federation     19 September 2016

Sephardi Ideas Monthly is a continuing series of essays from the rich, multi-dimensional world of Sephardi thought that is traditionally delivered to your inbox on the second Monday of every month.  

For the month of September, Sephardi Ideas Monthly considers the amazing story of Nino Bitton, the son of Moroccan immigrants to Israel, who used his extraordinarily gifted ear to become a walking encyclopedia of Andalusian music and master of the oud. In 2011, at the age of 60 and after laboring in obscurity for decades, he finally released his first disk.

Nino Bitton on Oud  (Photo courtesy of Yuval Yairi/Midnight East)

Nino Bitton Bitton’s story was celebrated in an extended and touching essay by Ben Shalev, “I sleep with a beat.”  In the essay Shalev explores how Bitton originally learned Andalusian music by sitting at the feet of unknown masters, such as Avraham Atadji Suweri: “He didn’t ‘teach’ me, but I learned from him. It’s not like now when a student comes and I sit with him head to head and tell him ‘This here is a sharp and this is A flat.’ There’s no such thing. I had to have a tape recorder here [Bitton points to his head] in order to know what he was doing. If you don’t have a tape recorder in your head, go home.”

Nino Bitton on Oud  (Photo courtesy of Yuval Yairi/Midnight East)  Nino Bitton

Bitton’s story was celebrated in an extended and touching essay by Ben Shalev, “I sleep with a beat.”  In the essay Shalev explores how Bitton originally learned Andalusian music by sitting at the feet of unknown masters, such as Avraham Atadji Suweri: “He didn’t ‘teach’ me, but I learned from him. It’s not like now when a student comes and I sit with him head to head and tell him ‘This here is a sharp and this is A flat.’ There’s no such thing. I had to have a tape recorder here [Bitton points to his head] in order to know what he was doing. If you don’t have a tape recorder in your head, go home.” 

In time Bitton’s love for the music would become all-consuming: “It’s a virus that can’t be placated… Even when I sleep, I sleep with a beat. I count. I play on myself.” As one student tells it, “The only thing that interests him is playing, all the rest is irrelevant… [All he wants is] to play all day long, to talk about music, to think about music.” The flip-side of such intense passion, however, is that Bitton never learned the “music business,” so for most of his life he learned and explored music by day and played at “weddings and in bars” at night. Unlike other Moroccan performers such as Jo Amar—who achieved a large degree of recognition even if they never broke through to the mainstream—Bitton remained, for most of his career, in almost complete obscurity.

In time Bitton’s love for the music would become all-consuming: “It’s a virus that can’t be placated… Even when I sleep, I sleep with a beat. I count. I play on myself.” As one student tells it, “The only thing that interests him is playing, all the rest is irrelevant… [All he wants is] to play all day long, to talk about music, to think about music.” The flip-side of such intense passion, however, is that Bitton never learned the “music business,” so for most of his life he learned and explored music by day and played at “weddings and in bars” at night.

Unlike other Moroccan performers such as Jo Amar—who achieved a large degree of recognition even if they never broke through to the mainstream—Bitton remained, for most of his career, in almost complete obscurity.

Things finally began to change in the late 1990s when he accepted an official teaching position and, “spontaneously, students began streaming to him, after discovering his hidden treasure of musical knowledge.” In particular, young Israeli jazz musicians, who were hungry for both material and images of musical excellence, came to the maestro, including piano virtuoso Omri Mor, who recalls:

Things finally began to change in the late 1990s when he accepted an official teaching position and, “spontaneously, students began streaming to him, after discovering his hidden treasure of musical knowledge.” In particular, young Israeli jazz musicians, who were hungry for both material and images of musical excellence, came to the maestro, including piano virtuoso Omri Mor, who recalls: 

[Bitton] was playing the banjo and I was very interested in his music. I had never heard such a thing… Passionate, animal-like, uncompromising playing, that can sometimes be seen in flamenco players. Then I started coming to his apartment, and not for an hour or two as is usual. I could come at 4.00 P.M. and leave at 6.00 A.M. the following morning. We would play all night long. People would enter, people would leave, but the music didn’t stop. He would play a phrase, and I would repeat it until I knew it well, and then we would go on to the next phrase. That’s the learning method, and that’s how it remains to this day.

[Bitton] was playing the banjo and I was very interested in his music. I had never heard such a thing… Passionate, animal-like, uncompromising playing, that can sometimes be seen in flamenco players. Then I started coming to his apartment, and not for an hour or two as is usual. I could come at 4.00 P.M. and leave at 6.00 A.M. the following morning. We would play all night long. People would enter, people would leave, but the music didn’t stop. He would play a phrase, and I would repeat it until I knew it well, and then we would go on to the next phrase. That’s the learning method, and that’s how it remains to this day.

Amazingly, Bitton refuses to receive money from the many students who flock to him. Why?   When I started to become involved with this music my father warned me that it was about to disappear… He was right. It really is disappearing. There isn’t anyone today who teaches this thing. It was about to be erased. So I took on a big assignment, and I teach these young people. I’ve devoted my entire life to this music, to this poetry and this understanding, and all I want is to pass it on. God brought me to this destiny to teach students without compensation, without anything. Nino Bitton, a musical master whose approach to music, to learning, and teaching, are from a different time and place, is still playing and teaching, today, in Israel. Sephardi Ideas Monthly is very happy to introduce our readers to this living legend through Ben Shalev’s wonderful article, “I sleep with a beat.”

Amazingly, Bitton refuses to receive money from the many students who flock to him. Why?  

When I started to become involved with this music my father warned me that it was about to disappear… He was right. It really is disappearing. There isn’t anyone today who teaches this thing. It was about to be erased. So I took on a big assignment, and I teach these young people. I’ve devoted my entire life to this music, to this poetry and this understanding, and all I want is to pass it on. God brought me to this destiny to teach students without compensation, without anything.

Nino Bitton, a musical master whose approach to music, to learning, and teaching, are from a different time and place, is still playing and teaching, today, in Israel. Sephardi Ideas Monthly is very happy to introduce our readers to this living legend through Ben Shalev’s wonderful article, “I sleep with a beat.”

An Intimate Rivalry: The Jews and Classical Islam

September 27th at 7:30PM
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street
New York City

ASF is co-sponsoring the first in a series of programs by the Center for Jewish History and Jewish Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell exploring how Jewish-Muslim relations in the pre-modern era are popularly portrayed as a precursor of conflict in the contemporary Middle East. Drawing on religious texts, historical documents, and other materials, however, cultural historian Ross Brann (Cornell University) offers a rich and more complex portrait of early Jewish-Muslim relations, one that is characterized by the creative dynamics of minority-majority interaction. This series is being made possible by the generous support of Bruce Slovin, Chair Emeritus & Founder of the Center for Jewish History and Distinguished Board Member of the American Sephardi Federation.

Please click here to purchase tickets
(General Admission $10; Center for Jewish History /Partern Members $5, Seniors,Students, and Cornell Alumni $5)
Reservations Suggested

Call for Art: Homelands
Deadline: October 7th

ASF is co-sponsoring Homelands, a proposed exhibit at the next Jerusalem Biennale (October 2017). Multiple artists will “reflect on one of the defining moments of the last century: the disbanding of the Jewish communities of the Muslim world.” Curated by Meira Balas, PhD and Organized by Lenore Mizrahi-Cohen. For additional details and to submit artwork click here.

Portugal, The Last Hope: Sousa Mendes’ Visas for Freedom

April 7th through October 2016
Center for Jewish History 
15 West 16th Street, New York City

The American Sephardi Federation, Portuguese Consulate of New York, the Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Municipality of Almeida, Portugal proudly present a new exhibition in the Leon Levy Gallery honoring Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the courageous and creative Portuguese diplomat who saved Salvador Dali, the authors of Curious George, and thousands of other Holocaust refugees.
 

Please click here for viewing hours

Donate now and your tax-deductible contribution will help ASF “Connect, Collect, and Celebrate” Sephardi culture throughout the year with engaging programs and compelling publications. 

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Copyright © 2016 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.

Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.

The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011). 

American Sephardi Federation | http://www.AmericanSephardi.org | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486


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