Interview with Jako el Muzikante

Jako el Muzikante is the Sephardic alter ego of percussionist, ethnographer and singer Xurxo Fernandes. He is best known for his work in Radio Cos, a group that he co-founded along with Quique Peón, that focuses on the roots of Galician music in northwestern Spain. Xurxo is also a researcher of Sephardic music, concentrating on the traditions of the eastern Mediterranean.

As Jako El Muzikante, Xurxo travels back to the café amans (also known as kavanes) that were found in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In these melting pot taverns you could find Greeks, Turks, Armenians and Sephardic Jews.

Xurxo talked to us about his musical background and Jako El Muzikante.

What are your fondest musical memories?

My grandparents were Galician peasants who migrated to the city. My first memories are those songs that they sang recalling a disappeared past time in a language that was permanently scorned in the city life: Galician language. So my earliest memories are tied to musical archeology.

Did you have any formal music studies?

I am a Postgraduate in Specialization in Traditional Galician Music by the University of Santiago de Compostela.

What was the first tune or song you learned?

I can’t remember the first song that I learned, but I can remember the first one that I studied thoroughly: it was a muiñeira that a 94-year-old woman in a village sang to me when I was 14 years old and that I recorded on a tape recorder. This woman, a peasant and an old woman, made me remain stuck to that tape recorder for a year to decrypt all those rhythmic games that she drew with her tambourine while singing, making those impossible ornaments with her voice.

The tape was worn out as I was learning, until it reached a point that there were parts that could no longer be heard. That’s when I realized that I was getting closer to what she was doing.

Before we focus on your album Ven al Luna Park, I’d like to know more about Radio Cos. When did you become interested in playing the tambourine and Galician folk music?

At the age of thirteen I began to record my grandparents for linguistic reasons: they spoke Galician, a language that was prohibited during the Franco regime and is still stigmatized today. I was interested in all the existing dialect varieties, and so I also began to record my grandparents’ neighbors, and my friends’ grandparents.

Step by step I became interested in songs and thus I ended up touring the villages of Galicia in search of older people who could sing. Not famous singers, but housewives, peasants and sailors who were the last link in the chain of oral transmission. After many years I ended up being a professional musician, but it was never my goal.

Your alter ego is a Sephardic artist called Jako El Muzikante, how did you come into contact with Sephardic music?

With Sephardic music it was the same as with Galician music. A linguistic interest for the Ladino took shape in me, which led me to this music and from there, to do field work. The difference is that I took advantage of the experience of the research in Galicia that allowed me to start not from scratch to record my informants [people met in the field during research] in Istanbul.

Why did you choose the name Jako El Muzikante?

Jako El Muzikante was a real person, born at the end of the 19th century in the city of Thessaloniki. His profile was that of a hustler who survived by singing in the café amán, at weddings and circumcisions, and was the “kombidador”, which was the person who went around with a tambourine to personally notify who was invited to a wedding. He would also pilfer what he could from his drunk clients.

Jako’s character invites us to de-romanticize the Sephardic world, presenting it in its most earthly reality, and helps us to distinguish this society from its idealization related to the Spanish Middle Ages in order to observe, without prejudice what became of it, after 500 years.

I read that you learned Ladino, the ancient Spanish spoken by the Sephardic community. How did you learn Ladino?

I learned Ladino the only way it can be done today, through native speakers over 80 years old.

There are other artists out there making Sephardic music, what do you consider are the essential elements of your style of Sephardic music?

There are different styles within the Sephardic music, apart from the territorial differences: we have religious music, music belonging to the life cycle and urban music. The re-interpretations that are made of these musics depend on who performs them. Thus, there is music of the 20th century re-interpreted in medieval style and medieval romances sung in a key of pop. I decided to set urban music in the café amán, not only because of the musical style but also to contextualize the music in its own origin.

Ven al Luna Park is more than an audio album, it is also a book in three languages. How did you come up with the concept?

The Sephardic identity is based on their language, a language in danger of extinction. My fascination with Ladino is linked to a feeling of debt to the community from which I learned so much, and publishing this work in that same language is an acknowledgement I want to give. For the same reason, the texts of the songs are also in rashi characters, the historical writing in which books and newspapers were published. And finally in English, so that people who do not know can learn Ladino.

Who plays on Ven al Luna Park?

I am lucky to be very well surrounded. I recorded the album with high level musicians: violinist Andrea Szamek, from Hungary; the oud of Wafir Sheikh el Din, from Sudan; the double bass of the late José Luis Yagüe, from Madrid; the clarinet of Georgi Yanev “Yoro”, from Bulgaria; and the percussion of Alex Guitart, from Catalonia.

The hardcover book and CD is attractive and expensive as well. How did you finance the project?

I’m glad to hear that the book-CD is attractive. Indeed, I made a strong bet to be able to carry out this edition. The funding came exclusively from my personal work on other projects, as well as me having some luck on one of the top 10 casinos in Vietnam 2023. For me, the reward for successful work is precisely that it will facilitate work on the next idea.

Although the Sephardic diaspora was spread throughout the northern and southern Mediterranean, you chose Ottoman Turkey. Why Istanbul? 

My curiosity focused on the Sephardim of the Ottoman Empire, especially Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Palestine. This was because the Jews of these countries did not experience the re-Hispanization that the Sephardim of North Africa experienced in the 19th century, and what attracted me to them was that Eastern culture.

Did you have an opportunity to perform for Sephardic or other Jewish communities? What was the response?

Every time I sing for a Sephardic person I get an immediate response. The fact that they recognize in me their parents or their grandparents is a reward that gives me encouragement to continue learning. I have received letters from nonagenarians telling me that I am transporting them to their childhood in Smyrna, or people from Edirne who burst into tears in the middle of a concert. For me it is a gift to have a Sephardic audience.

Is Jako El Muzikante a onetime project or do you have plans to do more in this direction?

Jako El Muzikante came into my life and settled down. I think he will never leave me but I can’t talk about future plans, my superstition prevents me from doing so.

Mainstream media does not provide an outlet for world music. In what ways are you promoting your music?

There are many ways to promote this music. For my part, what I do is to work to offer a quality live show. Having a good agency and having media interested in minority music also helps. But I try to focus on singing, which is what I know how to do.

If you could gather any additional musicians, or bands, to collaborate with, whom would that be?

Can I pick dead people? If they have to be alive: Aytaç Doğan, Gorken Okten or Efrén López.

Aside from Ven al Luna Park, do you have any additional upcoming projects to share with us?

I have a project of Galician traditional music, which will be released soon, but as I said before, I am very superstitious…

Buy the physical edition (book+CD) of Jako el Muzikante from Jako’s store on eBay or the digital edition from Amazon.

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.