`These Yiddish folksongs, why they are the most sincere, the most heartfelt I have heard anywhere? They are the truest expression of the soul of a people!'

Albert Einstein.

If one picture is worth a thousand words, one song is worth at least a thousand pictures. The very best Yiddish songs by the King of Yiddish music! Hearing is believing! This will be the first time you'll hear Leo Fuld sing his million-sellers in this extra oriental style. Did Mordechai Gebirtig ever sound more moving as on this album? No, not another re-release of old stock, but a brand new digital recording of the instantly recognisable and attractive voice of Leo Fuld. For the first time recreating like it was in Cairo, Buenos Aires, New York, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Tunis, Addis Abeba, Paris... Still in great shape at the age of 84, Leo Fuld was performing on the National Holiday for Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. This album is pure history. Recorded a few months before the King of Yiddish Music passed away. `The Legend' was the crown on his career.

The recording of that album was what Leo Fuld called `a dream becoming true'. Abandoning the `Broadway-tradition' and returning to the roots of Yiddish music: Europe and the Middle East. Adding an overtone of tender melancholy, missed for so many years.

Born into a modest family of eight children it was during his study at the Amsterdam Jewish Seminary when his unique voice was discovered. Only sixteen years old he was sent all over the country to the Jewish congregations to serve as cantor on Sabbath. This background was of essential influence on his later career with Yiddish songs. Fuld was eighteen when he became the very first Dutch singer performing at the BBC. In 1936 he was a star on Broadway, New York.
His recordings of `My Yiddishe Mama', `Dos Pintele Yid' and `Mein Shtetele Belz' were giant hits in the Old and New World. Fuld was the King of Yiddish Music. Just two months before the nazi's occupied his country, Fuld left for a second American tour. Except his sister, the whole Fuld-family died in the German destruction-camps. At the end of his life he found `the first real love ever'. Not even a year before Leo passed away he married the young Beppie van Laar. So Leo was in great shape when he made this faithful reconstruction of some of his historic performances in Europe and the Middle East. The recording of 'The Legend' was what Leo Fuld called `a dream becoming true'. It's a `moifes' that despite his age he could add that overtone of tender melancholy unknown to the Broadway-tradition.

PREVIOUS SITE - NEXT SITE
All sites © 2001 by Mohamed el-Fers