'Songs All Israel Sings' Martha Schlamme-Nachum Nardi-ISRAELIANA-1951 vinyl

$

20

Israeliana, like Americana, is the collecting of material items from a particular time and place. The uniqueness of Israeliana seems to be that it is the collection of material items produced by a society that may not have been wealthy, but had a powerful sense of ideology. Another aspect is, like in the American case, nostalgia to a time that seems simpler and more innocent. In Israel, those who were born during the early decades of the state also experienced such items in their everyday lives, meaning the attraction is also to one’s childhood and the memories attached to it.
Records are no exception, and even more so, as music is representative of a culture at large. 'Songs All Israel Sings' are a good collection of early Israel celebration.  This is a unique glimpse into the past, where national heritage was and still is commonplace.  This selection was produced in 1952, during the formative years of the new state.  It appears to have been produced in New York, however the exact location for the recordings cannot be verified and may have been recorded in Israel and then produced in the USA.  The music was composed and accompanied by Nachum Nardi and sung by Martha Schlamme for the Reena Record Corporation.   Martha with her family fled Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 and began her music career in the USA in1948. By 1954, she recorded the album German Folk-Songs with the then-blacklisted singer Pete Seeger. Aside from this album for Folkways Records, she would later record for the Vanguard, Columbia and MGM labels. In 1959, her album of songs composed by Kurt Weill at the Edinburgh Festival led to wider awareness of her work; she herself said it made her "a star overnight". MGM released her albums The World of Kurt Weill in Song in 1962 and A Kurt Weill Cabaret in 1963. The label further issued (Martha Schlamme says:) Kissin's No Sin in 1963. Nahum Nardi (1901 in Kiev – 1977) was a Ukraine-born Israeli composer and pianist.  In 1923 Nardi immigrated to Mandate Palestine. He was the husband and accompanist of Yemenite Jewish singer Bracha Zefira, to whom he was married from 1931 to 1939. Their daughter, Na'amah Nardi, also became a singer and performed at La Scala. 
This selection comes with the original heavy cardboard record folder.  All three records were manufactured on unbreakable vinyl records.  There are three 10 inch records total.  All records play at 78 RPM speed, so you will need a compatible turntable.