Mizrahi Music Kiosk

Mizwa music? It’s certainly a musical genre rarely heard in Munich, and one we’re exploring today at the Habibi Kiosk. But – we can promise you this much – it’s well worth it! Originally, the term Mizrahi refers to the music of Jews who were expelled from Arab countries after 1948, for example from Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, and even Georgia. However, Israel’s cultural output at the time was already dominated by the majority society. And they listened primarily to European music. And so this music emerged in niche venues, in the taverns and bars of Haifa and Jaffa, blending fresh influences from jazz and rock with traditional instruments from the Maghreb/Levant region, recorded and sold underground. Over the years, the term ‘Mizrahi’ came to serve as an umbrella term for everything that could be described as ‘domestic world music’. This also includes the wildly popular “Greek Craze” centred on the Greek Laïko pop imported by the musician Aris San, as well as the Anatolian sound, Ethiopian pop and the music of Iranian Jews. Some creative outbursts even managed to blend all of this into a single song.

“Domestic world music” – in the helplessness of this description, it is analogous to the way we deal with the local music produced by so-called guest workers. For, caught between global success and systematic marginalisation, “Mizrahi” music has managed to become a dominant force in the mainstream. We can discuss this evening just what the situation is regarding recognition within so-called mainstream culture. Together with Sapir von Abel, Yasmin Tal and Sebastian Reier, we’ll dive in: with incredible music, hair-raising anecdotes, original records and compilations, MP3s and videos, and a very cosy living-room atmosphere, we’ll create a music kiosk that will broaden many horizons.

Sapir von Abel

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Sophie Wanninger

Yasmin Tal

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Sima Dehgani

Sebastian Reier

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Sandra Singh

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