Yemenite Songs by ofra Haza

Yemenite Songs, released in 1984, finds Israeli pop star Ofra Haza turning to the traditional songs of Yemen's Jews, with words drawn from the poetry of the 16th-century rabbi Shalom Shabazi. Producers Bezalel Aloni and Beni Nagari cut it at Triton Studios, and the trick is in the mix: wooden and metal hand percussion, the Yemenite tin and tambala, strings, brass and woodwinds, all rubbing shoulders with drum machines and synthesizers.

Haza sings in Hebrew with a Yemenite accent and in Arabic, her voice gliding over the old melodies as if they were written for the dancefloor. By the end of the decade that blend had carried her far beyond Israel: "Im Nin'Alu" crossed over to rock countdowns in 1988, and the album reached American shops on Shanachie as Fifty Gates of Wisdom (Yemenite Songs), with a slightly reshuffled running order. Shaday came next.

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