Yemenite Songs


Yemenite Songs is a 1984 album by Ofra Haza, in which the Israeli pop star interpreted traditional Yemeni Jewish songs with lyrics coming from the poetry of 16th century Rabbi Shalom Shabazi. The album was recorded with both traditional and modern musical instruments; wooden and metal percussion, Yemenite tin and tambala, strings, brass and woodwind as well as drum machines and synthesizers.
The songs are sung in the Hebrew language with a Yemenite accent and in Arabic.
In US, the album was released under the title Fifty Gates of Wisdom , having a slightly different track order.

Composition

The opening song "Im Nin' Alu"'s a cappella intro would eventually become the starting point of Haza's international career as it was sampled by a number of European and American rap and dance acts like Eric B. & Rakim on their "Paid In Full" and M|A|R|R|S on "Pump Up the Volume" which led to Haza releasing a dance remix of her own recording in 1988 which became a pop chart hit in many parts of the world. Remixes of both "Im Nin' Alu" and "Galbi" were included on the first international album Shaday.

Track listing

Side A:
  1. "Im Nin'alu" - 5:18
  2. "Yachilvi Veyachali" - 3:27
  3. "A 'Salk" - 4:45
  4. "Tzur Mentati"/"Se'i Yona"/"Sapri Tama" - 5:44
Side B:
  1. "Galbi" 4:14
  2. "Ode Le-Eli" - 3:31
  3. "Lefelach Harimon" 5:08
  4. "Ayelet Chen" - 6:30

Personnel

Production