When singer Sarah Aroeste was growing up in Princeton, N.J., she felt different from her neighbors for the same reasons as many American Jews. She did not celebrate the popular Christian holidays and her grandparents originally spoke another language. But Aroeste’s Sephardic background is also unlike that of most Jews in the United States, and her heritage is the basis of her music.
“This whole part of Jewish culture has really been ignored,” Aroeste says from her home in New York. “We have this amazing history and culture and this music is incredible. If only people were exposed to it, they’d love it.”
A few years ago, the New York press also took notice of Aroeste’s performance style, which includes belly dancing and flirtations with the audience. Fortunately, she is no longer given the geographically dubious title of “The Jewish Shakira.”
“When you think of Jewish music, I don’t think the first things that come to mind are sexy or sensual,” Aroeste says. “But this music is incredibly sensual and the way we present it doesn’t shy away from that.”
Sephardic Jews trace their ancestry to medieval Spain. After the Jews were expelled in 1492, they moved throughout the Mediterranean and brought their language with them. That language, Ladino, is based on Castilian Spanish and also includes idioms from around the region. Even though Sephardic Jews have lived in this country since the Colonial era, their numbers became diminished in comparison to the later waves of Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants from Germany and eastern Europe.
“We’re a minority within a minority,” says Rabbi Michael Azose of Evanston’s Sephardic Congregation. He estimates that of the 5 million Jews in the U.S., about 200,000 are Sephardic.
Aroeste’s grandparents came to the U.S. from Greece, and she says a desire to assimilate made them downplay their origins. So she researched Sephardic culture on her own while she was growing up. She also intensely studied Western classical music, including an opera concentration at Yale. When Aroeste spent time in Israel, she was able to immerse herself in traditional Ladino songs.
“It’s normally just a voice and guitar and maybe two other instruments,” Aroeste says. “A lot of Ladino music was based on either Spanish folk songs or just outlining their daily experiences. Nothing fancy, very simple. And it’s beautiful.”
During the late 1990s, Aroeste tried to promote her interests when she worked for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York. But she was disappointed that while there was a revival of Ashkenazic, Yiddish-language klezmer, there was no similar effort on behalf of Sephardic music. So she quit the foundation to start her own group.
The entire Mediterranean had an impact on Ladino music, just like it had on the language. On Aroeste’s disc, “A La Una,” she highlights the varied sources for Ladino music as her band includes Middle Eastern strings and percussion. Her group also puts its individual stamp on centuries-old songs through Aroeste’s extensive vocal training and Alan Cohen’s electric guitar. Jazz, reggae, and rumba also infuse the group’s interpretations of the Sephardic tradition.
“I wanted to take this traditional music and combine it with the influences that have shaped me,” says the 28-year-old singer. “Both in terms of my Sephardic culture, but also in terms of my upbringing in America. The bottom line is that with whatever instrumentation we use, the music has remained for more than 500 years and that really says something.”
Aroeste says her onstage persona never detracts from the music.
“If we’re presenting the music in a way that maintains its integrity while reaching out to a wider audience, then that’s only good for Ladino.”
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Sarah Aroeste’s Sephardic Rock Band
Where: HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Price: $15; 312-362-9707