Sounding Freedom and Liberation - Episode 5 with Vanessa Paloma Elbaz

In this episode of Sounding Freedom and Liberation join us for a conversation with Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz as we hear about her work in the Sephardi music tradition of the mediterranean diaspora. With a particular focus on women, and women’s role in mediating and subverting traditions, we hear how pockets of freedom are created amidst unfreedom as songs are modified and used to resist constrictions of gender and tradition. Hear also about the complexities of archiving within this space, but also of its significance as it foregrounds voices that are considered unimportant, creating ruptures in larger narratives, and unravelling hierarchies of knowledge.
Biography
Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz is a Senior Research Associate at Peterhouse, the University of Cambridge, and Research Associate on the ERC-funded project Ottoman Auralities and the Eastern Mediterranean: Sound, Media & Power, 1789-1922. In 2012, she founded KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive to collect, digitize, classify, and analyse contemporary and historical sound recordings of Moroccan Jews. She has more than twenty academic books, chapters, and journal articles on Jewish music in Morocco, Spain, and the Mediterranean.
Links to accompany the episode
El PAIPERO (Fray Pedro) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hInE3lxruxE
En Kelohenou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA7jxGdTOX0
Khoya https://yalalla.org.uk/
Ottoman Auralities https://ottomanauralities.com
Vanessa’s writing
Jewish music in northern Morocco and the building of sonic identity boundaries. The Journal of North African Studies, 2021 27(5), 1027–1059. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629387.2021.1884855
Imagining a sonic Al-Andalus through sound, bones, and blood: the case of Jewish music in Morocco and Spain. Jewish Culture and History, 2021 22(4), 336–357. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462169X.2021.1993541?src=recsys#abstract
Sephardi Orature and the Myth of Judeo-Spanish Hispanidad, in Oral Literary Worlds: Location, Transmission and Circulation, edited Sara Marzagora and Francesca Orsini, pp. 233–260. Open Book Publishers, 2025. https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0405/chapters/10.11647/obp.0405.08
Vanessa recommends … Gherasim Luca Lettrism/kabbalah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ltchO5Vpw
Victoria Hanna alef beth/Kabbalah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl1epz3tSSA
Temsamani orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d32FrfReF6M
Bellida Bellida Lala Tamar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrRBccAR1nU&list=RDlrRBccAR1nU&start_radio=1
Podcast hosts
Dr Férdia Stone-Davis: www.ferdiastonedavis.com
Dr Charissa Granger: https://sta.uwi.edu/fhe/dlcc/dr-charissa-granger
Podcast acknowledgements
The Sounding Freedom and Liberation music was composed by Samuel J. Wilson. Website: https://www.samueljwilson.com/profile
The Sounding Freedom and Liberation logo was designed by Pavlína Kašparová. Website: https://www.creativenun.com/bio
The Podcast was recorded at the Media Lab, the West Hub, Cambridge, and was edited by Mike Chivers