Nani Vazana

Tickets cost $22 in advance, $27 day of show (including all service charges). They are also available by phone through Hold My Ticket at 505-886-1251.

We are excited for our first collaboration with Nahalat Shalom.  This is a perfect first show, doubly so as it falls on their monthly Sephardic Shabbat celebration. The Shabbat service will be in a different part of the synagogue at 6:00 and all are welcome to attend. The service is followed by a vegetarian potluck.  There is ample time to attend the service and potluck and then wander over the concert nearby.  We'll be in the main sanctuary space and the service will be in a smaller alternate space.

With a ship's-horn power voice & irresistible stage presence, Nani Vazana defends the endangered Ladino language. Her fascinating migration mix seeps into her songwriting, fusing the sounds of the marketplace with Flamenco drama. Nani learned Ladino from her Moroccan grandmother in hiding, as her father forbade them to speak Ladino at home. 

If Yiddish is the language of Ashkenazi Jews, then Ladino is the language of Sephardic Jews—you could call it the Spanish Yiddish! When the Jews were expelled from the Iberian peninsula back in the time of Columbus, they brought the language of their region to new countries: the north of Africa and the Ottoman Empire were the most welcoming harbors of hope at the time.

Nani's album Ke Haber (What's New) captures the spirit of the ancient, matriarchal language & propels it into the future with socially pertinent lyrics celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment. 

Nani's music was documented for the Library of Congress USA in 2023, who named her new Ladino repertoire as a "living relic."