Victoria Hazan was probably best known for her mid-20th century American recordings of Turkish and Sephardic music, but included in those records – under her name and under the name Victoria Mitrou, was a handful of rebetiko and Greek folk reinterpretations.
Hazan was one of the emigres from the Asia Minor area who worked with American musicians and other emigres (such as Marko Melkon) to keep alive older songs for American diaspora audiences.
She was born into a family of Jewish cantors near Smyrna in 1896 as Victoria Ninio, and moved to New York in 1920, where she married Israel Hazan in 1925. Hazan sang and played (oud) at her New York synagogue and was eventually convinced to put her voice on record in 1940.
The resulting recordings – with songs in Turkish, Ladino and Greek – cover a range of early 20th century music. A number of the Turkish pieces were very much like the Greek amandes. She recorded early Smyrnaika songs and later bouzouki-driven rebetiko, as well as some Greek folk music pieces.
Hazan recorded Beggars of love in 1950. It’s a Vasilis Tsitsanis composition, originally recorded in Greece four years earlier.
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