UBK (Uri Kinrot) is the guitarist behind the gypsy surf band Boom Pam and Balkan Beat Box. He is now releasing an album of his productions and remixes called "Massive Soundtrack For The Modern Belly Dancer".
I don't usually pass along press releases verbatim, but this time I'm going to. It's from Miriam of Stereo Sinai and I find it fascinating at a number of levels. I'll get that in a minute, but first, Miriam...."Stereo Sinai recently contributed a track to an ambitious new project, Pioneers for a Cure. Today, in honor of Israel's 61st birthday, that project is being released!Ok, first of all, my congrats to Greg Wall, of one of my long time favorite groups Hasidic New Wave, for the vision and the fortitude to carry it off and to Stereo Sinai and the other Jewish music groups for participating. I love seeing artists being actively involved in their community. Second, I find the choice of material fascinating. The pioneer musical postcards story is a new one for me and I'm going to have to research it more. It's a great story of how artists can work together, in this case actively sponsored, to help define a culture. It's also a great story about how Israeli grew to become something distinct from the rest of world Diaspora Jewery. Finally, the fact that Wall adopted the pioneer postcards as the basis for the charity project is a great story about the continuing interaction between Israeli and Diaspora Jewish identity.
http://pioneersforacure.org/
Download Stereo Sinai's contribution here for a donation of only $1.99 on behalf of the American Lung Assocation: http://pioneersforacure.org/purimhayom-stereosinai.a spx
Producer Greg Wall and the enigmatic "Difficult Jew," along with an amazing team of artists, have recreated a piece of Jewish history in order to change the world today- the immediate goal is to raise $100,000 for cancer research through the sale of downloaded songs.
Before the State of Israel was established, its residents were a motley mix, speaking many different languages and representing many different cultures. If there was going to be a Jewish state, there needed to be something holding these people together. What better way than through music? Karen Kayamet L'Yisrael (known today in the States as JNF) commissioned songwriters to create simple Hebrew folk tunes that spoke to the early Zionist experience. The sheet music to these songs was then printed on the back of a postcard and mailed out to Jewish leaders and organizations in Palestine and beyond.
"Pioneers for a Cure" echoed this effort by sending each of its artists sheet music to one of these original pioneer songs via email. The contributing artists (an all-star line-up consisting of David Broza, Pharoah's Daughter, Y-Love and Diwon, Dov Rosenblatt, Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics, and many, many more) each chose a cancer charity to which they'd like the funds from their song directed.
Alan and I were offered the song "Purim Hayom." It's fitting for Stereo Sinai because, first, Purim is Alan's favorite holiday, and second, Purim also features a couple of the coolest biblical women ever to grace the page- Esther and Vashti.
We chose the American Lung Association as our charity for a couple of reasons. First of all, Alan's grandparents (zichronam l'bracha) both died of complications due to lung cancer. Also, the mother of one of my best friends also died from lung cancer. None of these people smoked a day in their lives. It's an issue that's close to home, and we're ready to do our part to end this disease.
We are honored, humbled, and thankful to be a part of this incredible project. Please take a moment to download our song, "Purim Hayom," as well as any other that speak to you. Be a pioneer."
Between the Passover, catching the plague from my kids again, and being swamped at work, things have been a bit slow at Teruah lately. But I'm not sad, oh no. I've been playing with Twitter, that new darling of the social media crowd. A full blog post in 140 characters or less. Just pithy thought and a link. Makes blogs feel so 2004. Seriously, though, I've been enjoying Twitter a lot and have a few observations about the intersection of Twitter and Jewish music that I thought I'd share."@mileycyrus and maybe even ud like it! its from a really great band called lev tahor, its jewish music, but these guys can seriously make -"For the unitiated, @ followed by a name means that the tweet was directed toward a particular person. So yep, that is someone telling Miley Cyrus (aka Disney princess Hannah Montana) about Jewish Otho-pop band Lev Tahor.
"Got a request from Jewish Wedding party in Briarcliff Manor, NY on Sunday 08/30. They want a klezmer-type music. Any suggestions of bands?"I responded to this one saying "@troubleww about klezmer music. Wholesale Klezmer Band in MA and Binyomin Ginzberg in NYC are great. WKB did my wedding." and "When talking to klezmer bands about wedding - make sure they can lead dances and the before wedding tish. Many can't."
"I've been listening to Klezmer music all day." "My Balkan/Klezmer acoustic band Luna Kalamata are reforming: any ideas for gigs?"That's the British group Luna Kalamata. Check 'em out.
"Hav u ever wondered what kinda music a jewish person has on their ipod? Lol"And my response..."@ReemTeam I'm Jewish. I've got Matisyahu, Y-love, Sway Machinery, The Shondes, John Zorn, Socalled, and lots of klezmer on my iPod. Why?"
"This original footage contains scenes of children playing and performing in the children’s home in Otwock. The songs are in Yiddish and Hebrew. In addition, the footage contains two professional performances put on in the home - a rendition of the dance “Reb Elimelech” by the dancers Yehudit Berg and Felix Fiebich and a performance of a song from the Vilna Ghetto, "Tsu Eins Zwei Drei", by Fania Rubina.Hat tip to a member of the Klezmershack Mailinglist for participating in Yad Vashem and letting us know about the video.
The footage is excerpted from the film Mir Lebengeblibene (We the Living Remnant), originally produced by Shaul Goskind and Nathan Gross in 1946-47. Yaakov Gross recently released the film again along with Hebrew subtitles. For more information about obtaining a copy of the film, please contact Yad Vashem."
It's the last night of Passover and I wanted to share one last bit of Passover music. Last summer Amaseffer, an Israeli progressive metal band, released a highly regarded album called "Slaves for Life" which is the first of a trilogy (seriously) of albums retelling the story of the Exodus."Never in the history of metal music has there been such a colossal undertaking as the Israeli band Amaseffer’s plan to release a trilogy of albums based on the Old Testament. Daunting and controversial, yes, but the results, at least for the first album, "Slaves For Life," are awe-inspiring."So there you go, daunting and awe-inspiring. I will say that I will probably buy the album and give it more of a serious listen and that I can easily see it in heavy rotation next Passover in my house. During the interview Yohanan promised two more albums continuing the story and then a concert series where all three albums worth of material are played, will full backing band and choirs. That, to be sure, would be something to hear and see.
"Some Jewish or Zionist thinkers believe Chad Gadya shows the different nations that have inhabited Israel: the kid being the Jewish people, the cat, Assyria; the dog, Babylon; the stick, Persia; the fire, Macedonia; the water, Rome; the ox, the Saracens; the slaughterer, the Crusaders; the Angel of Death, the Turks. At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel."The Vilna Goan had a similar but more spiritual explanation.
"Chad Gadya tells the story of the history of the Jewish people as they were brought time and time again by their sins into physical and spiritual servitude under the nations of the world, and how they would rise to a great salvation when they returned to Torah and teshuvah."(This is just the summary, see "The Peirush of the Vilna Gaon on Chad Gadya" for the whole explanation)
"The crafty cat was on the lookoutHonestly, the production of the song is a little syrupy for me (I'd love to hear her do it live), but there is something about the rising intensity of the vocals and how Alberstein weaves the Chad Gadya story back into the Passover seder, both personalizing it and generalizing it. Pretty powerful stuff. How long will the madness last, indeed?
It pounced on the lamb
And ate it up
The dog choked the cat
That had eaten up the lamb
That my father had bought
For just two pennies
The lamb! The lamb!"
"Why do you sing, little lamb?
Spring isn't yet here
And Passover neither
Have you changed?
I have changed this year
And every evening
Like each evening
I have only asked four questions
But, tonight
I have thought of another question
How long will this hellish circle last?
I have thought of a question tonight
How long will this hellish circle last?
That of the oppressor and the oppressed,
Of the executioner and the victim
How long will this madness last?"
"Birkat Hachama (ברכת החמה, "Blessing of the Sun") refers to a Jewish blessing that is recited in appreciation of the Sun once every twenty-eight years, when the vernal equinox, as calculated by tradition, falls on a Tuesday at sundown. Jewish tradition says that when the Sun completes this cycle, it has returned to its position when the world was created."A Jewish blessing that takes place only once every 28 years, and happens to be on Erev Peseach? Makes today pretty special and I was glad to get outside and say the blessing. If you haven't yet, go do it (if, of course, it's still morning on April 8, 2009 when you read this).
RustyBrick has just launched their Jewish Radio for iPhone application. It's available through the iTunes store for 99 cents. From the screen shot on the RustyBrick website, it's clear that they've got all of the important Orthodox / Chassidic stations (JM in the AM, Olam Radio, Jewish Broadcast" as well as Miszrachi, Yiddish, Israeli stations, and even Big J. It's a nice starting lineup. I don't have an iPhone yet, but this may be the final reason to get one. I wonder if I can get them to link to my podcast? Here's the official RustyBrick description..."Listen to dozens of free Jewish Internet radio stations on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The music and talk radio channels will stream directly from your device. It works over WiFi, 3G or Edge. You can even "scan" through the available Jewish and Israeli channels. In addition to listening to the songs, we give you a link to a site where you can purchase the song or album. Plus, if we are missing any free channels, you can email us and let us know, and we will add them to the list."
Nextbook.Org reporter Daniel Estrin did a nice feature recently on Maftirim, interviewing Professor Edwin Seroussi, director of the Jewish Music Research Center at Hebrew University."In Turkey and Greece, as far back as the 16th century, groups of cantors and religious figures used to gather in the early morning, before prayer services, to sing devotional poetry in Hebrew. This gave rise to a distinct and complex form of music called maftirim, which only the most talented men could master.Here is a short snippet to give you an idea of what maftirim sounds like. The recording is of Isaac Algazi singing the Yichlah Michmaim Mafterim.
These small gatherings were part of a broader musical exchange under the Ottoman empire: Muslim Sufi mystics would come to synagogue on the Sabbath to listen to the maftirim. And the Jewish maftirim singers would visit Sufi lodges for musical inspiration."
Check out my talk at the Ann Arbor District Library last year. "Ignite Second Stage: The Silver Age of American Jewish Music is Happening Now! And You're Missing It!"
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