Thursday, November 17, 2011

Eden and Prodezra Beats rock Chanukah

Last Friday, the Shades of Grey blog put up a nice post about the Brookly based Jewish rock trio Eden. I was going to post the Eden track "Yigdal" that SoG put up, but you can check it out here.

Instead I'm going put up my first Chanukah video of the season. It's only a few weeks away now. The video's got Eden backing the Savannah Georgia rapper Prodezra Beats at the Square 2010 festival in Charleston, SC last year. I dig Prodezra and it's great to see him backed by a live band. I love the classic heavy heavy bass guitar and the stratospheric guitar behind the rap. Would love to see them live.

Hinei Ma Tov/Come Clean with Prodezra



Proderzra Beats and Eden both have new tracks out. (well, new for me) I love Prodezra's production skills more than his rhymes but Connection Revealed is solid and worth checking out. I particularly dig "Wake Up, Rise."

Eden 's "Knock at the Door" came out last year, though it's not clear how to buy it. You can check out the tracks on myspace.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Tikkun Olam in Brazil, Talat's Jewish jazz

TalatI got an email recently from a Jewish jazz group that I hadn't heard about before. The band is called Talat and is led by composer and piano player Alon Nechushtan. Talat's debut album, Growl, on Tzadik Radical Jewish Culture has garnered praise from both the jazz and Jewish communities. I haven't heard the album yet, but I dig the Vimeo videos I've heard. To my ears, their sound, particularly the video below, is very much in keeping with other Tzadik acts, which is a fine thing. I'm a big fan of that sound. (Though I'm also a fan of non-Tzadik Jewish jazz groups including the Afro-Semitic Experience and Enrico Fink). That sound is typically based around jazz improvisation using klezmer modes. Talat's press material talk about also mixing in middle-eastern sounds, though I haven't heard that in any of the videos I've seen. What I have seen though is a nice blending in of Israeli pop music sounds, which is lovely.

For more info, check out their website.

Alon Nechushtan and TALAT perform 'tikkun Olam'