Klezmer Musician on a Mission: More "When I Wake Up, Music from Putti"

There's always a story behind the story. Monday night I wrote about the album "When I Wake Up, Music from Putti" Uganda. Field recording. Lovely melodies. Unlikely location. Nice story.

The next day I got an email that told the back story....

"I just saw your mention about the CD I recorded and produced in Putti last year on your blog and want to thank you for your interest. I'm giving an interview for South African Jewish Radio on Friday and I just gave a lecture here in New York at Adelphi University a few weeks ago. If you have a few minutes, I'd love to share some of the story with you.
I had heard Smithsonian recording and was fascinated by it. About a year and a half ago there was a screening in New York of a documentary made for South African TV about the Abayudaya and decided to go. It turns out that I had met the director the night before at a gig I was playing (I'm a woodwind player)

I ended up on the Save Ugandan Jewery newsgroup and knowing they are coffee farmers I asked about buying some coffee. That opened a dialogue between myself and Putti's rabbi and community leader, Enosh Keki Mainah, He heard some of my music on the net and commented about how much he liked it. I told him I liked their music as well.

A few weeks later, Enosh tells me that his mother had written a lot of original music for the psalms and they wanted to record it but it was expensive. Did I have any advice? Without hesitating I told him I would go to Putti and we would record the music. This was November of 2008. My wife was 3 months pregnant so I knew that if this was going to happen, it had to happen soon. It was too late to apply for grants, so I sent a letter to everyone I knew and raised enough money to get myself over there and, if all went well, there was enough to do the recording. Enosh convinced me that there was a great studio in Mbale which is a big town about 10 km from Putti.


After 17 hours of flying and a 6 hour drive north to get to Mbale, I go to the studio. The studio turns out to be 1 mic and an ancient computer! Hence the rawness of the recording. We had to make this work so we recorded the way they did it in the 50's. We put the singers around the mic and I would bring people closer or push them back to balance out the vocals. All in all, we got some great tracks. I took the vocals back and added the percussion, flute and bass and we had an amazing recording. The music is infectious and original. Putti is an amazing place for music.

As the web site says, all the money goes back to Putti. They are very poor and the money makes a very real difference."

The email came from Mike Cohen, klezmer (Kleztraphobix) and jazz woodwind player, and my new hero.

So go check the album "When I Wake Up, Music from Putti." It's a fine album and a great cause.

Here's a video of the first take of the recording session, in Putti Uganda.

Psalm 92

When I Wake Up, Music from Putti Uganda

Some of you might remember a few years back when the wonderful Smithsonian Folkways album "Abayudaya: Music From The Jewish People Of Uganda" was making the rounds. Recently, a new album was released on the same theme...this time music by Jewish Ugandan's from the town of Putti. The album, Music from Putti, is part of a fund raising effort. If you like the video you should go grab a copy of the album from CD Baby.

I love listening to recordings like this. First, I love hearing new (to me) Jewish songs and melodies. Second, I love straight-forward, no frills, no big production, albums. And this one's a joy from both counts. It's maybe a bit rougher than the Smithsonian Folkways album, but no less fun. If you want to know more about the Abaydayan Jewish in Putti, check out a short history on the Jews in Uganda website. On interesting bit on the website is the

Putti Jews Original - "Bless Hashem"

Chai FM - South Africa Jewish Radio

I just ran across a promo video for the brand new Chai 101.9 FM Johannesburg, South Africa, a 24 hour a day Jewish radio station. Mazel Tov folks.

CHAI FM 101.9FM

Here's their station description...

"Chai Fm is a Jewish community radio station broadcasting to the greater Johannesburg area on 101.9fm. The station is talk format with 20% Jewish music. Programming is determined by community research and reflects the diverse views of the community. Based on "Tools for Life", Chai Fm provides programming that is informative, educational, entertaining and relevant to the community.

The objectives of Chai Fm are to: Unite the Jewish community, to build the connection between the community and the land of Israel, to reflect ourselves to ourselves and to provide programming that is relevant, informative, intelligent, honest, engaging, reflects a diversity of views and is entertaining.

Chai Fm is for all the Jews of Johannesburg, irrespective of observance levels, age, gender, race or financial status.

"The station aims to provide a platform for debate and a diversity of opinion" says Kathy Kaler, a director of Chai Fm. She adds: "It's so easy to think that our communities are insular and we can forget we are each part of a greater "whole".

Chai Fm was granted a community broadcasting licence in June 2007 and will begin broadcasting in September 2008

The magic words here are will begin broadcasting. The website is pretty much a mess, so I'm betting they're not on air yet. But hopefully they'll get things straightened out and running smooth soon.

Good news from South Africa. According to Lisa Gordon of Chai FM, as of December 2008 they have started broadcasting. They hope that in a year or so to be streaming their show world wide via the internet. I did a quick bop over to their website and it's looking much more put together now. Great job, folks. Mazel tov.

Abayudaya Jews of Uganda: Afropop Worldwide Interviews Rabbi & Ethnogragrapher Jeffrey Summit

I just ran across an interesting interview with Jeffery Summit about his work researching the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda. (I've mentioned Summit before. He's the author of one of my favorite Jewish music books "The Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship").

Here's the intro to the interview:

"In 1999, photo-journalist Richard Sobol heard a graduate student’s field recording of Jewish songs performed by Africans in Uganda. Sobol thought he knew Uganda pretty well, but Ugandan Jews? This was a surprise. Sobol soon returned, and the recordings he made on his own first visit later persuaded Jeffrey Summit—a rabbi and professor of ethnomusicology and Judaic studies at Tufts University—to make the first of three research trips to Uganda as well.

Sobol and Summit have done yeoman’s work in revealing this remarkable community to the world, and they have produced two excellent resources, which you can purchase by following these links: the coffee table book and CD, Abayudaya : The Jews of Uganda, (Abbeville Press Publishers), and the Grammy Award-nominated CD, Abayudaya: Music from the Jewish People of Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."

The full interview is available on the AfroPop Worldwide website.

It's a well conducted interview. The interviewer, Banning Eyre, and Summit start with an overview of the different groups on the African continent that are either Jewish or in some way come from Jewish lineage. It's a fascinating read to provides a lot of context for their later discussion of the Abayudaya religious and musical experience.