Shircago at Detroit's JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest

Ok. Back to the JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music fest. I'm on the committee after all, and am entitled to a few plugs for the festival. Shircago will be playing on Saturday March 13th at 8:30pm. They're an a Capella group whose repertoire ranges "from classical to pop, from English to Hebrew and even Yiddish and Ladino, from traditional melodies to original compositions and innovative arrangements." Good fun.

To give you a taste of their style, here's Shircago performing on Chicago's Rabbi Doug show.

SHIRCAGO on TAPED WITH RABBI DOUG

Yehuda Green's Yearning and Lipa's Haggadah

I get a lot of announcements about new albums, way more than I can keep up with. But I got two today from the Orthodox / Chassidic music company, MostlyMusic that I wanted to share, primarily because I plan on buying both of them myself.

The first is the new Yehuda Green album, Yearning. I was only turned on to Green a few weeks ago, when I was preparing for my Ann Arbor library Jewish Music talk. I was going to spend some time during the talk discussing the Orthodox / Chassidic music scene and was looking for a good example of the neo-Carlebach sound. While there are a number of musicians who qualify, Green is one of the standouts and I played a clip of his music during the talk. I found it very moving and decided to grab the album.

To give you a sense of what Green's about, here's a video of Green recorded for the Vos Iz Neias website. For more on Green, you can check out a 30 minute interview he gave recently to VIN.

Yehuda Green preforms for VIN Readers

The second album is from Lipa Schmeltzer, one of my favorite Chassidic shiny-shoe singers. Lipa is about as funky and out-there a musician as I've run across. I had his previous album, Poshiter Yid, on heavy rotation when I first got it (and have his bumper sticker on my car.) This year he's coming out with his own Pesach haggadah and accompanying album. I'm honestly not sure what to expect. The video below, which is supposed to be a promo, doesn't really help much. An album of new Pesach songs? Traditional songs? Him narrating a seder? Not sure. But it's bound to be fun. I'm always on the lookout for new Pesech music, so I'll pick it up. It can be found over at Mostly Music.

LIPA'S HAGUDA

Rabbi Joe Black at Detroit's JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest

Yesterday I kvetched a bit about JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest headliner Hal Linden. Should be a great show, but not my thing. That's ok. The fest has a number of other shows that I'm a lot more excited about. Number one on the list is Rabbi Joe Black, who'll be playing on Sunday March 14 at 2pm at the JCC in West Bloomfield, MI.

Here's the official blurb...

"One of the most popular and in-demand contemporary Jewish musicians in America, returns to Detroit for this family concert! With children, he is energetic, surprising and dynamic. With adults, his superb musicianship, powerful songwriting and sense of spiritual awareness creates an opportunity for the head and the heart to come together. A Rabbi Joe Black performance is not to be missed! The Matzah Factory event immediately follows the concert (3-5 p.m.)"

And here's a fun video of RJB playing with the Maxwell Street Klezmer band a year or three ago.

Eight Nights Of Joy - Rabbi Joe Black and Maxwell Street Klezmer Band

This is about as happy clappy, kid-friendly a contemporary songleader style show as I could ask for. Which is great, considering the pair of little wigglers I plan on taking to the show. And I, myself, have never been to a real Jewish songleader style show either. It should be great fun and educational. The whole 'songleader' approach to Jewish music is something I'm rather new to. It comes, largely, out of the Reform Jewish camp movement (see Cantor Wally's "The Music of Reform Youth" for first cut on the evolution of songleader style) and the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960's. Lots of strummy melodies and singalongs. Should be lots of fun.

By the way...I think I'm ushering at the show. If you come, make sure you say howdy.

Hal Linden headlines Detroit's JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest

I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but I recently joined the executive committee of the JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest. The music fest brings all sorts of interesting Jewish music acts to the North Coast (aka Michigan) every spring. I'm going to spend this week writing about a number of the acts playing the fest, both as a shameless plug and as a chance to think aloud about how different types of music collide in a Jewish music fest and what that says about American Jews.

The headliner of this year's music fest is Hal Linden, who will be playing on March 6. If you know who he is, you're doing better than I did when I first saw the event schedule. What if I said "Barney Miller?" Did that do it? It did for me. I'm old enough. Hal Linden is the Tony and Emmy award winning actor who played Barney Miller on the hit 1970's tv show of the same name. He's also a fine singer and musician and is Jewish, "Hal Linden" being a stage name for a Mr. Harold Lipshitz.

Here's the official fest blurb...

"Actor/singer/musician Hal Linden has earned three Emmys and Broadway’s highest accolade, the Tony, for his lead in “The Rothschilds.” Best known as the star of the popular series “Barney Miller,” Linden began his show business career as a clarinet player and later toured as a singer with the Sammy Kaye, Bobby Sherwood and Boyd Raeburn bands. Join us for an evening of outstanding music and song; Hal Linden is a riveting entertainer not to be missed!"

Here's a fun video of Linden goofing around on the 1970's show Captain and Tennille (which I don't remember.)



I'll be honest. I'm going to miss this one. I'm a fan of traditional jazz and I'm sure that Linden puts on a great show. But babysitting is expensive, going out without my wife isn't much fun, and with a Jewish music fest kicking off...this one just isn't compelling enough for me. It isn't, well, Jewish enough for me.

If the opportunity were to come my way, I might see Linden at a jazz fest. Or at a celebrity showcase of some kind. But I don't get the idea of him playing at a Jewish music fest. Other than banal fact that he's Jewish, his music says little to me about my religious life or cultural history. All it does is remind me that fairly regularly Jews make good TV shows.

What's interesting to me is how much my perspective isn't shared. This is a hot ticket, don't make any mistake about it. The show is selling well and people are excited. He's gotten rave reviews from other JCC's. Partially this is a demographic thing...his primary audience is my parents age, not mine. People who were in their 30's or 40's when Barney Miller was on the air. Not 7. People who are in their 70's now. Not 39.

Partially, it's an expectation thing. Going out to listen to a Jewish musician with a hall full of other Jews is more than sufficient for many Jews. It's not sufficient for me, for a Jewish music fest I expect more Jewish content. The JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music fest has plenty to offer for me, though, and I'll talk more about that starting tomorrow.

Charlie Bernhaut Channel

Got an email this morning about a great internet radio show, the Charlie Bernhaut Channel. I've been listening to one of the shows for most of the morning and I'm hooked. It's a treasure trove of chazzanus (cantorial) music a well as a variety of Orthodox and Chassidic music artists. I think I'm going to be listening in regularly. Here's the official description...

"Charlie Bernhaut’s volunteer 'radio career' began in 1977 when he introduced the Friday morning pre-Shabbos segment on Larry Gordon's "Jewish and Hebrew Sound" at WFMU. In 1980 he created "Two Hours of Jewish Soul Music" on WSOU – which ended in 1996. In recent years, under the auspices of Cantors World, he hosted a one hour cantorial program every Thursday at midnight via WSNR.

The first hour of the internet music program will be a mixture of Israeli, Yiddish, Chassidic, Sephardic, Choirs, Instrumental, Comedy, Historic, together with frequent brief interviews and commentary concerning Israel and the Jewish world. The second hour is solely 'chazzonus' - cantorial music. Via this hobby, Charlie is pleased to share his private collection of over 15,000 Jewish albums with listeners. There will be no commercials.

Lovers of 'chazzonus' recall that Charlie, together with his friend, Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky, formed "Cantors World" and helped to revive interest in traditional chazzonus."

To give you a tasted of what you'll hear on the show, here's are two videos of songs I heard this morning (or are close to what I heard).

The first is a vintage Reb Shlomo Carlebach singing Mimkomcah.

SHLOMO CARLEBACH MIMKOMCHA - VINTAGE

The second is a video of Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt singing Acheinu Kol Beis Yisroel.

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt sings Acheinu Kol Beis Yisroel

Teruah Word Cloud. I'm so 2005.

While messing around on the slides for my upcoming talk, I put together this Teruah cloud. As a graphic design, it's a bit 5 years ago so I'm not sure if it will make it into the talk, but I like it.



I used the generator at Wordle.Net to make the cloud.

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"

Jeremiah Klarman's got one "room-rocking, soul-lifting Halleluyah!"

The folks at Jewish Ideas Daily turned on to a new composer this week. Before I get going on the composer, I should not that I wasn't aware of JID and am quite impressed. It's a nicely laid out arrangement of original writing and selections from the blogosphere. In addition to the composer I'm about to write about, it had a link to a nice article by Menachem Butler (the Michtavim blog)commemorating the fifteenth yahrzeit of Shlomo Carlebach.

Back to the composer.

(From JID) "Of making Jewish music there is no end, but how many contemporary composers of distinguished work in this genre have been featured on From the Top, National Public Radio's program about exceptional young musicians? Jeremiah Klarman, age thirteen when he appeared on the NPR show, may be the sole exception. Now seventeen, with a demonstrated mastery of styles from classical to klezmer, and with chamber, orchestral, and pop compositions under his belt, Klarman has turned his lavish and protean talents to choral music. A premier of his latest work, the cantata Hallel, Shir v'Or ("Praise, Song, and Light"), drawing largely on well-known verses from the book of Psalms, took place in late December at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Mass. Performed by the Zamir Chorale of Boston under the direction of Joshua R. Jacobson, it culminates in a room-rocking, soul-lifting Halleluyah! for chorus and orchestra."

Jeremiah Klarman - Hallel Shir V'Or


For more on Klarman, see JID's article Sing to the Lord!.

Hat tip to Joshua R. Jacobson of the Zamir Chorale for uploading the video to YouTube.

Back to business / Tropicasher's Brazilian Jewish Sambas

Hi Everyone, sorry I disappeared there for a while. Has it really been 3 weeks since I've posted? Guess so. I got caught up in a bunch of work travel. I've been to San Diego, Honolulu, and Huntsville Alabama. Whew. But I'm back and will be working hard getting ready for my Ann Arbor Library talk and on the Stephen Gottlieb Jewish Music Festival in Detroit. And lots of blog posts. I hope.

It would also figure that I would vanish at the same time I got some local press. Thanks to the folks at the Washtenaw Jewish News for the write up about the upcoming library talk. Welcome to any new readers who found me through that article! Come to the talk and say hi!

Ok..back to the main thing, the music. While I was on unexpected hiatus I got a number of emails pointing me to cool music. The first I want to highlight is the band Tropicasher from Brazil...

"Jewish Samba (named TROPICASHER in Brazil) is a mix of Jewish and Brazilian music. We would like the public in the USA to know more about it as it is being an excellent tool for peacemaking, breaking barriers and approching people. There are Tropicasher Sambas in Portuguese, Hebrew and English as well as an excellent BOSSA NOVA made with the Anthem of Israel, haTikva, on www.tropicasher.com.br. For videoclips: or www.youtube.com/tropicasher"

Here's a fun video from Tropicasher...

Ein Lanu Melech (efeito)

Update: I got a follow-up email about Tropicasher, which pointed out that "Brazil was first settled by Jews. We are on carnival week in Brazil and that Tropicasher is the Jewish way to do it." I know nothing about Brazilian history but that doesn't jibe with my understanding that Brazil was colonized by the Dutch. (See the wikipedia article on Jews in Latin America for more info). I have heard of Brazilian Carnival many times, but never heard of a Jewish contribution to it before. Fascinating.

Update II: I got another email from Tropicasher explaining a bit more about Jews in Brazil. "Brazil´s PORTUGUESE ships arrived to Porto Seguro (Bahia) around 1500 with Jews who fled from the portuguese inquisition, some portuguese nobleman and their servants. The dutch arrived around 1640 and they also had Jews as their translators and main businessman."

There you go.