Yitzchak Halevi sings Rabbis Sons "Harachamon "

Shabbat shalom everyone,

I've had a busy, and a bit stressful, week so I'm very ready for Shabbat. For this week's "get in the shabbat grove" video, I've got Yitzchak Halevi sings Harachamon, by The Rabbis Sons.

Harachamon - Rabbi Sons performed by Yitzchak Halevi

Here's a quick bio on Halevi...

"I am a musical artist, guitar player, Rabbi. CEO, proud parent, happily married for close to 15-years. I have had the fortune to play with some of the top musicians in the world. In my early high school days in Massapequa, I played with Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, Jim Phantom. In my later high school days in Bayside Queens, I played with Scott Ian, Dan Lilker, Greg Wall ie Anthrax. Post HS I shared a studio and or played with the Plasmatics. Simon Towsend, The Ramones, Steve Missel (Billy Idol) Jennifer Paige, Dory Harltly Rocky Horror fame. Since I have become Shomer Shabbos I played with Shlomo Carlebach, DYB, Rabbis Sons, Sam Ash, and everyone else in the frum music scene. I have recorded 4 solo CD's to date."

The Rabbis Sons were an influential Jewish folk liturgical music group in the late 60's and 70's. You can hear clips from their albums at Mostly Music.

Ronald Robboy's In Our Own Way: Yiddish Theater Music

As a Jew in the Midwest, I get unduly excited about Jewish events in the Midwest. So How come I didn't know about the University of Wisconsin's Conney Project for Jewish Arts? Always more to discover, I guess. Anyway, I was tipped off this morning by Twitter user Geoffery Keezer (who just released a fine album of "folkloric Afro-Peruvian and Argentinian music mixed with jazz"). Keezer was excited about Ronald Robboy's recent Conney Conference lecture on Yiddish theater.

Now I am too. The Conney Project has graciously put up a video of Robboy's talk, as well as over twenty others. I'm particularly looking forward to listening to Lee Williams' "When Crooks (and Gumshoes) talk Yiddish: On Babel, Singer and Chabon" and Sherry Mayrent's "A Shidukh Fun Himl: 78RPM Yiddish Recordings in the Digital Age"

Thanks folks!

Jewish Drumming Lesson

I was catching up on Blog in Dm and ran across this great video of a Jewish drum lesson. In this case, the Jewish drumming appears to be aimed at playing New York Yeshivish and Chassidic simchas. I'm not clear (and will find out) who is giving the lesson and why, but it was offered up by YouTube user 100FlyingFish along with Jewish Drumming demo #1 Hora Chassuna, Jewish Drumming demo #2 Freilich Chassuna, and Jewish Drumming demo #4 Freilich Chassuna.

Jewish Drumming demo #3 Disco Hora variations

SOCALLED - You are never alone (Live)

I was just tipped off to this great live performance. Enjoy.

"SOCALLED having become such a monster star must now do midnight sessions at secret underground locations. This one was July 7/09 during Montreal's Jazz Festival. The concert was so secret I had to film it with my spy camera. Alex from Chicoutimi on violin. Damian from Argentina on Sax. Michael from Montreal on bass."

hat tip to YouTube user mtlborn for uploading the video.

A plethora of Jewish music videos and interviews

Got an email last week that said...

"Are you interested in offering your audience a video player featuring 60 video clips offering concerts, music videos and interviews with many of today’s top Jewish & Israeli performers including Idan Raichel, Mosh Ben Ari, David Broza, Balkan Beat Box & many more?"

The answer is yes! Enjoy folks. The video player come courtesy of JewishTVNetwork.com

Not much to say other than thanks (for the videos and the chance to use the word 'plethora')!

The Circumcision Drinking Song

The "On The Main Line" blog just posted a rather singular song called called The Newly-Dubb'd Jew in a 1790's book called Hilaria. The song is a funny and racy redo of the older English folk tune, "Derry Down," chronicling a conversation between a prospective convert and his soon-to-be-clipped penis. The song includes lots of political references of events of the day and is generally more amused by the process than abusive of Jews, which makes it good fun to read today. I'd love to hear someone try to sing it. Send me a video and I'll happily post it on Teruah. Any takers? To get the melody, listen to this recording of American folk musician Pete Seeger singing a very different Derry Down lyric.

The book, attributed to a "Captain Charles Morris and William Hewerdine" is dedicated to drinking and drinking songs, opening with this comment (I've corrected the spelling to modern standards) ...

"....the gentlemen of Britain, whose fondness for pure, unadulterated, wine, cannot be doubted, will continue the old custom of drinking a bumper of wine with the first toast after dinner to the first thing that was ever was created for the enjoyment of their sex.

Solomon..., says "give flow strong drink to him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy hearts." "Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."

With that thought in mind...here's "The Newly Dubbed Jew"










Hat tip to the "On the Main Line" blog for posting the song and to my buddy Daniel for emailing me about it.

Chase The Devil: Spiritual Roots Music

I'm usually a bit skittish of "interfaith" music projects. I understand their appeal from a "we can sing together so we can live together' perspective (and we could sure use more singing together and living together), I often find the musical output pretty vapid. The attempts usually squeeze out everything interesting about either faith, or the faith's music, to show that our most basic we're all pretty insubstantial and boring.

Enter vocalist Dean Bowman and guitarist Gary Lucas of "Chase the Devil" who are neither insubstantial or boring. Lucas and Bowman are both veteran musicians with a stack of recordings each. Some of Lucas' Jewish music highlights have included the silent film soundtrack for the 1920's silent film "The Golem" and two Radical Jewish Culture albums "Busy Being Born" and "Street of Lost Brothers." On his previous Jewish albums, Lucas has consistently been able to merge Jewish folk, klezmer, and liturgical music with his own gritty roots and jazz based sound. In Chase the Devil, Lucas and Bowman add Christian gospel and Muslim quawwali music and push them for all their worth. The result is a vital and glorious mess, where the styles bounce, collide and weave through each other, all held together by the deep reverence of Bowmans voice.

From a reasonable distance, this kind of collision must be what we sound like to God. Now we get to hear it close up.

Chase The Devil (Gary Lucas & Dean Bowman) "HINE MA TOV"

Ok...I chose the Hine Ma Tov video because a) it was available and excellent and b) it's very Jewish. I have to say, though, that the gospel influenced "God is a Good God" on their MySpace page is also superb. The video was recorded live at Eldridge Street Synagogue, New York City, in February 25, 2009. It's worth noting that Hine Ma Tov means "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony." A great statement in general, and perfectly fitting in this context.

For more info, see their MySpace page, Dean Bowman and Gary Lucas personal websites, and a a recent interview by Tablet magazine.

Hat Tip to YouTube user AlexJacobwitz for posting the video and Tablet magazine for the review.

Suite For Furby On Shofar In D Minor

A couple of years ago I wrote about the "only documented collaboration of man and Furby." Well, Sid Yiddish is back with another collaboration with his emoto-tronic friends, this time for the Chicago "Objects In Motion Festival."

As The Chicago Reader puts it...

'The festival’s true standout is Sid Yiddish’s Suite for Furby on Shofar in D Minor, an inspired bit of effrontery.... Yiddish presents an arresting figure, and his ad hoc musical composition would make Fluxus provocateur George Maciunas proud."

So here it is, Sid Yiddish, assorted noisemakers, a shofar, and a gaggle of Furbies.

Suite For Furby On Shofar In D Minor-Part One

For part 2, see "Suite For Furby On Shofar In D Minor-Part 2"

I love these videos for the physical poetry as much as the humor. I'm sure I'm reading too much into this, but while I was watching the videos I had this strange image of Sid as God playing shofar and whatnot trying vainly to engage an idly chattering minyan of Jews. So you didn't like the shofar, maybe for my next miracle I'll try a slide whistle!

Just Plain Folks

Ari from KlezmerShack sent a note around today that Just Plain Folks had posted their 2008/2009 Album Award nominees. And, drumroll, it include a section of klezmer albums and a separate section of Jewish albums. JPF self-describes as "a community of over 51,500 Songwriters, Recording Artists and Music Industry Professionals — and host to the world's largest independent music awards." Ok. Not exactly plain you and me folks, more like "just plain music industry folk." This made me doubly interested. Who have the fine folk of the JPF annointed this year in these categories that I love. Would I recognize them? Have I written about them? (Do I even like them?) Adventure!

So here are the lists, in the order presented on the website. I've inserted links to the respective artists web-pages and links to my blog posts, when appropriate.

Jewish Album Nominees

1. Todd Herzog "Bridging the Gap" -(Teruah Post, CD Baby) I'm happy to see Todd Herzog on the list. I don't typically enjoy sappy Reform post-songleaders (sorry to fans of the genre) but somehow he turns it into something gripping. His album was in heavy rotation for a while.

2. Rebecca Teplow. "Kaveh-Hope" - (Teruah Post, CD Baby) Yay Rebecca. Another album that was in heavy rotation for a while. Teplow's got a fantastic voice and her alterna-rock-cabaret arrangements are both genre-defying and intensely satisfying.

3. Lisa Miriam Silver "Mosaic" -(CD Baby) I wasn't familiar with Silver, though evidently she's been around a long time doing Nashville session work and scoring a Grammy nomination. Her album, Mosiac, showcases her work as Music Director/Cantorial Soloist of Congregation Micah in Brentwood (Nashville), Tennessee. Honestly, on my quick listen it didn't grab me. Nicely executed but pretty standard pop-liturgical fare.

4. Rebecca "P'tach Libi - Open My Heart" (CD Baby) Another new one for me and another fairly straightforward influenced pop-liturgical album. Rebecca's got a better voice and better execution than many but the arrangements are straight out of the 70's with not much distinguish them. I think this one might grow on me, though. I'll have to give it another listen later.

5. Jacob Balshan "Queen of the City" (CD Baby) Another new one. Balshan's album is a set of gravely-voiced Israeli Hebrew folk-pop ballads. I found it engaging and may have to pick a copy.

6. Yaakov Chesed "Rise Above" (CD Baby) Here's a surprise. After a string of 1970's veterans, comes a young Orthodox rock band. Not my favorite (which would be Blue Fringe) but not bad.

7. Sam Glaser "Sam Glaser's Rockin' Chanukah Revue" (Teruah Post 1 and 2, CD Baby) Sam Glaser is one of the hardest-working guys in Jewish music these days. I've got a stack of albums on my desk and have I've included his videos a number of times. I don't love his music (hmm, I'm detecting a theme here), it runs a bit to much to parody and big, easy, feel-good rock chords and sing-along lyrics for me. But no doubt he's got a big fan base out there. His Chanukah album is fine, though it doesn't (ahem) hold a candle to the recent and more spirited Shiralala Chanukah.

8. The Shirettes "Sunny Days with the Shirettes" (CD Baby) Here's another new one for me. This is a fun kids album. Without my junior reviewers (ages 4 and 6) to give it a listen, I'm not sure how it compares with their favorite Shiralala Chanukah or Craig Taubman's Newish Jewish Discovery, but it sounds good enough to give it a try.

9. JEWMONGOUS "Taller Than Jesus" (CD Baby) This is "Jewish Hipster" comedy by Sean Altman of Rockapella and the GrooveBenders. It includes one of my all time favorite songs "They Tried To Kill Us (We Survived, Let’s Eat)" (Though I like version by ex-Altman collaborator Rob Tannabaum better) and the satirical faux-Irish drinking song "Christian Baby Blood."

10. Trio Helene Engel "Voyage" (CD Baby) I was sure I'd writen about Helene Engel at some point, but I can't find the post. Regardless, I've known Engel's work for a while. She's a well known Canadian vocalist who sings Jewish folklore songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Judeo-Spanish, English, and French. I love this album am delighted it made the list.

It's been fun going through this list. I'm not sold that this represents the best of Jewish music from the last two years, not by a mile. But there are some solid albums on the list, with Rebecca Teplow and Trio Helene Engel leading the way. Given that artists need to be aware of the contest and submit their music, it's not surprising that Orthodox / Chassidic groups are poorly represented and that the urban labels (JDub and Shemspeed) didn't participate. I felt bad being underwhelmed by the pop-liturgical recordings. I really love good liturgical work, it was just this crop that didn't grab me.

Anyway, it's midnight. I'll have to tackle the klezmer albums tomorrow.

Cantors Barry Braun & Ezra Sher Sing Shehecheyanu

Hi Folks, Shabbat Shalom.

For my weekly "get in the Shabbat groove" video, I'm pilfering a great find from the new Chazzunes blog. It's Cantors Barry Braun & Ezra Sher performing for South Africa's Port Elizabeth Hebrew Congregation. The concert was in 2008 but the vocal styles have as much to do with turn of the last century British popular vocal music as it does with traditional nusach.

Ok. I'm not sure the phrase "turn of the last century British popular vocal music" actually means anything, but listen and I'm sure you'll hear what I mean. For a New England kid, it's pretty unique. I wonder if it's considered standard cantorial repertoire in South America?

Cantors Barry Braun & Ezra Sher Sing "Shehecheyanu"

Hat tip to YouTube user DanielShira for posting the video and to the Chazzunes blog for finding it.