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.

The Silver Age of American Jewish Music is Happening Now! And Why We're Missing It. (Extended Play)

As I mentioned in my 'upcoming Michigan Jewish Music events' post earlier this week, I'm going to be giving an extended version of my Ignite Ann Arbor talk. It's going to be February 28 at 1 pm at the Ann Arbor District Library in downtown Ann Arbor. It should be a lot of fun, I hope you can all come.

It's very timely, but the great Ann Arbor Ignite folks just put the video of my earlier talk online. It's only 5 minutes I don't sound nearly as goofy as I'd feared. Just mildly goofy. I promise to be no less goofy in person.

Here's the full description of the talk.

The Silver Age of American Jewish Music is Happening Now! And Why We're Missing It. (Extended Play)

Jewish music is exploding. Bands and labels and venues are multiplying. Rock. Hip Hop. Reggae. Punk. Klezmer. Sephardic. Choral. Chamber Music. Jazz. Chassidic-Pop. Breslov Techno. Niggunim. Pop-liturgical. Bible-gum. Beat Box. Boy Choirs. House. Socialist Yiddish Gothic. Indie. Weird hybrids. Avant-Garde experiments. Earnest
devotion. But we're not immigrants clustered in tenements, in range of a local Yiddish radio station anymore. A revolution is happening but we're scattered across a big nation with no common media to connect us....except the net. Will it be enough?

This Extended Play version of Jack's recent 5 minute Ignite Ann Arbor talk will be loaded with more music, a road-map of the contemporary Jewish Music scene, a case study in social-networking Jewish Music, and the greatest Jewish song you've never heard.

Bio

Jack Zaientz is the author of Teruah, a popular Jewish music blog. Jack has been interviewed regarding Jewish music by the Israeli National Radio and was recently ranked by the Jewish Telegraphy Agency as the #36 most influential Jewish twitter.

Jeremy Cool Habash - Israeli Ethiopean Rapper

My twitter buddy, MochaJuden, sent around a link this video clip from the movie 2009 Israeli Film "Children of the Bible," directed by Nitza Gonen. It features Jeremy Cool Habash, an Israeli rapper of Ethiopian descent. According to an article on Boston.com, Habash is

"A graduate of yeshiva -- an Orthodox Jewish religious school system -- Habash steers clear of mainstream rap topics as well, preferring to sing about his love for Judaism, his concern about youth getting lost in alcohol and drugs, and his anguish about the treatment of Ethiopian Jews in Israel."

The clip on has a only few seconds of Habash rapping at the very end, but he's a wonderful storyteller.

If you're in NYC, you can catch a screening of Children of the Bible on February 11, 2010 at the 14th NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival. If you want to screen the film, you can get info from Dragoman Film Distibution.

I haven't been able to find much information in English about Habash. If you're in the know, drop me a note. Thanks.

Skafyah - Jump in!

I love this time of year. There's a huge crop of new videos from Chanukkah concerts popping up daily. Here's a fun one from Skafya, a Chassidic reggae band out of the University of Miami. Good stuff.

Jump In Live-12-14-09 At University of Miami Skafyah Hasidic Jewish Reggae Group

You can get more info at their website and check out more of their videos at YouTube.

Upcoming Michigan Jewish Music Events

This is the North Coast (aka Michigan) and things get a bit slow here in the winter. But there's still some good Jewish music related events coming up. And I'm involved in two of them!

The Red Sea Pedestrians play the Ann Arbor Ark, Jan 13

One of my favorite Michigan bands hits the best venue in the area.

"The Red Sea Pedestrians are a musical melting pot, bringing together six distinctive multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters to investigate klezmer music and a host of other styles. Their live shows and their CD, "A Lesson in Cartography," have built up a buzz that's extended across the Midwest from their home base in Kalamazoo."




Yiddishe Cup plays the Ann Arbor Ark, Jan 23

A klezmer band by way of Catskills cha-cha. I saw them live last year and had a blast.

"We dare you not to dance!" Reviving the wacky Jewish humor of the '50s and '60s by parodying everything from cha-cha to doo-wop to rock, Northeast Ohio's Yiddishe Cup is also one of the tightest, most vigorous klezmer bands around. Year after year they wind up on Jewish-music ten-best lists, and their live shows are legendary. Get ready for songs like "Gentile on My Mind" or "Meshugeneh Mambo"! But they can also play it straight, bringing the energy and tradition of klezmer music to their delighted audiences"







The Silver Age of American Jewish Music is Happening Now! And Why We're Missing It. (Extended Play) - February 28 at 1pm the downtown Ann Arbor District Library

The Ann Arbor District Library invited to redo my Ignite talk in a longer form. Come join the fun!

Jewish music is exploding. Bands and labels and venues are multiplying. Rock. Hip Hop. Reggae. Punk. Klezmer. Sephardic. Choral. Chamber Music. Jazz. Chassidic-Pop. Breslov Techno. Niggunim. Pop-liturgical. Bible-gum. Beat Box. Boy Choirs. House. Socialist Yiddish Gothic. Indie. Weird hybrids. Avant-Garde experiments. Earnest devotion. But we're not immigrants clustered in tenements, in range of a local Yiddish radio station anymore. A revolution is happening but we're scattered across a big nation with no common media to connect us....except the net. Will it be enough?

This Extended Play version of Jack's recent 5 minute Ignite Ann Arbor talk will be loaded with more music, a road-map of the contemporary Jewish Music scene, a case study in social-networking Jewish Music, and the greatest Jewish song you've never heard. Jack Zaientz is the author of Teruah, a popular Jewish music blog. Jack has been interviewed regarding Jewish music by the Israeli National Radio and was recently ranked by the Jewish Telegraphy Agency as the #36 most influential Jewish twitter.



The JCC Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival, March 6-14 around metro Detroit.

Truth in advertising...I'm now on the steering committee of this festival. For 1 whole meeting now. I'm going to be offering up my Jewish music knowledge and rolodex as well as my (limited, though enthusiastic) abilities in internet marketing. The following, though, is my personal take on the fest not an official blurb.

This is a community wide Jewish music festival serving the metro-Detroit area. This year's schedule includes contemporary Jewish musician (e.g. songleader) Rabbi Joe Black, a workshop on Jewish healing through music, Inbal Segev and Elena Baksht Chamber Duo playing a program celebrating Jewish masterpieces including compositions by Ron Yedidia, Ernest Bloch, and Paul Ben-Haim, Shircago! a Jewish a capella group from Chicago, and a concert and discussion with Matisyahu (a live event broadcast via satellite from NYC). All that and a performance by Hal Linden, a teen battle of the bands, a concert of Michigan cantors, jazz, and opera music. See the music fest website for the full schedule.

Learning Jewish Liturgy Online

Daniel Sieradski, of Jewschool.com, is a very smart, very engaged, and sometimes controversial figure in the Jewish community. Personally, I place him very high on my list of people I really want to chat with over beer and plan the revolution. Which revolution will vary by the mood we're in. There are about a dozen or so that I can think of.

Dan can think of even more. In fact, he's thought of so many he's going open source with the whole idea of revolution. He recently started a website called "31 days, 31 ideas" where he lays out the blueprints for 31 revolutions that he feels need to happen. Each is, at it's heart, a simple idea. But each, if implemented well, could have a significant positive impact on the Jewish community. Each is a technical tool conceived of to solve a significant social/religious problem. To give you a taste of what he's thinking about, here are the titles of three of his ideas (he's published 9 so far):

• Pop-Up Parsha: "I love the Sunlight Foundation, the D.C.-based philanthropic foundation which provides support to hackers working on software projects that increase transparency and accountability in government. My ultimate wish is to see the creation of something similar for the Jewish community — a laboratory that develops solutions that increase, if not the transparency of our communal institutions, the transparency and accessibility of our tradition itself.
• The Open Source Beit Midrash: Yesterday, I spoke about the need to create a repository of sacred Jewish texts encoded in XML, a format that would enable software developers to take the creation of Jewish educational Web applications to the next level. Today, I’m going to show you an application I’ve been dreaming about in various incarnations for about five years, The Open Source Beit Midrash, which will only be possible when such a repository comes into existence.
• Niggun Please: Jewish Liturgical Music Database: Yesterday I talked about a tool, the Jewish Book Builder, that would help individuals and communities create their own prayerbooks and looked at some current implementations of that idea, including the Open Siddur Project. In my post, I described “a future in which creating customized siddurim, bentshers, haggadot, chumashim and all manner of liturgical and scriptural books is as commonplace as making a mixtape (or an MP3 playlist, as it were)." Today’s project is actually about further personalizing the prayer experience by providing a means for Jews to explore and learn the music of tefillah (Jewish prayer) by making for themselves downloadable audio playlists, and for the Jewish community to compile collectively the sum knowledge of their musical heritage by contributing to an open database of niggunim (liturgical melodies).

Ok, so go figure that last one got me all worked up. What a fantastic idea. If you care about liturgical music at all, go read the whole concept. It deals head on with two separate but related issues...the ability to pray in a group, which is central to Jewish practice, and the ability to learn new prayers in order to do the former. Jewish communities do not all use the same melodies, even if they are using the same prayerbook. When prayerbooks vary, or when the community does a lot of supplementing of the prayerbook, the differences between communites goes up dramatically. To someone entering the community, or even just visiting, this can be a substantial and alienating barrier even when the people in the community are welcoming and supportive. I've experienced it many times. In fact, every time I've moved (which I won't count here).

I don't have the time or energy right now to build the system that Dan is advocating, but I'm going to think more about it. Maybe someday I'll take the plunge. For the moment I wanted to share it and to pass along a few temporary stop-gaps. The first couple Dan mentions in his post, the rest are my contributions. All are websites that provide audio recordings of prayers that can be used to help us expand our knowledge, our ability to pray in groups, and our ability to join with new groups as the circumstances require.

From Dan...

1. SiddurAudio.com - "the work of a Conservative rabbi who recorded himself singing Friday night services and posted the audio online"

2. Kol Zimrah Resources - "created by Shir Yaakov Feinstein-Feit for congregants of the independent minyan he had co-founded in New York"

3. Sing! the audio weblog for niggunum

4. Neohasid.org’s niggun database

5. Chabad.org’s audio collection, "which contains a vast number of popular Chabad niggunim"

6. An Invitation to Piyut, a massive Israeli database of liturgical music

7. The Zemirot Database, "a project of a group of young Conservative Jews who, in 2007, took the initiative unto themselves to create a project very similar to the one"

Here are some of my additions...

7. HotShabbat.com and TotShabbat.com Both websites are maintained by the Hava Nashira community, which supports the pop-liturgical / songleader community. Both sites have audio recordings, often supplied by the composer / performer, of a wide variety of prayers & songs. TotShabbat, as the name implies, focuses on kids services.

8. Hebrewsongs.com While better for pop & folk songs, and better on lyrics than audio recordings, HebrewSongs does have a number of liturgical pieces available and is worth checking out.

9. VirtualCantor.com A skilled cantor has recorded a huge array of Shabbat, weekday, festival and holiday nusach. Each recording is well indexed and easily findable.

10 Project Z'mirot One of my personal favorites, "Project Z'mirot allows Jews from around the globe to share their favorite Ruach songs and melodies, and to learn new songs from others. "

11. Zemirot Project (not to be confused with Project Z'mirot or the Zemirot Database). A smaller collection of Shabbat and festival prayers, with page references to the NCSY bencher.

12. Sephardic Pizmonim Project Similar to the Invitation to Piyut site you mentioned. Huge archive of recorded Sepharidc pizmonim, including prayers, cantillations, maqams, and pizmonim.

13. Sephardic Hazzanut Project Similar to Virtual Cantor, but focusing on Sephardic nusach. The recordings are from a single Sephardic cantor working his way through "all the parashiot and Shahrit of Shabbat for all the main seven maqamot."

14. And finally, of course, You Tube. There are few popular Shabbat or festival prayers that haven't been video taped and uploaded at some point.

None of this should suggest that learning by yourself is the best answer. Learning with others is always preferable, but sometimes it's not just not possible or timely. So check out these resources. And, if you interested in taking on Dan's challenge of implementing a Jewish liturgy database, give Dan a yell.