[HANASHIR:8024] RE: Percussion

[Fifth Avenue <jbielan...>]

Shira,

I'm going to be talking to the sound man in the next few days about the
possibility of taking a feed off board.  If we can, and it comes out
halfway decent, would be happy to send you a tape.

Jack

Shira Kline wrote:

> That sounds awesome and inredible!!!  Mazel Tov for bringing your
> spirit to Shabbat.  I wish I could be there!  Is there any chance you
> make a recording of it for my New York spirit?
> Shira Kline
>
> Fifth Avenue wrote:
>
>> My two cents regarding instrumentations:
>>
>> For fourteen years, I've been Music Director for a reform
>> congregation in a Los Angeles suburb called Valley Outreach
>> Synagogue (originally started by Rabbi Richard Schachet, whose posts
>> I've see here sometimes - now led by Rabbi Jerry Fisher).
>>
>> Dick's attitude from the inception of the congregation was "do what
>> feels honest and will get people in the seats."  One of the primary
>> goals of Valley Outreach was - and continues to be - to attract
>> those Jews who, for whatever reasons, had become disenfranchised
>> from their Judaism.
>>
>> I am incredibly fortunate that the congregation has pretty much let
>> me have free rein to do anything musically that I've wanted (within
>> reason).  Given my original musical background was more Motown than
>> Moses, I think I've probably broken a lot of rules out of sheer
>> ignorance, but I live with it.
>>
>> The next instance will be on February 2, when we will hold our
>> annual "Shabbat Service With Gospel Music", which we have been doing
>> for ten years (long before the screenwriter from "Keep The Faith"
>> got the idea).
>>
>> At this service, myself on piano - along with a dear guitar player
>> friend of mine named Peter Hume - and the V.O.S. choir
>> (approximately 35 voices) will be joined by the 50-plus voices of
>> the First African Methodist Episcopal Unity Church Unity Choir.  As
>> they have in the past, I'm sure they'll be bringing in a rhythm
>> section of piano, bass, guitar and drums, plus a sax player, as
>> well.  The service usually draws in excess of 1,200 people and the
>> liturgical rules are pretty simple: their Music Director and I go
>> over the service, and each pick tunes and settings appropriate for
>> the readings.  They graciously understand that there is no use of
>> "Jesus", but rather that the selections remain universal and
>> directly address God.
>>
>> This service is going to be especially meaningful for me this year,
>> because the repertoire is going to also include both choirs doing
>> some songs (here comes the shameless plug....) from my new album,
>> "From The Heart Of A Jewish Soul").  I'm fifty-two years old, and
>> though I've been a studio musician for much of my life, this is the
>> first work which has ever caused me to take out a second mortgage
>> and is under my name rather than someone else's.
>>
>> For High Holidays, Cantor Ron Li-Paz and I utilize our choir, plus
>> classical guitar, flute and three violins.  We typically draw 1,500+
>> attendees, and
>> as a result, both for the Gospel Service and High Holidays, the
>> congregation is rents a larger sanctuary to accomodate the numbers.
>>
>> I fully understand that this approach isn't for everyone.  Ron once
>> invited an Orthodox friend to a High Holiday service, and when it
>> was over, asked the friend's opinion.  The gentleman's gracious
>> response was, "....well, it was very nice... I just didn't know that
>> I was going to see 'Rosh Hashanah - The Musical'".
>>
>> Who knows? Maybe he was right.  All I know is that, as I sit up on
>> the bimah playing, I see the faces of an awful lot of people who
>> seem genuinely involved and appear to really be trying to find some
>> meaning in the prayers they're reading and singing.  For you and I
>> as Jewish musicians, what more can we ask for?
>>
>> Personally (as long as this soapbox hasn't given way yet), I don't
>> think any approach is any more wrong or right than another.  For me,
>> I think that any reasonable instrumentation which: a) makes people
>> feel closer to God and their Judaism,  b) is true to the music, and
>> c) doesn't take the focus from the worship.. is a good one.  I know
>> there are lots of valid arguments pro and con, like questions about
>> when the music crosses the line and becomes more about "performance"
>> than about inspiring worship.
>>
>> I have no definitive answer, but speaking only for myself, I think
>> there is almost always an element of performance in the presentation
>> of liturgical music.  I've heard that a cantor is supposed to, in
>> some way, be the congregation's "representative" to sing to God.
>> However, I have yet to see either a great cantor or songleader  who
>> wasn't concerned about pitch and phrasing and shading as well... all
>> elements of good performance.
>>
>> Just one more point, and I'll shut up.
>>
>> For me, and I would be interested to hear the learned opinion of
>> others herein -, sometimes, not all the time certainly - but
>> definately much of the time -  the musical bottom lines are
>> sincerity and accessibility.
>>
>> As we all know, sometimes the beautiful traditional melodies which
>> we  grew up with are the ones which bring us to the brink of tears.
>> Another time it might be a choir doing a sensitive version of
>> Issacson's "Venehehmar".   Other times, maybe it's the whole
>> congregation standing up at the end of a service, arms over each
>> other's shoulders while a single strumming guitarist leads
>> Friedman's "T'fillat Haderech".  For me, sometimes it's my
>> congregation singing along with some of my original settings and
>> coming up to me after words and telling me that my music has helped
>> bring them closer to God for a few minutes.
>>
>> Bottom line: they were touched, in a Jewish setting.
>>
>> My little opinion:
>>
>> Drums? Hell yes (probably not during "Kol Nidre", however).
>>
>> "Ave Maria?" No... even though it's got a good beat, I just can't
>> dance to it.
>>
>> Jack Bielan
>>
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