everything

[Andrew Tannenbaum <trb...>]

I just found this mailing list, and I've been poring through the archives.
Oh boy, I've been wishing for this for a while, whenever I would post
notes about Jewish or Israeli music to the various relevant netnews
groups, they would always hit floor with a thud.  Anyway, other people
seem to have introduced themselves for starters.

I'm Andrew Tannenbaum, I live in Brookline, MA.  I like many kinds of
Jewish music.  I layn haftorahs in shul (if I practice at all, it's
top to bottom - haftorah's aren't really that long, I'm not much of a
Hebrew reader, but I can work through them without practicing if I
pace myself).  I am an Israeli dancer, and I like much Israeli dance
music.  My preference leans toward the funky Yemenite/Sephardic, or
old and pretty modern Israeli.  I'm not too fond of disco Israeli
dances.

I'm a klezmer fan, old and new, but not too wacked out.  I think the
Klezmorim are offensive, because they tried to hide their Jewishness and
they called themselves Klezmorim though they would refuse to play
Klezmer music.  I realize that they were at the front end of the
Klezmer revival, when no young people were playing klezmer, but it
would irritate me to go to one of their concerts that said "Klezmorim"
in big letters on the posters, and they would play no klezmer.

I like KCB (being here in Boston) and many other klezmorim, young and
old.  I've been to Klezcamp (sponsored by YIVO, in the Catskills, during
the last week of the year) a few times, and so I've hung around with
most of the world's klezmorim (who congregate there) though I'm not a
musician.

One favorite Klezmer recording of mine, which I haven't seen mentioned,
is "Chicago Klezmer Ensemble: 1989" (that's what it says).  I have the
cassette (which, I regret, sounds a little muddy), it was also
available on CD.  Anyway, this is a klezmer recording with really cool
playing on it - jazzy/balkan influenced, but definitely klezmer.  Laid
back and very cool.  No drums - clarinet, violin, bass, and piano.
Clarinet played by Kurt Bjorling, very tasty!

"Voice of the Turtle" is here in Boston too, they play Sephardi music in
the renaissance/chamber music vein, and it's ok, but I prefer my
Sephardi music with a little more gristle, and perhaps with a little
less New England flavor.  I realize that this sounds like a rude
evaluation, I'm disappointed that they aren't more to my liking - I
prefer to hear a native Sephardi perform the music than to hear even a
good facsimile.  I heard "the Burning Bush" (? from London?) on Kol
Yisrael earlier this year, and they reminded me of "Voice of the
Turtle," but more real sounding.  Does anyone know about them?

Oh, speaking of Kol Yisrael, I am a short wave listener - Kol Yisrael
has a Israeli music spotlight show every Sunday night for 15 minutes or
so, they play a few cuts from the latest album by Ethnix or whatever
(this one is with English commentary).  They used to have a show on
Reshet Bet on Friday at 10PM Israel time (3PM here) which was an hour
of Israeli folk dance music.  That used to be cool, but I haven't
heard it lately, and I don't know if it's still on.

My favorite Israeli musicians are Habrera Hativit with Shlomo Bar.  I
have lots of their recordings - five or six.  My favorite is their live
concert recording (22.12.1979) Mechukim L'Simson.  They play
Moroccan/Sephardi oriented Israeli folk music, with tabla, sitar,
violin, etc. (songs in Hebrew).

I used to listen to the Jewish Music show from Upsala College back
when I lived in NJ (before 1984), now I listen to the Emerson College
show on Sunday mornings here in Boston.

Oh, one more thing.  There was a question about learning trop.  We
were just discussing this on mail.jewish, so I'll suck in some text
that I posted over there:

There is a book/cassette course "T'aamim Lakorim" by Rabbi Yitzchok
Mordechai Rosenberg.  You should be able to find this course at a
Jewish bookstore, or you can order over the phone by calling Chadish
Media at 1-800-NET-TAPE.  (From abroad, call +1 718 856 3882).  They
sell recordings of torah, haftorah, and megillah readings, on how to
lead services, etc.

The T'aamim Lakorim course comes with *two* tapes.  I think it
originally came with one.  Make sure you get both tapes!  The book and
cassettes cost $28, the book alone is $15.

I like the course quite a bit, it emphasizes torah trup, and spends
some time on 5 other kinds - haftorah, esther, shelosh regalim megillot,
eycha and  high holidays.  It also talks about how to read shirat hayam
and aseret hadibrot.  It teaches the "rare t'aamim:" shalshelet, mercha
chefulah, yerach ben yomo, and karnei farah.  It proceeds painstakingly
with the torah trup, and then cruises through the rest, though the
tapes present an "index" of the trup for each style, and a sample
passage sung with each trup.

Anyway, there's an intro with everything except my shoe size, I guess.
I've been waiting a long time to discuss a lot of these topics!

        Andrew Tannenbaum   Brookline, MA  USA

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