Roundup of New Jewish Music/Review

[Seth Rogovoy <rogovoy...>]

Readers of this list will see through what follows as a survey of New
Jewish music releases disguised as a "Chanukah" music column.
Nevertheless, further evidence that some of the music discussed on this
list is finding its way into the pages of the mainstream press (if only by
my agency...), in this case, the Berkshire Eagle, Dec. 19, 1997.
-----------------------
THE BEAT

New Jewish music for Chanukah celebrations
  
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 19, 1997) -- In recent years, there has been 
a renaissance of creativity in new Jewish music, some of it based in 
the tradition of Klezmer -- the instrumental celebration music of 
Eastern European, Yiddish-speaking Jews -- and some drawing upon other 
traditions, including Yiddish folk songs and Hebrew cantorial melodies. 
Part of this is no doubt due to a generational trend toward re-
exploring cultural roots -- a trend that has similarly fueled interest 
in Celtic, Latin, African and other ethnic musics -- and part is 
evidence of a longing for spiritual renewal.  

The festival of Chanukah that begins next Tuesday night commemorates 
the rededication of the Jewish people to the historical and spiritual 
roots they lost under the Hellenizing influence of the ancient Greeks 
in the second century B.C.E. While little if any of the music that 
follows directly addresses the historical events surrounding Chanukah, 
in its delicate balance of ancient and modern, Jewish and non-Jewish, 
most of it does speak eloquently to the themes of the season.  

While the Klezmatics's own "Possessed" (Xenophile) was one of the 
most exciting, groundbreaking Klezmer CDs in years, the members of that 
band have also been busy with various side projects.  

When he is not playing trumpet with the Klezmatics, Frank London can 
often be found playing with Hasidic New Wave, which he co-leads with 
saxophonist Greg Wall. While the Klezmatics are widely considered to be 
at the forefront of progressive Klezmer, by comparison Hasidic New Wave 
makes them sound downright traditional. HNW's CD, "Jews and the 
Abstract Truth" (Knitting Factory Works), contains edgy, avant-garde 
compositions and improvisations based on contemporary Hasidic wedding 
music, but equally steeped in funk, free jazz, hard-rock and world-
beat. Selections range from the Ladino/cool of "Tzur Mishelo" to the 
polyphonic "Last Temptation of Lady L" to the lyrical/country-laced 
"Bobover Wedding March." Worth it alone for Wall's achingly gorgeous 
solo on "Eliyahu Hanovi." 

The clarinet usurped the violin's place of primacy in the klezmer 
ensemble, or kapelye, somewhere around the turn of the century. On 
Alicia Svigals' "Fidl" (Traditional Crossroads), her virtuosic 
technique and her unmistakably personal voice -- at once hauntingly 
ancient and strikingly contemporary (among her credits are appearances 
with rock band Led Zeppelin) -- returns the violin to its rightful 
place in the Klezmer ensemble. The traditionally-flavored CD also 
boasts amazing liner notes in a genre where the standard for such notes 
is already set way above the ordinary.  

Matt Darriau, the clarinetist for the Klezmatics, fronts his own 
group, the aptly-titled Paradox Trio (it's a quartet). While not 
nominally a Jewish-music group, the Paradox draws on Balkan folk and 
gypsy music for its inspiration, both traditions that heavily inform 
Klezmer. On the group's second CD, "Flying at a Slant" (Knitting 
Factory Works), which features Darriau on a variety of reed 
instruments, flutes and bagpipes, the music -- mostly original 
compositions by band members -- takes on cross-cultural overtones 
beyond anything that has come before: a vital, contemporary world-beat 
stew.  

Historically speaking the mandolin and guitar were not found in 
Klezmer ensembles, but that hasn't stopped Jeff Warschauer, whose CD, 
"The Singing Waltz: Klezmer Guitar and Mandolin" (Omega) features 15 
melodies -- about half traditional, half modern -- arranged for guitar 
and mandolin, with occasional, spare accompaniment by instruments more 
typically found in Klezmer groups, including clarinet, violin, 
accordion and piano. In compositions of his own, such as the solo 
guitar piece, "A Slow Hora for Those Who Wait for Freedom," Warschauer, 
a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and a member of the 
Klezmer Conservatory Band, sets the standard for a new, classically-
influenced, Klezmer-guitar idiom.  

As its name indicates, the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, based in the 
Big Easy, put a decidedly unconventional spin on its mostly original 
compositions on "The Big Kibosh" (Shanachie). The group is at its best 
when it pushes the envelope and lets loose its front-line of polyphonic 
horns and its second-line of funky, marching band rhythms, as on "Klip 
Klop" and "D'Bronx Tants." It also boasts one of the best song titles: 
"Taking the Flower Arrangements Home After the Wedding." 

"Beregovski's Khasene" by the Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble, is the 
latest in clarinetist Rubin's wonderful Jewish Music Series on the 
Weltmusik imprint of the German label, Wergo. As a player, an arranger 
and a curator of music from Klezmer's Golden Age in Eastern Europe, 
Rubin does essential work, transforming what is essentially a folk form 
into art music without destroying the soulful expression at its core.  

Just as in the early-20th century when cantors took the religious 
liturgy out of the synagogue and brought it before a popular audience, 
so does Wally Brill recontextualize Jewish prayer melodies on "The 
Covenant" (Six Degrees/Island). In this case, Brill samples early 
recordings of cantors and combines them with contemporary rhythms and 
textures based on the latest in electronic and world music. Brill's 
keen understanding of and respect for the source material keep this 
from devolving into simply a Jewish version of the pop-chant group 
Enigma, justifying its self-description as "sacred music for the 58th 
century." 

A similar, if even more experimental, juxtaposition can be found on 
"Slichot (Forgiveness)" (Rawkus), by Rea Mochiach and Alon Cohen. The 
songs combine ambient electronica with Sephardic cantorial melodies 
from the Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah liturgy dating back over 2,000 
years, making for another starkly suggestive fusion of ancient and 
modern.  

While the fusion on Wolf Krakowski's "Transmigrations" (Kame'a) is of 
two, distinct, 20th-century styles -- Yiddish popular song and American 
roots-rock -- its effect is no less stark, timeless or suggestive. 
Retaining the haunting melodies and provincial concerns of Yiddish 
theater, folk and pop tunes while recasting them into rootsy rock and 
honky-tonk arrangements, Krakowski invests them with contemporary power 
and a politically-charged urgency worthy of Judah Maccabee, the hero of 
the Chanukah story.  
  
READERS POLL: Radiohead or Portishead? Marilyn Manson or Janet Jackson? 
Bjork or Phish? There's still time to sound off about your favorite CDs 
of 1997..  E-mail us a list of your favorites for inclusion in our 
upcoming reader's poll.  

NEXT WEEK: The Top 10 Concerts of 1997. 

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Dec. 19, 
1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]  


****************************************
Seth Rogovoy                        
rogovoy (at) berkshire(dot)net
http://www.berkshireweb.com/rogovoy
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
*****************************************