Music reviews & reviewers

[Jerzy <hempco...>]

Amigos,
This is my first posting after a few months of lurking. I have read Ari's
review of "Transmigrations" by Wolf Krakowski, and even though I wanted to
respond after the first version, it took two revisions of the review to
motivate me to post my thoughts to the list.
        Right off the bat, I want to say that I, my family, and a large
group of friends in rural Quebec like to listen and dance to this CD.  On
many Shabat evenings our unorthodox group opens celebrations with "Shabes,
Shabes," which for us has replaced Alpha Blondy's "Jerusalem."
        The review of 'Transmigrations" dedicates more than a third of its
space to tell readers what this album is =not=. The list is long and I for
one would like to meet a musician who could fill Ari's demands. But this is
just trivia.
        What really gets me is this underlying attack on "victims." For
Ari, they seem to take up too much space on this album. That's what makes
=this review= a"dangerous place to live." He doesn't mind dead Jews as long
as they are dead with guns. The first time I heard of "dead Jews with guns"
was from Marek Edelman, the last survivor of the leadership of the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising, with whom I have spoken on a few occasions. The old man,
with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, told me that everybody now wants to
talk only about "a few dead Jews with guns." But what, he asks, about the
millions that died without them? Ari  seems to be ashamed of them. What
does he know? Does he know that they did not die during the first days of
the Nazi Occupation of Poland--strong , healthy and nourished, members of
athletic clubs and unions. They died a few years later--starving, dirty,
full of despair and disbelief.  No "strong" athletes at all among them.
         So, if my body moves to the music but my mind goes to places that
no longer exist and I think of the victims, what's wrong with that? I would
like to know from you, Ari, why is this "a dangerous place to live?"
        This is not about the Holocaust but about the music that inspired
me to write.

and the beat goes on.

jerzy