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jewish-music
New Sub-Categories and Adjectives for Jewish Music
- From: Steven Lowenthal <lownthl...>
- Subject: New Sub-Categories and Adjectives for Jewish Music
- Date: Mon 05 Jan 1998 13.13 (GMT)
Klezcorner wrote:
>
> Today there is a tendencey to lump many styles of music
> into the such broad catagories as "Jewish" or "Klezmer".
> Recently, there was a recording released called "Jewish Music" (I beleive it
> was on Tzadik, but I'm not sure). The entire album was a collection of Burt
> Bacharach songs performed by contemporary artists. Why was this called
> "Jewish Music"? According to the distributor, "...because Burt Bachrach is
> Jewish!" I told them that Irving Berlin also was Jewish, however that doesn't
> make "White Christmas", or "Easther Parade" Jewish music.
Good Point! I find it hard to believe that a business person could be
so insensitive. Perhaps the distributor suffers from a latency that
manifests
itself in creating stereotypes.
>
> There was a time when Klezmer was "traditional Eastern-European Instrumental
> music". Too many new recordings include so many vocals, that I can not
> classify them as klezmer.
>
Why not? They're not in Yiddish? They teach Yiddish in "Klez Camp".
I have created a 5/4 time adaptation of a prayer book song that sounds
Arabic.
It has a distinct sound and beat that you could either dance or davon
to,
but defies categorization.
How about some recommendations for categories, sub-categories and
adjectives
that would not pigeon hole, stereotype, or limit our Jewish artists and
their
still-evolving music? (What ever happened to the term "fusion"?).
Regards,
Steven Lowenthal