Re: survey of who is doing what jewish music

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

Hi, all.

Well, I guess I'll weigh in here on behalf of Wholesale.  I kind of wanted
to leave this survey to one of our other members on this list, but they're
presently scattered to the far corners of the earth.  Sorry if this sounds
like blatant self-promotion, but the question of what I'm doing is
inseparable from what Wholesale is doing, and I get excited about it.

Wholesale is a simkhe band, let me say.  Our repertoire springs from the
Jewish wedding, and it's in that context that it really shines.  In concert,
though, we find we need to present more programmatic material.  We started
out, years ago, with some "standard" Yiddish folk songs, with an emphasis on
peace-and-social-justice/labor material.  Over the years, we've gravitated
towards more spiritual music as we've turned our concentration toward
"tikkun olam."  We like to present loshn koydesh songs from the Moditzer and
Bobover chassidic tradition, and as Yosl Kurland began to concentrate on
khazones, we added Yossele Rosenblatt's Ne'ilah kaddish to our repertoire.
We try to play our instruments together as people might daven in an
old-style shul: as individual voices raised together in devotion.  

Of course we do some "entertainment" pieces drawn from Yiddish theater and
vaudeville.  In the educational realm, Yosl and Peggy lead workshops in
traditional dance style, and Sherry Mayrent presents a lecture-demonstration
on "What makes Jewish music Jewish."
 
We also play original material.  Sherry has written hundreds of tunes, all
in the traditional style, and Yosl has been writing new songs in Yiddish.

For myself, I want to follow, as Castaneda's Don Juan says, "any path which
has a heart."  Playing this music is my way of feeling spiritually
connected.  The music itself carries the prayer.

Zayt gezunt,

Owen 

At 08:54 AM 2/11/98 -0500, Ari wrote:

>It occurred to me that it might be a nice idea to survey people
>on the group and get a sense of the diversity that is (hopefully)
>represented here, including both fans or musicians who are also
>fans.
>
_________________________________________________________________________
        Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.
        The Wholesale Klezmer Band

        The Angel that presided o'er my birth
        Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth,
        Go love without the help of any King on Earth. 

                                Wm. Blake