Re: African Music/Radical Jewish music

[Ben Gidley <ucs01bg...>]

To ask whether or not the so-called "radical Jewish music" is
Jewish is an interesting and important question. 

It is true that much of this music, like more traditional forms
of Jewish music, are marked by a particular quality of pain and
passion.  But surely that is equally true of so much non-Jewish
music? 

Another feature that a great deal of Jewish music exhibits, as
so many recent postings to this list show, is its
cosmopolitanism, its ability to absorb and use creatively the
music of other traditions. But again, Jewish music is not 
alone in that. 

I think perhaps what makes this sort of music Jewish is that 
the people producing it are using to explore Jewish identity, 
Jewish history and Jewish culture - posing Jewishness as a 
question and not a fixed category that we carry in our blood. 

When Jewish music enters into dialogue with African-American 
music, something similar is happening. While musical purists 
want to patrol the fences between different traditions, 
placing them in dialogue, highlighting the moments when our 
histories have come together, also poses these questions.

What do other people think?

        Benjamin