Re: What is Jewish Music?

[George Robinson <GRComm...>]

JeffSchan (at) aol(dot)com wrote:

> I just got back from a few days in the Adirondacks and caught up on several
> days of digests.  So, I may be responding partly to what people were saying a
> few days ago.  I know John Zorn, although not very well, and on his
> motivation for classifying Bacharach as a Jewish composer, I think that
> people have to understand that Zorn is an iconoclast.  So, besides liking his
> music, he probably wanted to release the CD in order to push the boundaries
> of what people think is Jewish music, both in terms of Bacharach, and in
> terms of the musicians who did the covers.  I don't care for Bacharach, so I
> haven't heard the CD.  I know George Robinson reviewed in for Jewish Week, so
> if he has time, he might be able to contribute his opinion.
>

Actually, I had hoped to avoid commenting on this thread, coward that I am, but
since Jeff has invoked my name, like a demon summoned from the depths (do Jews 
do
that sort of thing?), I hereby arise to take the challenge.

First, let me say that I am in general agreement with much of Jeffrey's posting.
I have tried whenever possible to write about contemporary "avant-garde" Jewish
music in the pages of Jewish Week (and more recently the Detroit Jewish News and
Jewish World Review as well). The earth, Thomas Jefferson wrote, belongs to the
living generations, and while I think it is a matter of honor to render homage 
to
our musical forebears, helping the dead collect royalties strikes me as a lower
priority than expounding the virtues of the all-but-forgotten living. (Or as a
sports scout once said to me in a different context, "Sure there are
Hall-of-Famers in this year's draft. We just don't know who they are yet.")

Of course that begs the question of what constitutes Jewish music. (I said I was
a coward.)

I have made it a policy -- stated quite publicly in my column on more than one
occasion -- of reviewing the work of Jewish musicians regardless of Jewish
content. The reasons for this are twofold. First, out of pure selfishness -- I
came to Jewish music from jazz and blues and those remain my first musical 
loves;
I get great pleasure out of writing about those musics and my open-door policy
alows me to do so. Second, and more to the point, I know the readership of my
various publications; they are more likely to own recordings by Carlebach or
(much worse) the dorky folk-pop Judaica music that I must confess I am utterly
unsympathetic to than they are recordings by the people whose work is usually
discussed here. So I cast my net as widely as possible to bring to my readers'
attention people as various as BOW, Naftule's Dream, Fred Hersch (playing
Thelonious Monk), Jane Ira Bloom, Metallish (a Hasidic heavy-metal power trio;
don't laugh, they're good), Jeffrey Schanzer, obscure symphonic work by Leonard
Bernstein, and so on.

So what does that mean in terms of the question on the floor? As someone else
wrote somewhere in this thread, Jewish music is music made by Jewish musicians,
singers, songwriters, etc., often (but not always) on Jewish themes or with
Jewish musical influences or content. Given the hybrid nature of traditional
Jewish musics -- the influence of gypsy music on klezmer, of goyish military
music on Hasidic niggunim, of American folk forms on, say, Debbie Friedman, of
blues on Bob Dylan, and so on ad infinitum, ad nauseum -- it's hard to be more
purist than that.

Anyway, as I always say to people who ask me, if my definition of Jewish music 
is
too broad/narrow/parochial/catholic for you, get your own column and review what
_you_ like.

That's a very pragmatic, non-theoretical answer to a very theoretical question.

I just happen to think that in an era in which corporate decisions dominate 
music
sales, anyone with access to a readership that pays even a little attention to
what he/she says has a moral obligation to write about as wide a range of
non-corporate music as possible. Which has nothing to do with Jewishness, or
everything to do with it. Depends on your point of view.

Sorry for rambling on like this.
Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut Amerikanish
George Robinson


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