Re: What is Jewish Music? (And much more)

[George Robinson <GRComm...>]

Robert Cohen wrote:

> That my writer colleague George Robinson approaches liturgical folk music
> with the notion that it is (all? or mostly?) "dorky folk-pop Judaica" I
> think is unfortunate--I don't think it's helpful to dismiss an entire genre
> of music that way, rather than being open to whatever you hear.  (Can you
> really be so, when you're about to listen to what you think of as "another
> dorky folk-pop Judaica" CD?)  George has always been out-front in his
> columns about his biases/likes & dislikes, but I still think it's
> unfortunate in a reviewer to approach new music w/ such a hard-edged bias.
> I obviously have my own bias, as a lecturer about and historian of,
> occasional writer about, and even (this fall) producer of (a compilation CD
> of) contemporary liturgical folk music--in my view, our most distinctive
> indigenous American-Jewish music in this generation....In any case, quite
> aside from the content, George, like a lot of writers, is under the
> mis-impression that "begging the question" means deferring answering it.
> Properly used, it doesn't (though "evading the issue" has now become, by
> repeated use, an accepted informal usage); it refers to the logical fallacy
> of assuming as true the very thing you are seeking or claiming to
> prove.

Khaverim --

As some of you may know, up here in Washington Heights we had a power outage
that lasted 19 hours earlier this week. As a result, I am _way_ behind in
reading and answering my e-mail, including the copious and always interesting
products of this list.  Therefore, I will use this posting to respond not only
to Robert C, but also to Robert W and to several other items that crossed my
mind.

Robert C's message, quoted above, raises two separate questions. On the latter
one, his editorial comment, I stand corrected.

As to the former, as someone intimated in a subsequent response, yes, I was
thinking solely of Debbie Friedman and her army of imitators. Certainly there
are people making good music with Jewish content in the folk genre (an ill-named
and ill-defined one; as Louis Armstrong once said, "All music is folk music. I
ain't never heard a horse sing a song.") I try to listen to any music I am sent
with an open mind and ears. In fact, it is precisely because I try to be totally
candid about my prejudices (thanks for the kind words, by the way) that I think
I am fair to the musicians whose work I review. On more than one occasion I have
said of a recording, I don't care for work in this genre, if you do, by all
means add a star to the rating. (Let's not start on rating systems; yes, they
are insulting to the musicians/filmmakers/writers whose work is then reduced to
shorthand notations, but one does what one's editors want.) I have never thought
that the purpose of my column was to impose my tastes on my readers (although,
of course, this would represent a vast improvement in the entire human race);
What I try to do is expand my readers musical horizons by pulling their coats to
music they might not have heard otherwise, music that I think has some value.
Although I try to review anything I am sent -- providing there is some Jewish
connection -- I would rather not write about something I actively hate rather
than to add to the negative verbiage in the world. (I reserve my printed disdain
for the occasional record that is so dire in its pretensions that I just can't
stand it, especially if it comes from a major label or from someone who is
obviously well-heeled enough to know better. If you want an example, e-mail me
offline.)

That said, I must add that I think most of the Friedman influenced Jewish music
I have heard or sung, indeed, most of the camp-derived music of this ilk, is
weak tea indeed. Then, I love Pete Seeger for who he is and what he does as an
activist, but not much for his music. As the husband of an ex-cellist who is a
red-diaper baby, this makes for some . . . interesting conversations.

As for Robert W, I also must concede that his point -- that it is more important
for me to review explicitly music with Jewish content in Jewish Week rather
than, say Fred Hersch playing Thelonious Monk -- is not without merit. Indeed,
my respect for Robert is such that I was genuinely upset when I read his
posting, precisely because I recognized that there is a degree of truth in the
charge.

That said, I would say that I have never _not_ reviewed something with
explicitly Jewish content except on the very rare occasion stated above (if you
can't say something nice . . . ). Moreover, the vast majority of my feature
pieces are about people making music with Jewish content (rather than Jewish
people making music), or events with a specifically Jewish theme. As some of you
know from this list, I actively seek out Jewish musicians making Jewish music
regularly. Indeed, I will reiterate my request to members of this list (and
their friends and colleagues) to send me new recordings  (George Robinson, 116
Pinehurst Avenue, Apt. K-12, New York, NY 10033-1755).

As I have noted before here and elsewhere, my first musical love was and is
jazz. My editor at JWeek is also a serious jazz fan. I don't think many of my
readers follow jazz and it gives me great pleasure to expose them to jazz
musicians who happen to be Jews. As I slowly ease into the jazz press, I fully
expect to do the same for klezmorim, etc., who happen to be making Jewish music
that has a jazz element to it. Regrettably, both jazz and Jewish music are
ghetto-ized in a marketplace in which (as Reyzl pointed out) 25% of American
recordings are  now controlled by one corporation (albeit run by a very public
Jew). I guess I'm with Duke Ellington on this one -- there are only two
categories that are meaningful, good music and bad.

Finally, at the risk of sounding like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, with all
the talent here, why don't we get us a barn and open a dairy? That is to say,
there _isn't_ a Jewish music publication in the US -- to my knowledge. If you
spend as much time as I do in magazine store, then you there are some
astonishingly narrow niche-publications out there. If there's a market for a
(new) magazine on Irish music, surely there must be a readership for a magazine
that would cover the full spectrum of Jewish music -- from klezmer to Peter
Himmelman (I find Jewish content in a lot of his stuff -- in fact it was an
Orthodox friend of mine who played him for me first), from Lewandowski to --
yes, even -- Debbie Friedman. I've been in the magazine and newspaper publishing
worlds for a long time and I know how difficult it is to raise capital and get a
new startup off the ground. But if people are genuinely interested, I would
certainly be willing to get involved. (Just don't ask me for money -- I don't
have any.)

Finally, on a lighter note:
Why do we want to claim Julio Iglesias and Mariah Carey in the first place?
Isn't embarrassing enough to have given the world Barry Manilow?
On the accordion front -- it is amazing how much really terrific "world music"
is played on this instrument or its close relatives (not only klezmer but also
tango, Tex-Mex norteno and a lot of Eastern European musics). That said, I am
reminded of a famous line from the late great (and indisputably Jewish) tenor
sax player Al Cohn: "A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the accordion,
and doesn't." (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Finally, a question for Reyzl -- "Music for Jewish affairs?" What, now you gotta
have music to have an affair?  A hotel room with a bed isn't enough? Oy, only
the Jews. . . .

I apologize for the extreme length of this posting and its convoluted syntax.
(What, there's a tax on _that_ now?)

George Robinson


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