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Recent threads to the effect of "What is Jewish music?" have been resulting in
some of the cattiest postings this or any other newsgroup has to offer. This
is, to say the least, disturbing. It usually ends up in people offering some
sort of absolute system for deciding if something is "Jewish Enough".
When rappers engage in the "Who's the blackest?" syndrome, the listenership's
reaction is often a rolling of the eyes, a shaking of the head, and the wish
that they'd put it back in their pants. This kind of ethnic posturing is
non-useful. It may not change the fact that Public Enemy have made some of the
most arresting music of the last twenty years. But it did start a chain of
really stupid on-record (the spinning kind, not the paper kind) rebuttals. LL
Cool J finally came out with a record called "Am I Black Enough For You?" that
finally made a joke out of that sort of BS macho-osity.
The Jewish music world, by nature of its being smaller, seems to invite more
than its share of this, down to people arguing whether what somebody does is in
fact a mirror to Jewishness.
I have always been under the impression that the creative act is subjective and
is rendered to reflect the feelings of whoever is creating that piece of work.
Unless you're the president of a labor union, nothing real comes out of
claiming to speak for the interests of a self-described group.
However, you can speak TO a group. You can represent yourself to a group.
What is Jewish music? At this point in history? The question better asked is
probably "What does 'Jewish' mean?"
To all the degree-holders who would decide to hand down a yardstick for
expression -- re: "If it uses these notes or these instruments, and these
ingredients in this amount of frequency within the course of the music, it is
allowed to be called 'Jewish'" -- your yardstick probably doesn't apply anymore.
Jewishness has been exposed to change -- through technology, exposure to other
cultures, assimilation, the involvement of different musical instruments, and
so forth. Jews, who traditionally emphasize learning, are not in some ivory
tower of only wanting to know about Jewishness.
>From the moment Jewish musicians involved themselves with music other than
>their own, the conceptual purity of their presentation was nullified. Unless
>your mind is SO closed, you can't participate in some music without points of
>it being added to your personal vocabulary. Look squarely at the music of
>Dave Tarras -- he was not a pure Eastern European klezmer. He involved
>himself with theater orchestras and at least one group who rendered Yiddish
>melodies in a (then-) contemporary swing context.
This does not mean the music is "diluted". It means that, as the world
changes, the way music travels changes, and the very needs for music change
with it. Jewish music changes because the Jew's perception of the world
changes.
Whether one likes something or not, that thing goes into the world. This
certainly includes evolution in Jewish music. That the kind of musician who
plays at the Knitting Factory wants to express his Jewishness is good.
Expressing Jewishness is much healthier than opting for cultural invisiblilty.
And for a Jewish musician who cares more for Cecil Taylor than he does for
Harry Kandel to express himself, the Cecil side of his vocabulary is going to
dominate. Furthermore, it does not nullify the Jewishness of his expression.
It just reflects the artistic direction of somebody who is Jewish but has been
profoundly influenced by someone who is not Jewish. The lie would be if that
same guy said, "Well, I'm Jewish, so I had better reflect other people's Jewish
concerns so that I may better represent Jewishness".
Ergo, the argument of "Is it Jewish enough?" doesn't really count for much.
How much meldoic minor scale usage, Yiddish employment, etc -- these are
strands that are woven through the fabric in which we cloak ourselves. But no
man is his clothes. The musical phrases that point up to Jewishness are not as
important as the declaration "I am Jewish", whether communicated as a country
song, a rap record, a string quartet, or a freilach. And none of us has the
right to look somebody in the eye and say, "Yeah, but you're not Jewish enough".
skip heller
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