Article in Today's Forward

[DAVID CHEVAN <dchevan...>]

I've pasted below an article published in the Arts and Letters section of
today's issue of The Forward (December 8, 2000).  It's a review of my recent
CD with Warren Byrd, "Let Us Break Bread Together: Further Explorations of
the Afro-Semitic Experience."


'Like Checking Out a Funky Little Club'

By MARTIN GOLDSMITH
It's been 36 years since two young Jews, Andrew Goodman and Michael
Schwerner, and a young African- American man named James Chaney found
martyrs' graves together in the struggle for civil rights in the American
South. In many ways, however, it seems a good deal longer than that as
memories of a shared agenda for a better life have faded, the good  will
between blacks and Jews challenged by angry charges of exploitation and
ingratitude.

Leave it to the artists among us to heal the breach. On their new CD, "Let
Us Break Bread Together: Further Explorations of the Afro-Semitic
Experience" (Reckless DC Music), pianist Warren Byrd and double bassist
David Chevan explore and celebrate the musical ties that have bound these
two traditions together across centuries of suffering and redemption.

It's a concept that is equal parts simple and profound. African-American
spirituals and Gospel tunes and Hebraic melodies from synagogue services
both ancient and modern serve as the basis for improvised essays that reveal
the passion and drama of this deeply spiritual music. Messrs. Byrd and
Chevan approach their task respectfully but not altogether solemnly,
frequently leavening their performances with wit and light-hearted humor, as
in their treatment of the spiritual "Little David, Play on Your Harp" or the
Seder song "Eliyahu HaNavi." But neither do they ignore the soulfulness of
their material; the sense of mystery they bring to "Soon I Will Be Done With
the Troubles of the World" recalls composer Adolphus Hailstork's incisive
comment that the Negro spiritual is the Gregorian chant of African-American
music.

Both Messrs. Chevan and Byrd are academics in Connecticut colleges and bring
an obvious seriousness of purpose to this project. But their musicianship is
equally obvious. Listening to this CD is a bit like checking out a funky
little club in the basement of a church or shul. Or listening to a sermon on
a bus ride headed South.

Mr. Goldsmith is the director of the classical music channel at XM Satellite
Radio, a former host of NPR's "Performance Today" and the author of "The
Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany."


The article can be found in today's online issue of The Forward at this URL:

 http://www.forward.com/CURRENT/arts2.html


Please forward this article to anyone you think might be interested.
David
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
David Chevan, Bassologist
for more info visit my web site located at
 www.chevan.addr.com


---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+