Israeli Music Ick (was Re: What is Jewish Music - the Metaquestion)

[George Robinson <GRComm...>]

Valid question, Glenn.
I like David Broza, among others. But I was thinking of what it would be
like to be limited to the other dreck -- Chava Alberstein doing her Joan
Baez imitation (speaking of logs on the fire), as opposed to her
terrific work with the 'Matics; Poogy, definitely; anyone who allows
himself to be billed as "the Israeli Bruce Springsteen"; and the very
bad pop that can be found in abundance. 

I probably shouldn't have opened this can of worms and I'm ready for the
deluge that inevitably will follow. (Except from people defending Joan
Baez -- the heck with youse guys.)

George (Being checked for foot-in-mouth even as we speak) Robinson


glenn tamir wrote:
> 
> I don't mean to throw another log on the fire but what
> do you mean by "Israeli Music Ick?"  Are you refering
> to music created by Israelis?  or an "Israeli Musical
> Style" (which is hard or impossible to define).
> 
> There is some wonderful music coming out of Israel
> now, (David Broza, Sheva, Eyal Sela, etc..)
> 
> If you mean Poogy I agree...
> 
> --- George Robinson <GRComm (at) concentric(dot)net> wrote:
> > I'm in basic agreement with Cantor Weiss on this
> > one. Would you  want to
> > be restricted to Israeli music? Ick.
> >
> > One good thing that came out of the last thread was
> > that I realized that
> > someone -- don't remember who -- suggested that I
> > was taking space away
> > from people making good "Jewish music" when I review
> > stuff like Fred
> > Hersh playing Thelonious was essentially correct. I
> > still review jazz in
> > the column -- and I review people like Lee Konitz
> > and Jane Ira Bloom (to
> > pick two from my next column) who are not
> > necessarily making "Jewish"
> > music per se, but I try to focus more on people who
> > don't get exposure
> > in either the Jewish or non-Jewish music worlds
> > (like Peter Saltzman,
> > whose Revolution Ensemble plays terrific post-bop
> > jazz but also works in
> > Jewish subject areas; these guys don't get covered
> > in, say, Downbeat).
> >
> > Other than that, I'm sooooooooooooo tired of this
> > discussion. We're
> > going in circles and repeating ourselves to no
> > particular effect.
> >
> > George (has been known to go in circles to no effect
> > himself, but tries
> > not to make a habit of it) Robinson
> >
> >
> > Sam Weiss wrote:
> > >
> > > Joel Epstein wrote:
> > >
> > >           >What does the fact that we are
> > constantly
> > >           discussing
> > >           >what is Jewish music say about us?  Do
> > Hungarians
> > >           >wonder what is Hungarian music?
> > >
> > > I thought that I could easily avoid thinking about
> > this topic (since I
> > > have no stake in defining Jewish music) but the
> > meta-question does
> > > interest me.
> > > I think it confirms that we are the People Of The
> > Question (which I
> > > prefer to the Muhammadan appelation People Of The
> > Book) and, more
> > > specifically, the People Of The Self-Question,
> > which is something to
> > > be proud of.  It also reflects the fact that our
> > unfortunate history
> > > has afforded us the luxury -- and burden -- of
> > rising above the levels
> > > of mere nationalism and mere religion when
> > considering matters of
> > > self-interest and self-definition as a people.
> > Therefore the
> > > Hungarians have it much easier than we do.  Of
> > course, for Jews who
> > > identify with the State of Israel, this luxury was
> > removed in 1948.
> > > And for such Jews who also take pre-1948 Jewsih
> > cultural history
> > > seriously, the burden is daily becoming ever more
> > onerous.
> > >
> > >
> >
> ______________________________________________________
> > > Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of
> > Paramus, NJ
> > >
> > > ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> > ---------------------+
> > >