Re: Shmuel Brazil

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

I'm not sure, Bob, what kind of comment in re Shmuel Brazil you're seeking.

I'm virtually certain that I've mentioned him on this list as one of the 
premiere composers of Hassidishe-style/d'veikusdik (i.e., simplistically, 
Shlomo-style rather than Debbie Friedman-style) niggunim in this generation. 
  I had the privilege of once attending a niggun "sing" (I don't really know 
what to call it; that's certainly *not* what they called it) with Rav 
Shmuel, his Regesh vocalist Abish Brodt, and a bunch of yeshiva students or 
talmidim or niggunim talmidim or whoever they were.  An exhilarating, at its 
best otherworldly evening.  (So far as I know, btw, "Regesh" is simply the 
rubric under which Rav Shmuel has issued most of his recordings with Abish 
Brodt, as "D'veykus" is a rubric for recordings of Abie Rotenberg's and 
others' niggunim.)

Rav Shmuel's "Shalom Aleichem"--which sounds so Hassidic that I was told 
that it was mistaken by a noted musicologist *as* Hassidic music--has indeed 
become a standard, both for its text and, adapted, for other texts; and 
Cantor Sam is quite correct about "Shmelke's Niggun," which is such a 
standard at traditional weddings that choreography for it--vaguely, I 
believe (I'm not sure) along the lines of a "Virginia Reel"--was provided in 
a noted article about dancing at traditional Jewish weddings--i.e., as 
though it were an old, anonymous ("folk") dance.

Rav Shmuel's other absolute classic is "Bilvavi," from I'm almost sure his 
first LP--a now-ubiquitous standard of contemporary Orthodox folk music, and 
a transcendently stirring setting of a deeply devotional text.  His setting 
of "Eits Chayim," from the same period, is also still sung in shuls; I've 
heard it combined with Shlomo's setting of "Hashiveinu" (i.e., the last 
line).  And a number of other melodies from his Regesh 
recordings--available, I believe, from any well-stocked Jewish book & music 
store, btw--have, I believe, become established as well.

He's a gevalt!

--Robert Cohen



>I've came across the name Shmuel Brazil as the composer of a setting for 
>Shalom Aleichem.


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