yiddish and jazz

[pinnolis <pinnolis...>]

We should all play for audiences we feel comfortable with. Everyone is going 
to have different comfort zones based on (seemingly endless) complex sets of 
identities. I guess that's modern life today where people must navigate these 
constantly shifting tides of multiple identity issues. Jews are not the only 
ones who grapple with that, but our issues are quite complex, rooted as they 
are in a post-Holocaust era of survival.(and after all, how does one DO that 
only 55 years after our Jewish European population was wiped out) 

As someone who has a website broadcasting to the world Jewish pride in the 
wide variety of Jewish musics and histories, obviously I know that non-Jewish 
people are going to see this on the web, and like the music,-- because it's 
great music. That's pretty simple. 

I'm just hoping that Jews from each of the different branches of Jewish 
identity will also find out about each other's music, and like it too!

What we all here, --all together,-- create today, and what we do, will 
probably set the stage for Jewish life for the next 100 years. What we blend 
into our music, and the new syntheses that arise will likely be the sounds 
and symbols of the Jewish generations coming up and for a long time. You all 
are creating, and part of, the most genuinely incredible explosion of Jewish 
culture in possibly the last 100 years, and maybe you're even doing more than 
predecessors in turn of 20th century as well. (We'll see how it goes to make 
a judgement on that....)And we're having fun doing it...

This generation is coming out of the Holocaust era. I think the generation of 
young people who are creating today, are not in the total shock of that as we 
were, -- which coming out of shock and horror essentially has taken two-to-
three generations, and more, so far. While we, as a people, will never 
really 'recover', we're coming to grips with "where do we 
go from here", and what will being Jewish look like... and sound like. 

The people who don't want to be Jewish don't have to be. There's nothing in 
America compelling anyone to be Jewish anymore. People are 'disappearing into 
the woodwork' in droves and will never be heard from again as Jews.  There 
are only Jews by choice, so to speak, even if you're born Jewish. But there 
are also an awful lot of people joining up and joining in on being Jewish.  
In America, you're only are Jewish if you choose it today --and in America, 
that has to be an active choice. And so with the Jewish musical culture.  

It's extraordinary to have Yiddish sung on a jazz station in a general 
cultural setting a half century after 'Bei Mir Bist Du Schein' was a big hit. 
That's enormous. And it says something about what we can bring with us into 
the future,-- some from the past, some blended, and some newly created.
Judy
. 






Quoting TTova <TTova (at) rogers(dot)com>:

> On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 08:11 PM, Shirona wrote:
> 
> > As musicians I believe we have a unique opportunity to rise above all 
> > political and religious "agendas". 
> 
> 
> Amen to that sister!
> 
> As a singer I  get to share my particular brand of Yiddish / Jazz in 
> non Jewish venues more and more these days.
> As a second generation daughter of survivors the fact that non Jews 
> want to hear my take on this music makes me hopeful.
> It is also a point of pride that Jazz stations are playing my Yiddish 
> rendition of Cole Porter's NIght and Day- Tog Un Nakht for ALL to hear.
> 
> As a woman I am concerned about statements that Klezmer music is or 
> somehow should be tied to more orthodox religious  thought.
> At Askenaz last fall we played to huge crowds... Many were Jewish but 
> more and more gentiles are there every year.
> I do not want to keep this music in the ghetto
> 
> I am spiritual being but certainly not religious.
> I love Yiddishkeit but have no place for dogma beyond traditions I love 
> to share with my extended family.
> 
> And seeing a chassidic man in the crowd replete with Talis and Peyes 
> dancing to my Yiddish rendition of Los es Shnayen, Los es Shnayen, Los 
> es Shnayen made my heart skip a beat.
> 
> perhaps we are speaking a universal language after all :)
> 
> Tova
> 
> 
> 
> www.theresatova.com
> 
> ---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org 
> ---------------------+
>