Rashanin & JCQ

[r l reid <ro...>]

Last evening I had the pleasure of hearing Jon Madof's Rashanim and the
Jason Caplan Quartet (playing as a quintet).  They were the show at the
Bridge Shul up in Washington Heights last night.

When I try to describe these groups to people, I sometimes say "Reb Shlomo
Meets the Grateful Dead".  That's of course an awful simplification of some
fairly complex and well thought out music.  So much of the popular music in 
frum communities ends up being the familiar old Yossi Green or Suki and Ding
cookie cutter synth pop kretch-kvetch with simplistic religious messages 
pasted poorly onto seemingly unrelated pop melodies - always with the key
change in that last verse.  But I digress.

Let's talk about Rishanim first.  To continue the "meets" device, how about
"The instrumentation of Cream meets the creativity of the Dead by way of the 
rhythms and harmonies of Dave Brubeck - playing traditional liturgy, 
Carlebach tunes, and original compositions".  By avoiding lyrics, they steer 
clear of the vulgarization of the lyric.  Instead, they take the idea of the 
nigun - getting the words out of the way so you can express yourself to the 
Holy One, and instrumentalise it instead of singing it. 

Jon Madof is a guitarist of great talent and feeling.  Mathias Kunzli plays 
drums and percussion percussion with stunning technique and creativity - I 
think a description of his playing style would make it sound affected.  But 
instead its effective.  If he mutes a drum with his foot,  it's for a good 
reason.  

Shanir Blumenkranz seems to be one with his bass, and uses it in novel ways, 
adding to the poly-percussive sound of this band.  

I very much enjoyed their take on the standard Friday night tune for V'Shamru.  
 
Not at all how I am used to hearing it, but it was clear they had the 
meaning of the words in place as they came up with this arrangement.

They had a CD out on the Tzaddik label, and a web site with some sound 
samples.  I heartily recommend them if they come to your town.
http://www.jonmadof.com/projects.htm#rashanim

Turning now to JCQ.  I met Jason Caplan at my shul, where he is "Mr. Caplan", 
one of the afternoon Hebrew school teachers.  We had gathered a ragtag band 
for Hanukah last year and he got recruited to play guitar.  I figured him 
for your typical guitar strumming accompanist for USY songs (or 
whatever the NCSY equivalents are).   BZZZZT.  Wrong.

Part way through some corny Hanukah standard he takes off on a Jerry 
Garcia styled riff with the bass player tagging right along.  I tried 
to work in on the tsimbl - it was fun.  But I'm digressing again.

I'd wanted to check out what he does on his terms when he calls the tune.
Well, it's good.  In "meets"-speak, the Breslovers meet the Grateful 
Dead with Tito Puente sitting in.

Tonight they had Latin percussionist Annette A Aguilar and drummer Larry 
Eagle of the Andy Statman Trio holding forth on the beats.  Using lots of 
open harmonies, Caplan creates a structure with plenty of room for players 
and listeners alike to bring their own music and spirit into the weave of 
melody, harmony and rhythm.  

Although hampered by a poor mix - the vocals and keyboards were barely 
audible, as no one was running sound - the vitality of this music came 
through.  Jason expresses the intent that this become a form of prayer for
performers and the audience, and for those who are open to the concept and 
enjoy the style - as I do - I think it works.  The only thing I didn't 
understand was why I was the only one dancing.  (I have the same problem 
in my own shul).

JCQ has a website on http://www.jcqonline.com but it does not seem to be kept 
up to date as to events. A better source is BluePrint's music section 
http://www.nyblueprint.com/ (click on the MUSIC button), or the Yahoo 
NYC Jewish Music list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCJewishMusic/

roger reid



-- 
r l reid        ro (at) rreid(dot)net


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