If you read this site regularly, you will remember me kvelling about a wonderful documentary a couple of years ago about Cantor Jack Mendelson. Now the movie's Director/Producer Erik Anjou writes that it is available on DVD from Ergo Media.
For those wondering what Anjou will do to follow up the movie, I have had the opportunity to view some clips from a new documentary about The Klezmatics. Should be very exciting.
GOT MUSIC ? November 1 DEADLINE for submissions to Shalshelet's Third International Festival.
Shalshelet: The Foundation for New Jewish Liturgical Music is currently accepting submissions for its Third International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music. Guidelines and applications are available at www.shalshelet.org/submission.html.
November 1, 2007 is the postmark deadline. The Shalshelet Music Review Committee will announce results on March 1, 2008. The Festival takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 13 to 16, 2008. Questions: E-mail Shalshelet
About two weeks ago, on Monday, April 16, I had the opportunity to premiere Yizkor: Music of Memory and Mourning, a memorial concert I composed for cantor and jazz ensemble. The lyrics for the pieces all come from the Yizkor service (the Jewish memorial service) and the music that I composed is a mixture of jazz-inflected melodies and rhythms and chazzanut-the often highly melismatic and distinctive traditional singing style used by cantors-a style that dominated their singing more in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. One of my compositional goals was to reinvigorate this now less commonly used singing style by putting it into a new context. The other was to create a modern Jewish memorial work.
I got this e-mail from Cantor Rita Glassman in San Francisco. It sounds like it could be quite extraordinary:
"I am the Cantor of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. I have just finished a CD of contemporary Jewish prayers entitled, "Journey to Shabbat". A small but high quality ensemble and I recorded this album in my 102 year old sanctuary with its amazing acoustics and historical associations (it is one of the few houses of worship to survive the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco). I wonder if you might consider reviewing the CD for Jewish communal readerships and/or sharing any advice about ways I can get this CD out. A project that was 2 years in the making. I poured a lot of heart and soul into this-my first Jewish recording after doing four other more univeral/spiritual albums."
You read more, listen to samples, and order the CD from CDbaby.com—this could be the West Coast answer to "With Every Breath" (recorded a few years ago in NYC's Bnai Jeshurun).
Cantor Erik Contzius writes the Jewish-Music mailing list:
Dear friends in song,
I'm proud to announce my first foray into self-publishing. I have opened an on-line store for my sheet music. I encourage you to visit, look around, and listen to some of the music samples (all as mp3's). Of course, if you're so inclined, please feel free to purchase a piece or two! I believe you'll find some things you will not have found elsewhere, such as:
Continue reading "Cantor Erik L. Contzius makes music available for online sale" »
There has been a nice discussion of nusakh and its relative absence in current American services. Professor Marsha Edelman pointed out that Jewish liturgy has always freely borrowed from surrounding cultures and that Ashkenazic cantorial traditions are relatively late. Eva Broman posted this:
Concerning the influences of the surrounding musical culture on Jewish liturgical music, here is something I found in a scholarly article on the influence of Turkish Ottoman music on Greek rebetika(!):
As we know, Ottoman society was a multi-national society in which the cultures of various ethnic and religious communities existed side by side. Each community preserved its religious music in its place of worship, and its folk music within its customs and mores. The music of various ethnic or religious communities formed the peripheral musical culture of the Empire, while the music of the Ottoman élite constituted the central culture (urban light music was a branch of the classical tradition). The Ottoman central music was cherished not only by Muslim musicians but also by non-Muslims: Greek, Armenian, Jewish and other communities. The interesting point was that a great number of non-Muslim musicians were active both in their own religious milieux in church, in the synagogue, etc. contributing to their local or folk music, and also in the sphere of the central music. This peculiarity led to musical exchanges and borrowings. A very typical example of this process is observed in Jewish liturgical music: Jewish cantors singing in Istanbul synagogues borrowed many Ottoman secular or classical songs and performed them in their liturgical ceremonies, on Hebrew sacred texts. One can still hear religious songs or hymns in Istanbul synagogues that maintain their traditional components. Here's the whole article.
Edwin Seroussi has written several articles on these "borrowings".
And in connection to Marsha's comment "Moses' Shirat HaYam probably sounded like an Egyptian pop song" here is an interesting tidbit I found on liturgica.com
>In the Bakkashot services of the Aleppo Jews in Jerusalem, New York, and
>elsewhere, sacred poems are sung to the latest tunes of Arabic popular
>singers as heard on radio and television.
Regular readers of this page have noticed that I am paying increasing attention to Cantorial music. I can't help it. Now, Cantor Sam Weiss, himself one of the prime luminaries of the Jewish-Music list (in my never humble opinion), has taken the resources on these pages a step further. In 2003 nine biographies of (primarily) American Cantors were commissioned for inclusion in a Biographical Dictionary of World Jewish Music, a project which did not come to fruition.
The luminaries profiled don't just include people we traditionally think of as "Cantors": Yossele Rosenblatt, Mordechai Hershman, Leib Glantz, Jan Peerce, Moishe Oysher, Shlomo Carlebach, Ben Zion Shenker, Alberto Mizrahi, and Avraham Fried. Note, instead, the title of the article. Together, the biographies tell the story of how the role of cantor in American public life has changed over the century, and of the new musical influences on the Shaliach Tsibur leading traditional prayers.
I am most pleased to announce the availability of this material here on the KlezmerShack: Nine Luminaries Of Jewish Liturgical Song.
Elliott Simon writes to the Jewish-Music mailing list:
Hi all....Much to my surprise I saw an article in the Forward today regarding the famous/infamous Rabbi Basement Tapes that were recorded 1953-1954 by ethnomusicologist/filmmaker Harry Smith and are Yiddish songs sung by Rabbi Nuftali Zvi Margolies Abulafia...these have never been released...see Forward article here
I remembered enjoying a program on WFMU (a free form radio station in NJ that I have listened to since the 1960s) that played many of these songs..all told there is a 15 Lp unreleased set...you can hear that program here on www.wfmu.org/listen.ram?show=11276&drop=9
George Robinson writes frequently for the Jewish Week. He listens to an incredible diversity of music. Take a read of Five Stars All Around:
From chasidic reggae to Golden Age chazanut, the best recordings of 2005, Jewish Week, 12/30/2005 (could this really be? Posting a new review in a timely fashion! I'll try to keep up for a while! Since several of the CDs I've been meaning to review are on this list, I even resolve to catch up here at home!)
Here's a hot tip. Cantor Sam Weiss posts to the Jewish-Music list that "The latest CD in the Cantors Assembly/United Synagogue series is now available, 'The Spirit of Hanukkah:
Voices of the Conservative Movement'. Liner notes by yours truly."
Knowing Sam, if he's written the liner notes, the CD is very much worth listening to. See www.uscj.org/The_Spirit_Series_CD5799.html
It turns out that the sister of Lori Lippitz (Maxwell Street Klezmer Band) is also on the CD. Kvell! Kvell! Check out Cantor Riki Lippitz of Oheb Shalom in South Orange, NJ, singing the solo on Ocho Kandelikas.
Judy and I went to see Boston's HaZamir last night. For those who don't know, the first HaZamir was part of the Jewish Nationalist flowering back in Lodz a century ago. There are two related choirs in the US - the one in NYC is the first, and is currently led by Matthew Lazar. Boston's is also highly regarded by afficionado's of Jewish choral music. The couple of previous times I saw HaZamir I felt very frustrated. The choir has been relatively small, and the material bounces from popular Israeli folk ditties to new classical compositions such that the result is nice, but not compelling.
But last night was the 36th anniversary concert (36 is a significant number is Jewish folklore, being both 2 x 18 where 18 symbolizes life, and significant on its own because reputedly there are 36 holy people—the "lamed-vavnikim" on earth by whose merit the world continues).
The first half of the concert contains commissions, old and new, and they ranged from "okay" to "pretty good" - a Benji Ellen Schiller piece was quite nice, as was an Israeli commission that followed.
But the second half was the most amazing performance of Bloch's "Sacred Service" I have ever heard. More significant, it's was the best performance that Judy, who has performed the piece, had ever heard. It wasn't just new melodies to which the Reform Friday night service of 1929 (when this was premiered) was set. Bloch entirely rethought how each prayer should be arranged and sung, and in so doing, created a spiritual work of enormous power. After a long, wonderful service, Bloch ended with a rethinking of Adon Olam that will probably change how I hear that prayer (no longer, in my mind, the ditty with which we end the service) from this point forth.
I feel as I did when I saw King Crimson about 30 years ago—this is not music that I thought interested me, but damn, how amazingly powerful. And, for once, HaZamir was better than ever. This is the way to celebrate a significant anniversary. Josh Jacobson, the co-founder and director should feel very proud of himself, as should all of the participants.
Cantor Sam Weiss posts to the Jewish-Music mailing list:
The Cantors Assembly has recently released a 6-CD set of digitally remastered recordings of Yossele Rosenblatt (including his Yiddish recordings). The set comes with Hebrew and English texts, and indications of original recording dates. In addition, the out-of-print Rosenblatt biography by his son Samuel Rosenblatt has been reprinted.
Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt re-issues
This announcement prompted an immediate reply:
...Which reminds me of the one about the cantor who bragged that he was "the third Yossele Rosenblatt."
"And who is the SECOND Yossele Rosenblatt?" asked one member of the congregation.
"There could BE no second Yossele Rosenblatt!" scowled the cantor.
In this case, it's an album by Ramón Tasat, César Lerner and Marcelo Moguilevsky, reviewed by Cantor Sam Weiss for the KlezmerShack. It was Cantor Weiss' goal to make this available during the High Holiday period. Happily, the review is none the less interesting and pertinent for the delay.
Judith Pinnolis, who maintains the Jewish Music Web Center, has recently inaugurated a new section of CD reviews:
"There is a new, "new CD Reviews" section on the Jewish Music WebCenter. So far, only the first one is on the new page, but it's about the 3-CD set of music released by Shearith Israel in honor of the 350th in America celebration. The old pages are still there too, (so far)."
Other pages relevant to lovers of new reviews include her other reviews and review sites page, and CD announcements -- the 'blog')
There never seems to be time to review everything I'd like to write about. When music this good arises, I find myself listening over and over and forgetting to move on. That's okay. That's why I listen and write in the first place. So, from Australia to Ireland via California and Salonika via NYC, here are the latest. If you are getting an early start on your Chanuka shopping this coming weekend, pay good attention - these are the new musics that folks will be wanting:
The Fig Tree, 2003
This is a delightful collection of Greek, Jewish, and other music, accompanying a book on immigrants to Australia by Arnold Zable. Don't let the distance from Australia stop you from listening to this, hearing the latest from our favorite Australian klezmer bands, and hearing some wonderful other music, as well.
CeiliZemer / Shalom Ireland, 2003
Continuing the international tour, this soundtrack to a documentary about Jews in Ireland fuses the two musics delightfully. Yes, indeed, think of what hasidic music (and klezmer) might have been like if the uillean pipes had been available in Eastern Europe. There's still time to add them here.
David Chevan / Days of Awe, 2003
Chevan has gathered his Afro-Semitic Experience, including guitar wizzard Stacy Phillips, and added Frank London. The result is exquisite jazz versions of music from the High Holy Days. If you like this sort of thing (I do), this is definitely the sort of thing that you will like.
Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys, 2003
Today's theme seems to be fusion music. You got yer Greeks and Klezmers; you got yer Irish and Klezmers. And when you're especially lucky, you got your bluegrass klezmers. But, it's a Margot Leverett album, so you already knew that it would be on your "essential klezmer" list, anyway. I think of Leverett the way I think of Jeff Warschauer and Deborah Strauss - if she's involved, it's not only amazing, but it's comfort music - the perfect accompaniment for when you feel great, and an even better accompaniment for when you need a lift.
Sarah Aroeste / A la una, 2003
Solomon & Socalled / HipHopKhasene, 2003
As much fun as I had writing about everything else, this is my favorite of the bunch. Witty, brilliant, funny, and great music. The album features not only the amazing Socalled, but Oi Va Voi's Sophie Solomon. Guests include David Krakauer, Zev Feldman, Frank London, Michael Alpert, Elaine Hoffman-Watts and daughter Susan... even Jewish-music mailing list regular, Cantor Sam Weiss. Essential for all but the humor-impaired.
George Robinson announces a slew of new music columns published almost all together in New York's Jewish Week:
Five-Star Klez: From New Orleans and Odessa, fusion and traditional approaches.
A Fall Sampler: From Solomon Rossi to Michael Strassfeld.
Heard Around The World: From Turkey to London to the Lower East Side.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
It gives me the greatest of pleasure, after more than 7 years of travail, to announce that over 2,000 sheets of shul music have now been scanned and put on the www.shulmusic.org site.
Stephen Simpson
Moderator, Shul Music List
steves@shani.net
This event may be of interest to musicians and enthusiasts who wish to
explore the art and repertoire of classic East-European Hazzanut "from the
inside".
Kutshers Country Club, New York
The "Rozhinke Retreat" is an effort to preserve and continue the great Cantorial art tradition of yesteryear. At the turn of the Millenium, we have seen many Jewish cultural revivals: Yiddish, Klezmer... and Hazzanut is due a revival of its own.
This retreat has its roots in the great Cantorial stylings of such renowned Hazzanim as Yossele Rosenblatt, David Kousevitsky, Zavel Kwartin and many others--with an emphasis not on historical examination, but rather living reproduction of an art form which is so intrinsically Jewish, and so passionate, so filled with pathos and sweetness, that it can only be described as "Rozhinke" --the sweet sound of raisins and almonds.
For further info:
rozhinke.org
Irwin Oppenheim's "Chazzanut Online" is such a wonderful site. He has updated it with loads more material - do take a look!
My first conversation with Kurt Bjorling took place almost ten years ago and had much to do with the difficulty of being the "other" Chicago klezmer band (Kurt co-founded the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble), and a lot to do with the tapes of Naftule Brandwein that he was passing around to fellow musicians who had no access at the time to Brandwein's amazing and influential repertoire.
Bjorling's exploration of klezmer, and then beyond, all of Eastern European Jewish music has been profound and influential. On this newest recording, he and his wife, harpist Annette Bjorling, take all of that: klezmer, nusakh, nign, and meld it into a delightful, thoughtful, articulate and gentle album of clarinet-harp duos.
Although many klezmer fans will enjoy this album, I think the people who will most enjoy it are those who have been more interested in classical music, or cantorial music or hassidic nign. There is less of the dance party here and more of a spiritual journey. You can read the entire review at http://www.klezmershack.com/bands/bjorling/gedanken/bjorling.gedanken.html
An exchange between Joel Bresler and Sam Weiss on the Jewish-Music list last summer elicited some excellent items about Jewish Liturgical music:
First, Joel posted the following link to a site with a good, articles on Jewish liturgy and liturgical music: www.liturgica.com/html/litJLit.jsp?hostname=liturgica
I found that I had to search on "Jewish Liturgy" to find the wealth of articles on the site--I didn't find a table of contents. But there are some very interesting-looking articles, for sure.
Sam Weiss, responded to Joel's post, noting: ... The article by Eliyahu Schleiffer [in three parts on this site. ari] is an excellent "thumbnail course" on Jewish liturgical music.... I'd like to return the favor by pointing out the following wonderful website on cantors of Alsace-Lorraine, with some great sound files: www.sdv.fr/judaisme/histoire/rabbins/hazanim/index.htm
We were distracted last summer and almost missed this wonderful article about Italian Jewish Musical traditons, by Ruth Gruber (whose most recent book is the rather amazing "Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe"). In particular, she highlights work done by Francesco Spagnolo, one of my favorite Italians, who seems to be single-handedly responsible for growing awareness in the field:
Centuries-old liturgical tradition comes alive on CD of Jewish tunes.
Irwin Oppenheim writes to the Jewish-music mailing list:
I've just become aware of an amazing project by Josh Sharfman.
He has recorded an Eastern European Ashkenazi nusach of more or less the whole year and made it available on his website in no less than 725 MP3 tracks!
This is the url: www.virtualcantor.com.
It's about time, but we finally have a short review up of the marvellous recent CD by Laura Wetzler, Kabbalah Music
Every year, George Robinson pegs the best of the albums that he has reviewed. The Klezmershack is months behind, so I'm just getting this up now. Still, the choices are excellent, so any time is the right time to read them:
OPEN THE GATES! is a representative sampling (or as representative as one CD can be)--18 selections, by 18 different composers and performers--of contemporary American-Jewish religious folk music, reflecting the inclusive, intimate, and lyrical style of contemporary Jewish prayer music--and incorporating various American folk and popular styles (bluegrass/country/world music/a cappella/"light" jazz; guitars and fiddles, pianos and flutes) in the characteristic manner of Jewish musical fusion. It is unusual--and perhaps unique--for including under one virtual roof the music of almost every segment of the American Jewish community--from the more-or-less yeshiva world to Jewish Renewal, and many in between. The compiler is Robert Cohen.
New release Rubin/Ottens Jewish Music Series Wergo:
Cantor Isaac Algazi: Sweet Singer of Israel Ottoman Jewish Music from the Early 20th Century, SM 1622-2, Available on 6 May, 2002; probably will be available 8 weeks later in US. Rabbi Isaac Algazi (b. 1889 Izmir/Turkey, d. 1950 Montevideo/Uruguay), the "Sweet Singer of Israel", was one of the most outstanding cantors of the Turkish-Jewish synagogue. One of the leading Turkish-Jewish intellectuals of his time, Algazi was the first to establish the art of solo cantorial singing in the public prayer of Sephardi Jews, influencing 20th century Sephardi cantorial music throughout the world.
Continue reading "Cantor Isaac Algazi: Sweet Singer of Israel" »
"The Musical Tradition of the Eastern European Synagogue: History and Definition by Sholom Kalib." Publication date: March 2002. Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr. Binding: Hardcover. Subjects: Music; Ethnomusicology; History & Criticism.