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One of my favorites among the many tunes popularized by Adrienne Cooper, here played by Marilyn Lerner, with three of Toronto's most exciting vocalists. A good listen on a Shabbes eve on my way to a shul dinner where we'll hear a speaker from Israeli on the upcoming elections. May all have this song in their hearts as they vote:
From Eve Sicular:
My 2009 Sara Ivry interview just re-posted by Tablet Magazine in time for our 2015 sneak preview of the new run for 'J. EDGAR KLEZMER: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files' (Feb 6th at The Actors Temple NYC; Feb 12-15 at Centenary Stage Company, Hackettstown NJ). I obtained the declassified documents on Grandma—Dr. Adele Sicular—through a Freedom of Information Act request, and created a piece of musical documentary theater we're now bringing back with Isle of Klezbos & Metropolitan Klezmer bandmates. A few government surveillance revelations have surfaced meanwhile.
If you're not on their email list, or their snailmail list, or you aren't following them on Facebook, then you probably don't know yet that the Boston Jewish Music Festival has announced this year's schedule. We're talking about a range that goes from "Sacred songs of Hindus and Jews" with Cantor Randall Schloss and Deepti Navaratna, to a movie about Doc Pomus and the return of Israeli world-music ensemble Yemen Blues. Did I mention Sarah Aroeste and Diwan Saz (piyyut music via Israel)?
It's cold outside. What better time to start planning your spring: www.bostonjewishmusicfestival.org
Jeremiah Lockwood is the long-time frontman for one of the most interesting young Jewish bands, The Sway Machinery. He is creating some of the most interesting new Jewish music today. The grandson of a cantor, he has been musing about khazones in several recent forums. This blog post from Jewish Currents is one facet of that engagement:
Legendary voices: The education of the great cantors, by Jeremiah Lockwood, posted Dec 2, 2014.
This is no casual interest. Lockwood has recently released an album of works inspired by the music of Cantor Zebulon Kwartin, Songs of Zebulon, with help from several luminaries of the NY music scene: Frank London, Ron Caswell, Brian Drye, and Shoko Nagai. The album is on the "Blue Thread" label (an imprint of Jewish Currents and is both a Lockwood original, and to a lesser, but still significant degree, Frank London's ongoing exploration of khazones. The voice is the voice of a khazan, but the music pulls in sounds from the blues, from North Africa, from spirituality around the world in an exciting, not always easy, mix. For people like me, this is the sort of music we keep waiting for—something that listens to tradition from other ears, and with an exciting patchwork of twentieth century identities. For one hint of how that all pulls together, listen to the slide on "B'rach Dodi" (I assume it is Lockwood's blues slide.) There are also flashes of familiarity, as with the album's closing "Od Ha-Pa'am" ("Once again"). You can find out more about Cantor Kwartin and his time, and listen to samples, from the project website, or get your own copy directly from Blue Thread.When I post online about the latest outrages around the world, I most often find myself saying some variant on, "we won't have peace until all sides care about each other's children as their own." Here's an effort to drive that idea home, sent by Yale Strom:
My song "What Time Will It Be" composed by me and lyrics by me and Elizabeth Schwartz is on this recording with many other world renown artists. Please tell others. All money raised goes to the cause of helping children in war torn areas throughout the world.
youtu.be/yeaCI_KNBdE featuring: Yale Strom, Ahmed Mukhtar, Robin Hogarth, Blessings Nqo Nkomo and Slim Ali & The Hodi Boys.