Felicia Shpall of Bashert Klezmer Band
rescues the art of Yiddish song, 3/26/00

by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., March 28, 2000) -- When was the last time you were totally blown away by a performance? You know the kind I mean, when what you see totally shocks and surprises you, and defies all the expectations and preconceptions you had going into the show?

As a music critic, I see a lot of concerts, Jewish and not, and this happens at most once a year and if I'm lucky, twice.

So I'm writing today to tell you about my most recent surprise. This past Sunday night, I took the mishpokhe to see the Bashert Klezmer Band. It's a new group, a quartet, with several familiar faces. With Sruli Dresdner and Lisa Mayer of "Oy Vey!" and Klezchester fame, and Brian Bender of the Wholesale Klezmer Band and too many other side projects to count, we knew, or I should say, we thought we knew, what we could expect: a solidly performed show of mostly traditional klezmer infused with a heymishe Yidishkayt.

Boy, was I wrong!

This isn't to say that Bashert didn't solidly perform "a show of mostly traditional klezmer infused with a heymishe Yidishkayt," but merely it was so much more!

First of all, besides being a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist, holding down the accordion, clarinet and pok seats, Sruli was a deeply warm and personal musician, particularly on clarinet. Drawing on his childhood background in Hasidism, he brought a vibrant spirituality to his playing, which at times reminded me of Andy Statman, but even warmer than Statman.

Lisa, too, transcended "solid" and was a dynamic soloist and accompanist, one who executed hard-driving melodies and pulsing sekunde rhythms with equal aplomb. And Brian Bender gets better every time I see him; he is an inventive musician on trombone, piano and melodica, continually exploring new roles for the instruments in the ensemble. And as an ensemble, the trio played with freewheeling spirit and a seamless telepathy.

And then there was the ringer.

The fourth member of Bashert was the only one with whom I was totally unfamiliar, and, I believe, with whom most readers of this list are likewise.

I don't know very much about vocalist Felicia Shpall, other than that for the last 15 years or so she has been a major force in the Double-Edge Theater, an avant-garde Jewish theater troupe that apparently frequently performed at the Cracow Yiddish cultural festival.

I don't think she has extensive experience performing Yiddish vocal music, not that you could tell, because Felicia apparently was born to sing "Mekhuteneste Mayne" and the like.

Think you could live the rest of your life without ever hearing that song, or "Di Seposhkelakh," again? Think again. Not only will you hear these songs in a whole new light when you hear Felicia sing them; you'll want to hear her sing them again and again.

I don't know where to start in talking about Felicia. It's almost embarrassing to be so effusive, but, as I said, I haven't felt like this since I saw Bruce Springsteen on his comeback tour last August at the Fleet Center in Boston. Because that's the level of focus, intensity and theatricality that Felicia brought to the show. Arena-sized, in a small, coffeehouse-style venue she and Bashert transformed into an Old World tavern for an evening (the place was Club Helsinki in Great Barrington, Mass., and all klezmorim within a day's drive should call them up or send promo kits immediately while the klezmer vibes are still hot there).

Felicia's theatrical background was immediately apparent. But it wasn't the sort of "excessive theatricality" that unfortunately too often spells "schmaltz." I don't know if there's a fine line or not between "schmaltz" and what Felicia pulled off. Maybe it had something to do with her virtuosic vocals. She has a deep voice, which swung from cantorial style, with the requisite krekhtsn, tshoks and kneytshn all in the right places, to Second Avenue and a bit of post-Second Avenue Broadway, to cabaret, with the occasional, slight hint of jazz and chansons. All of it incredibly artfully done, parceled out with just the right amount of sugar and spice, and just the right amount of edge.

I guess maybe it's that edge that makes all the difference. But this wasn't camp, either. Felicia never camped it up, and there was no post-modern, ironic winking of the eye. IT was a fully-committed performance of classic and modern Yiddish theater and art songs (others included "Kotsk," "Chernobyl," "Pastikhl," "Aye Lyu, Lyu Mayn Tayere," and "Ani Ma Amin"), delivered in an intimate setting, with just the right amount of cabaret-style walking into the audience and singing directly to audience members. Her Yiddish rolled off her tongue as if she was a native speaker (thank her grandmother for speaking Yiddish to her). And Felicia's earthy sensuality somehow made it timeless: both classic and contemporary, without breaking the spell. I guess I can get around the sexist commentary by quoting one of the women in my party, who said afterwards, "You just wanted to take a bite out of her." Indeed.

For whatever reason, there are so few who can really pull off this repertoire, the Yiddish vocal repertoire, without sending a discerning listener screaming for the exits. I can count them on one hand, and they include Fraidy Katz of The Klezical Tradition and of course, the great Adrienne Cooper. And their styles are totally different.

But I kid you not, Felicia Shpall (who?) is right up there with the best of them. As I said, I know little about her, and I don't even know if she's really serious about making a career out of this (she apparently has other, non-musical work in mind, too, but I'll leave it to her to do the explaining if she feels like it). If she didn't, it would be a huge loss to Yiddish music.

IN addition to Bashert, Shpall apparently performs with a NYC-based group called the Yiddishkeit Klezmer Ensemble.

I can't tell if I've done an adequate job describing just how amazing a performer she is. I'll also be writing a "professional" review of this show for the Berkshire Eagle (I'm avoiding doing just that by writing this to the list) - look elsewhere on the website for it.

[This review originally appeared on the Jewish Music from a World Slant discussion list on March 28, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]

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