New Jewish music for the global village
by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., November 2000) - Writing about the centuries-old tradition of prayer music in his brand-new "Guide to Jewish Prayer," world-renowned Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz says, "There has always been constant tension between two contradictory trends: the conscious or unconscious influence of local music, and the desire to emphasize the differences, in order not to reach the point of cultural assimilation."

This age-old dynamic informs the makers of contemporary Jewish music, sacred or secular, as much as it did Hasidic rebbes in the Polish forests of the 18th century or cantors in Spain during the Golden Age. The only difference is that today there really is no such thing as "local music." In the global village, all music is local, and a composer in New York is as likely to be influenced by Moroccan chant or classical Indian sitar as he is by urban club music or the latest trend in electro-hip-hop beats.

Thus, there has possibly never been a more fruitful, creative time for Jewish music (or any music, for that matter). With a world of influences at their disposal, contemporary Jewish composers and musicians are building upon centuries-old tradition while reimagining and recombining Jewish styles and forms in surprisingly new and varied ways.

This dynamic is also, coincidentally, the same dynamic that powers the Hanukah story, which was all about the ancient struggle between assimilation and traditionalism, in particularly, the struggle against Hellenization. This month and next, we will take a look at a bevy of new Jewish music recordings, which in various ways reflect and respond to the reality of life in the "global shtetl."

"A Jewish Odyssey" is one of a series of new CDs focusing on music of particular cultures produced by world music label Putumayo. The recording is aptly titled for Hanukah, employing as it does the Greek term for a voyage of discovery. A sort of Jewish world-beat sampler that features 11 tracks from around the world, including the Middle East, South America, Europe and Africa, the album combines the familiar and, in the tradition on an odyssey, "Fel Shara" by Italy's KlezRoym is a typical stew: a Sephardic love song with a klezmer-style melody that features Spanish guitar, mariachi horns and lyrics in five different languages. Zohar's "Shabbat Medley" features Moroccan cantor Aaron Bensoussan singing a Sephardic version of the Shabbat staple, "Lecha Dodi," atop avant-garde keyboardist Uri Caine's Hammond organ. Janet and Jak Esim, whose work attempts to document the unique, rich legacy of Turkish-Sephardic music, are represented here, as is singer-songwriter Consuelo Luz, who, although raised as a Catholic, has investigated and revived Ladino prayers and songs since discovering her hidden Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

"A Jewish Odyssey" also includes a track by Yemenite/Israeli pop singer Ofra Haza, a collaboration between Israeli folksinger Chava Alberstein and the Klezmatics, a tune by the Klezmer Conservatory Band featuring a mandolin solo by Jeff Warschauer, and one number by Uzca, an enigmatic Californian who sings original Jewish melodies in an ersatz, Hebrew-sounding language he claims has mystical, universal connotations.

"Simcha," Shawn Weaver's first album with his band, Shawn's Kugel, was a lot of fun, but the follow-up, "Most Precious of Days" (Popover) is even better. The Seattle-based musician/composer continues his eclectic ways, including a jazzy rendition of "Az Ikh Vel Zogn" featuring luscious vocals by Wendy Marcus and great instrumental solos.

Weaver proves himself a composer of merit on several originals, including the boozy, dreamy "Erica" and a new, reggae setting of "Hine Ma Tov." But he really pushes the envelope as an arranger on a Middle Eastern-inflected version of Naftule Brandwein's classic "Heyser Bulgar," a multi-layered saxophone rendition of the traditional "Skocne" that recalls the World Saxophone Quartet, a sinuous "Jo Hanino," which features delicate call-and-response verses between mandolin and keyboards, and a jazzy, Latinized version of the Hasidic staple, "Yismekhu," with a great piano improvisation by Steve Rice and haunting vocals by Marcus. In all, a deep, rich work of new/old Jewish music.

As always, John Zorn's Tzadik label, particularly its Radical Jewish Culture imprint, is a rich source of traditional and cutting-edge Jewish music. Gary Lucas's "Street of Lost Brothers" on Tzadik is the follow-up to his wonderful "Busy Being Born." Like that album, "Street" is an eclectic potpourri, including guitar instrumentals by the wizard instrumentalist, updates of traditional tunes ("Yigdal," "Sh'ma," "Let My People Go") arranged and played like you've never heard them before by his wacky band of confreres Gods and Monsters, and gems rescued from obscurity like "Mahzel Means Good Luck" and his own "Tel Aviv Ghetto Fighters' Song," which prefigured Radical Jewish Culture in Taipei, Taiwan, of all places, where it was first recorded back in 1976.

The highlight of Lucas's album may well be its most unique piece: an 11-minute musical sculpture based on the traditional melody for the "Sh' ma" prayer. The piece reunites Lucas with his childhood friend and former collaborator, Walter Horn, whose dreamy synthesized keyboards mesh organically with Lucas's highly textured guitars. The music suitably wails out its melody as it first cries out for attention and then makes its case for the unity of all creation.

Along the way, Lucas, a genius composer and conceptualist who has played with everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Jeff Buckley to Captain Beefheart, tosses in some Wagner, some Irving Berlin and a shrapnel-laced version of "European Son" by that great Jewish rock band, the Velvet Underground. His guitar playing, as always, is unique - he doesn't play it so much as he conducts it. But more than all of this, Lucas constructs an edifice of radical Jewish originality.

Other recent albums from Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series include Jamie Saft's "Sovlanut." Multi-instrumentalist Saft (keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion) works with contemporary club music - dub, drum 'n' bass, etc. - to create new music that speaks to and comments on Jewish culture mixing with Black and Arab culture in Saft's hometown of Brooklyn, N.Y. Jewish-style keyboard melodies waft over electronica beats and sampled vintage cantorial recordings, making for a curious, surprisingly organic fusion of ancient and modern. Great club music, too.

Satlah is the brainchild of Israeli-born saxophonist Danny Zamir, whose sax-bass-drums trio plays original jazz compositions and improvisations very much in the mold of Zorn's Masada quartet. The group's eponymous debut album on Tzadik shows Zamir to be an adept improviser with a fluent melodic vocabulary that he wields with disarming ease. The trio swings its Middle Eastern melodies in a variety of rhythms, including the ever-growing genre of Jewish calypso.

Tim Sparks's "Tanz," also on Tzadik, is the follow-up to last year's solo guitar record, "Neshamah." This time out the acoustic guitarist extraordinaire is joined by bassist Greg Cohen and percussionist Cyro Baptista, and their subtle accompaniment lends sophisticated rhythmic and harmonic contrast to Sparks's playing on classic klezmer melodies as well as selections from the Sephardic and Oriental repertoires. In any language, it's a feast for lovers of acoustic guitar music.

For several years, Connecticut musicians David Chevan and Warren Byrd have been exploring Afro-Jewish unity through their combined musical efforts. "Let Us Break Bread Together" (Reckless DC) is the follow-up to their debut, "Avadim Hayinu (Once We Were Slaves)." On the new recording, subtitled "Further Explorations of the Afro-Semitic Experience," pianist Byrd and bassist Chevan approach traditional Hebrew prayers and Negro spirituals as the raw material for jazz.

The musicians improvise on the songs' strong melodic cores, but they also play with the rhythm. "Eliyahu Hanavi," for example, is given a tango lift before pianist Byrd takes off on a dazzling, giddy solo that touches down in Monk and stride territory. It suits the piece, which celebrates the coming of the Messiah. Most importantly, "Let Us Break Bread Together" works as a jazz duet album, and can be enjoyed for the sheer beauty and musicality of the playing.

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