The Long Silence . . .

I seem to be incubating a low-grade infection of some sort. I'm sleeping around the clock at odd hours (yeah, I do that anyway) and generally feeling listless. I keep up with the paying work, though and have a couple of new pieces at Jewish Week as usual. I think that readers of this blog will find my piece on unpublished Mendelssohn materials particularly interesting. I was particularly fascinated by Stephen Somary's remarks about Mendelssohn's possibly gravitating back to Judaism.

Two Days, A Lot of Music and Very Little Sleep

Sounds like the title of a Theo Angelopoulos film starring John Malkovich and Marcello Mastroianni, but it's really a description of the last couple of days in which I did Schmooze and Oyhoo. I'll have a lot more to say about that shortly. Right now, I'm looking out the window at snow falling and preparing to go back to bed.

A Couple of Quick Notes

I could blame my day-long silence on Spurs' dreadful showing against Wigan -- Jeez, Harry, what's wrong with you guys? -- or the abrupt departure of the Giants from the playoff scene (although I expected that one), but in truth it's a combination of deadlines and indolence. I just look out the window and see all that snow, ice and what-have-you and think, "why should I lift a finger, it's miserable out there."

In fact, I did pry my sorry self out of the house Sunday for a pleasant lunch with my friend and colleague Bob Lamm, a prelude to an invigorating chamber music concert by the Motyl Chamber Ensemble at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall. What makes that apposite for inclusion here is that the group's stated goal is to "present music written by composers who were victims of the Nazi regime." Of course, the overwhelming majority of those musicians were Jewish, including all four of the composers whose work was on display yesterday afternoon. Motyl is an all-women group, although their numbers were augmented at Weill by tenor Erik Nelson Werner, who brought a strong voice and stage presence to bear on song cycles by Mieczyslaw Weinberg (a U.S. premiere of a handful yiddish versdes by Shmuel Halkin, which Weinberg set during the war) and Robert Kahn. In some ways it is a somber program, not so much for the circumstances in which the composers found themselves, but more for the dark rumblings of early modernism in works like the Weinberg songs and Karl Weigl's forceful String Quartet No. 3 in A Major, Op. 4, which received a particularly stirring reading from Julie Artzt Becker and Aleeza Wadler (violins), Anoush Simonian (viola) and Ellen Rose Silver (cello). Vivan Chang Freiheit provided admirable piano accompaniment for Werner (although in their very first foray, a serenade from Don Giovanni that provided the basis for improvisation and variations by Hans Gal, which followed, she threatened to overwhelm him; I hesitate to mention it, because the problem could be acoustical rather than musical, and their subsequent collaborations betrayed no such problems).

On the whole, an afternoon well-spent (for me, if not for the Giants or Tottenham). Happily, this New York-based group is going to be performing several times this spring. For more information (and a few tantalizing sound clips) go to their website.

If time was scarce this weekend, it's only going to get worse over the next few days. Today is a deadline day, but I'll try to post a couple of record reviews before 24 hours have elapsed. Tuesday and Wednesday, however, are full up: Michael Dorf's annual Schmooze conference for Jewish arts presenters and artists, a fruitful venture for all concerned, and his Oyhoo Jewish Musical Heritage festival will be eating up all my time. I'm pretty sure tickets can still be had for the festival, which is utilizing some brand-new venues -- 92Y Tribeca and Dorf's own City Winery -- and the kind of star-power that Michael usually attracts. For more info check out the websites for City Winery, the Oyhoo Festival and 92Y Tribeca. I haven't decided where I'll be on those two nights -- I want to check out both halls and there's a lot of great music playing in both of them each night. We'll see. And if you find me there, you can buy me a beer. Or maybe a bisl seltzer.

Finally, you can also find me on Facebook where, for some mysterious reason, I am listed under my full -- very WASPy -- name, George Richard Robinson. (Don't ask me. I'll give you my mother's phone number and you can bother her.) I must say that, after only a few days of it, I find the Facebook experience fascinating and a bit overwhelming. I could never understand how someone could spend hours on line in chatrooms or messaging, but I'm beginning to see how it happens. I'm also beginning to sense how Facebook can be a brilliant marketing and community-building tool. Who knows? I may even use it that way sometime.

The Right Way to Handle an Economic Downturn

Earlier today, I received an impassioned e-mail from an arts lobbying group in New York State, trying desperately to avert a $7m cut in state arts funding. My first reaction was that, although I make my living in the arts as a film and music critic and reporter, I can think of even more worthwhile ways to spend tax dollars. (I spent 20 years as a volunteer in the Buddy Program of Gay Men's Health Crisis, so I'm particularly peeved about cutbacks in AIDS funding at the state and municipal levels, to choose one obvious example.)

Then I looked at a series of stories that appeared in The Art Newspaper, an excellent trade paper covering the visual arts world. The headlines say it all:

Government in France Increases Cultural Spending
Government in Germany Increases Cultural Spending
Government in Israel Increases Cultural Spending

Two thoughts occur to me after reading these stories. First, The Art Newspaper needs some new headline writers and, second and more seriously, here are three western nations, each of them with plenty of problems caused by the worldwide economic -- oh hell, let's call it what it is -- depression, that have decided to use cultural spending as a kind of pump-priming mechanism, secure in the belief that major cultural projects create jobs, promote tourism and help keep money moving through their national economies.

Pretty radical idea, that. Somewhere, Jesse Helms is rotating mighty fast, I hope. In fact, UNESCO has recommended that member states have culture budgets that are 1% of the national budget. I'd love to see Congress implement that number in the U.S. The 2008 federal budget totals $2.9 trillion, which means that NEA funding would be just under $3bn. In fact, for FY 2008, the NEA budget is $144.7 million, the NEA's about the same. There are, undoubtedly, other culture-related items in the federal budget (the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for example), but I'm betting that they don't bring total to $2.9 bn.

When President-elect Obama is thinking about economic stimulus, I hope he includes cultural funding in his infrastructure package. Franklin Roosevelt did, and the WPA was one of the great examples of what can be done by a government that is willing to put money into the cultural realm without meddling in the content of the programs that result. I guess I will write that letter after all. (And if you are a New York State resident, you can do likewise here.

Off-Topic but Very Important

Important event in Washington Heights, Sunday January 18

On Sunday, January 18 at 1:30 p.m. Hebrew Tabernacle and Beth Am, the People's Temple will be hosting their third annual Amnesty International Write-a-Thon. Here is an opportunity to save a human life by doing something as simple as writing a letter. During last year's Global Write-a-thon, people in more than 30 countries sent over 150,000 letters, postcards and emails on behalf of prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders, and others at risk. At least three of the prisoners were freed because of your support.

At HT-BA, we sent out over a hundred letters in one afternoon. And you won't even have to pay the postage. Plus, we'll supply soda and pizza. It's a great opportunity to contribute to the ongoing struggle for human rights and share a pleasant afternoon with friends and neighbors.

When: Sunday, January 18, 1:30 p.m.
Where: Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation, 551 Fort Washington Avenue (at 185th St.)
For directions go to http://hebrewtabernacle.org/directions.htm or phone 212-568-8304.

I look forward to seeing you there.

News and Housekeeping

Well, it didn't take very long did it? I mean, this was supposed to be a write-up of my interview with Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz. Those of you who are longtime regular readers of my film blog (plug.plug.plug), are probably resigned to my inability to keep to a schedule previously announced. But in the first week?

Yeah, but as I'm sure you will all admit, paying work comes first. Deadlines prevailed and I will get to that inteview before the week is out.

In the meantime, there are some great events coming up that are worth your venturing out in the frozen rain, snow and -- okay, in LA it's probably 80 degrees and sunny, even though it's about 10 at night there as I write this.

A.J. Teshin, whose album, The Kurt Weill Project, I'll be reviewing later this week (I promise!), is doing a piano-and-voice set of Weill Friday evening, 1/9 at the MBar (Vine Plaza on the corner of Vine and Fountain, 1253 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA). Reservations are a necessity; phone number is 323-856-0036. I have some misgivings about the album, but Teshin has a beautiful voice and does Weill proud.

Yoshie Fruchter and his jazz-rock-noise-punk-Jewish music band, Pitom, are playing Saturday night, 1/10 at The Jewish Music Café (401 9th Street, Brooklyn, NY) with Benji Fox-Rosen's Minutn Fun Bitokhn. The show starts at 8 pm.

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb will be playing the same night as part of the NYC Winter Jazzfest. For more info, go here.

Same night, same town, Ryan Cohan and Omer Avital meet up for a program that will include the world premiere of Avital's "Song of a Land." Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 8:00pm, Merkin Concert Hall ( 129 West 67th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam).

Finally, Sunday afternoon in the lovely town of Madison, CT (where I've occasionally been guest speaker at their Sunday Cinema Club), Josh Horowitz and Cookie Siegelstein, two-thirds of Veretski Pass, will be performing at the Scranton Library.For directions to Scranton Library or to RSVP, please call (203)265-7365.

My Ten-Best List for 2008

Hey, you don't know how good you've got it; my ten-best films list won't be posted until March. (Really. I'm not kidding. Go to my other blog and you'll find out why.)

In terms of sheer volume this year saw the proverbial bumper crop of Jewish music recordings in release. Fortunately, the quality was outstanding as well. In fact, the only reason this year’s best-of list has only ten recordings on it – each of them awarded five stars here earlier this year, is because the backlog of CDs in our office is so huge. That said, it was another annus mirabilis for diversity as well. This year’s best recordings include everything from jazz-meets-hazonos to European-style klezmer, from Yemenite songs and poetry to liturgy set as electric blues. In short, the usual wildly variegated auditory rainbow that is Jewish music. May 2009 be as fertile!

Afro-Semitic Experience, The: “Yizkor – Music of Memory” (Reckless DC Music). From the opening bass notes of this set, stating the theme of David Chevan’s “Mah Adam,” you know you are in the hands of some powerful musical voices – centered, focused, inventive. I’ve always thought that bassist Chevan and pianist Warren Byrd, the band’s founders and leaders, derived a lot of their inspiration from the mystical wing of the ‘60s jazz avant-garde, from the likes of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. This brilliant recording confirms that notion. Unlike Sanders and some of his groups, though, this band is calm even when storming, precise yet loose. Add to the mix the radiant voice of Cantor Alberto Mizrachi floating above the churning rhythm section and cooing reed players, and Chevan’s forceful settings of the Yizkor liturgy and you have the Afro-Semitic Experience’s best CD to date and one of the most fruitful fusions of jazz and hazanut yet recorded. (Available from www.cdbaby.com.)

Greenbaum, Adrianne: “FleytMuzik In Kontsert” (self-distributed). I recently wrote a lengthy piece on the rise of “old-world” klezmer” in which I managed to discuss at length the violin and the tsimbl and the search for new sources of repertoire without once mentioning the place of the flute in this music. This live set from Adrianne Greenbaum offers an hour’s worth of testimony to my . . . let’s call it an oversight since there may be children listening. Greenbaum probably knows as much about klezmer flute as anyone in the world today, and with nine flutes in her collection used on this set she gives a double meaning to the old jazz compliment, “she plays a lot of flute.” Excellent performances by Greenbaum, Jake Shulman-Ment, Pete Rushefsky and Brian Glassman, and a wonderful collection of new and/or unfamiliar tunes. What more could you asked for in a klezmer album? Available from http://cdbaby.com/cd/greenbaum3.

Ljova and the Kontraband: “Mnemosyne” (Kapustnik Records). When you make a first record as good as Ljova’s, there’s always a worry of “second album syndrome,” or what ballplayers call the sophomore jinx. Don’t worry about it. As good as “Vjola: World on Four Strings” was, this new CD is even better, with the band itself gelling beautifully and Ljova’s writing stronger than ever. You can tell from the opening notes of the album, a strange, scratchy but muted cacophony of percussion effects, that this will be an edgier, nervier package than its predecessor, and there is plenty of risk-taking present. But the simple beauties of the first album have multiplied here into something more complex and richer, reaching for the sublime. Much of the first two-thirds of the record is somber, almost melancholic, but the last two cuts “”Gone Crazy” and “Bagel on the Malecon Reprise” are almost giddy by comparison. All the pieces fit together here, from guest artists like William Schimmel and Frank London to the contributions of the other band members, Patrick Farrell on accordion, Mike Savino on bass and Mathias Kunzli on drums, and Inna Barmash’s three vocals are all superb. Most important, Ljova himself is an extraordinarily expressive violist and a gifted composer. Available from CDBaby.

Monk, Meredith: “Impermanence” (ECM). Monk is one of the giants of the post-‘60s avant-garde, a brilliant performer, composer, choreographer, filmmaker, who has created some remarkably theatrical events using a hand-picked, personally trained ensemble of singer-dancer-performance artists. Monk has said, “"I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema." The new CD preserves (in defiance of its title) her 16-part suite written in the wake of the death of her long-time partner Mieke van Hoek and, as the title suggests, it is a meditation on the evanescence of our lives. The piece begins with a somberly beautiful piano-and-voice by Monk and pianist Allison Sniffin, an astonishing showcase for her vocal pyrotechnics that never loses sight of its intent. With each additional selection, she adds more elements to her palette and the suite builds slowly in a manner that occasionally recalls the early minimalism of Steve Reich et al. In addition to her always superb vocal ensemble, the performances by Sniffin on piano and violin, Bohdan Hilash on woodwinds and John Hollenbeck on percussion are more than noteworthy. Monk’s work has always been refreshingly open in its feelings, even when there are few words, but she has never been more emotionally naked than she is here, and the result is a triumph, the capstone to a brilliant career.

Red Hot Chachkas: “Spice It Up!” (self-distributed). Here’s the kind of frustration that makes the lives of musicians who dedicate themselves to Jewish music so thankless: this second set from the Bay Area-based Chachkas is their first in over five years. Their last CD merited one of my infrequent five-star reviews, and the wait for the new one was downright painful – but definitely worth the pain. This is a playful group with a sense of humor; as proven by such little gems as the reggae intro to “Chosidl Diddle,” or the crazy clockwork and fractured square dance riff of “Stomp It Up,” written by their new clarinetist Barbara Speed. Another fun recording with great musicianship. Available from www.redhotchachkas.com.

“Shtetl Superstars: Funky Jewish Sounds From Around the World” (Trikont), I count it significant that several of the most interesting records under review here come from European or Israeli artists, one of the signs of health that I mentioned above. This sampler ranges all over the place, from thunderous hip-hop of Balkan Beat Box to the ornately rhythmic-romantic klezmer of Oi-Va-Voi, from the mash-up inventions of Solomon and So-Called (featuring Oi-Va-Voi’s Sophie Solomon) to the ska-and-reggae stylings of King Django and Dave Gould. Some of these bands will be familiar, others less so, and you probably won’t like everything on the CD, but as an introduction to the newer trends in post-klemer-revival Jewish music, this is an excellent collection. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083).

“A Song of Dawn: The Jerusalem Sephadi Baqqashot at the Har Tziyon Synagogue” (Jewish Music Research Centre). This is an extraordinary package, six CDs preserving a unique and little-known liturgical-musical tradition practiced in a small number of Sephardic congregations on Jerusalem. The baqqashot are poems/prayers of petition to God and, like the piyutim, a specifically Sephardi tradition. The recordings here have the double value of being authentic field recordings (Har Tziyon performs its baqqashot on Thursday mornings, so Essica Marks, the ethnomusicologist involved in this project, was allowed to record during a service) and the work of a surprisingly accomplished choir of non-professionals, led by Abraham Caspi, the synagogue’s cantor. From the throbbing, pulsating “El mistater (God is concealed)” that opens the first CD, through to the final cut, a melancholy Kaddish sung by Caspi, this is powerfully moving music and, unlike most field recordings, the performances are surprisingly polished. Not to be digested in a single sitting (there are nearly eight hours of music here), this is a rich resource to be dipped into at length and leisure. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). .

Sway Machinery, The: “The Sway Machinery EP” (JDub). If your only exposure to Jeremiah Lockwood and his band was their first CD, a creative but uncompromising excursion into post-punk crash, or his brilliant solo album, with its strange, fractured delta blues, then you are not prepared for this EP. Quite simply, this record is dazzling, a genuinely unique reinterpretation of Jewish religious music that draws on the sinister drone of North Mississippi bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, classical hazanut, post-rock instrumentals, funk horn charts, David Bowie circa “Let’s Dance” and Hasidic storytelling. The set has only six tunes and last a little over 25 minutes, but it’s as striking as anything you’ll hear this year.

Veretski Pass: “Trafik” (Golden Horn). This is a veritable Old World Klez supergroup, with Joshua Horowitz, Stuart Brotman and Cookie Siegelstein together for a second set of Yiddish dance music. Like the first one, which was a five-star effort according to this column, this is a collection of 30 brief tunes, brilliantly played. Siegelstein brings real fire to the threesome, with a biting tone (imagine Jackie McLean as a fiddler) and deft touch. Brotman’s arco playing conveys an underlying melancholy to even the jauntiest of tunes like “Curly Wolf Patch” and Horowitz is equally at home on tsimbl and 19th-century accordion. On a tune like “Noisy Dog,” you hear uncanny echoes (or anticipation) of the American fiddle standards that are the staple of bluegrass jams and square dances, but with the tang of fresh garlic. What else can I say? They’ve done it again, so go buy it.

“With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen” (Jewish Music Research Centre). In Yemenite Jewish society, the diwan is a collection of men’s poetry, song and dance, passed on orally and in writing. This two-CD set from the Jewish Music Research Centre at Hebrew University, is a particularly beautiful example of the genre (albeit without dance of course). In the half-century since the Yemenite Jews were brought to Israel, their traditions have undergone several major changes, but the music is still quite lovely, ornate, pulsating and, on this recording, handsomely song and played. As usual, the scholars at the JMRC have oudone themselves in the packaging of this set, which includes a hard-back book of some 200 pages in English and Hebrew. This is one occasion when the music itself is every bit as good to hear as it is to have preserved. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083).

And Now a Belated Hanukah Round-Up

Actually, only a few of these albmus had a direct Hanukah link, but with JDub was doing its annual Jewltide tour, it seemed like as good a time as any to review their most recent offerings, most of which I really liked.

Featured Recording: Greenbaum, Adrianne: “FleytMuzik In Kontsert” (self-distributed). I recently wrote a lengthy piece on the rise of “old-world” klezmer” in which I managed to discuss at length the violin and the tsimbl and the search for new sources of repertoire without once mentioning the place of the flute in this music. This live set from Adrianne Greenbaum offers an hour’s worth of testimony to my . . . let’s call it an oversight since there may be children listening. Greenbaum probably knows as much about klezmer flute as anyone in the world today, and with nine flutes in her collection used on this set she gives a double meaning to the old jazz compliment, “she plays a lot of flute.” Excellent performances by Greenbaum, Jake Shulman-Ment, Pete Rushefsky and Brian Glassman, and a wonderful collection of new and/or unfamiliar tunes. What more could you asked for in a klezmer album?Available from http://cdbaby.com/cd/greenbaum3 Rating: 5 stars.

Featured Recording: Ljova and the Kontraband: “Mnemosyne” (Kapustnik Records). When you make a first record as good as Ljova’s, there’s always a worry of “second album syndrome,” or what ballplayers call the sophomore jinx. Don’t worry about it. As good as “Vjola: World on Four Strings” was, this new CD is even better, with the band itself gelling beautifully and Ljova’s writing stronger than ever. You can tell from the opening notes of the album, a strange, scratchy but muted cacophony of percussion effects, that this will be an edgier, nervier package than its predecessor, and there is plenty of risk-taking present. But the simple beauties of the first album have multiplied here into something more complex and richer, reaching for the sublime. Much of the first two-thirds of the record is somber, almost melancholic, but the last two cuts “”Gone Crazy” and “Bagel on the Malecon Reprise” are almost giddy by comparison. All the pieces fit together here, from guest artists like William Schimmel and Frank London to the contributions of the other band members, Patrick Farrell on accordion, Mike Savino on bass and Mathias Kunzli on drums, and Inna Barmash’s three vocals are all superb. Most important, Ljova himself is an extraordinarily expressive violist and a gifted composer. Available from CDBaby. Rating: 5 stars.

Featured Recording: Sway Machinery, The: “The Sway Machinery EP” (JDub). If your only exposure to Jeremiah Lockwood and his band was their first CD, a creative but uncompromising excursion into post-punk crash, or his brilliant solo album, with its strange, fractured delta blues, then you are not prepared for this EP. Quite simply, this record is dazzling, a genuinely unique reinterpretation of Jewish religious music that draws on the sinister drone of North Mississippi bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, classical hazanut, post-rock instrumentals, funk horn charts, David Bowie circa “Let’s Dance” and Hasidic storytelling. The set has only six tunes and last a little over 25 minutes, but it’s as striking as anything you’ll hear this year. Rating: 5 stars.

Abelson, Robert, and Joyce Rosenzweig: “A leyter tzum himl/A Ladder to Heaven” (self-distributed). Likie any good art song recital, this CD is a splendid balance of seriousness, elegance and a little playfulness. Abelson, whose baritone has darkened beautifully with the passage of time, is equally comfortable with songs of unrequited love (“”Oy Dortn, Dortn”), religious fervor (“A Nigun”) and sheer laugh-out-loud fun (would you believe a Yiddish version of Figaro’s aria from the Barber of Seville?). He effortlessly combines vocal mastery with a highly developed sense of theater, particularly on an old chestnut like “In Kheyder.” Rosenzweig has long been one of the most sensitive of accompanists, an art in itself, and she and Abelson have an empathetic rapport. Available from http://cdbaby.com/cd/rpajr. Rating: 4 1/2 stars.

Black, Rabbi Joe with the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band: “Eight Nights of Joy” (URJ Books and Music/Sounds Write). Black and the Maxwell Streeters had wanted to collaborate for a while and in December 2006 they finally did a benefit concert in Chicago, which is the source of this recording. Black is one of the better examples of the Reform movement’s folkie singer-songwriters; he’s a deft acoustic guitarist with a rich and flexible voice and – no small thing – a nicely judged sense of humor. Maxwell Street are unfairly overlooked as purveyors of jazz-inflected klezmer and on this set, their horn players and violinist Alex Koffman are particularly lively. The material is all over the place, from a kids-driven “Soufganiot” to a faux country “Yodel Dreidl,” but the best cuts are the instrumentals which allow the band to stretch out. Rating: 4 stars.

Cohen, Erran Baron: “Songs in the Key of Hanukah” (New Line). Yes, he’s Sasha’s brother, but he’s made a name for himself on dance floors around the globe, and on this set he has some heavy-duty collaborators, including Yasmin Levy, Idan Raichel and Y-Love. Unfortunately, the dominant voice is that of London DJ/producer Jules Brookes, who sounds like Johnny Mathis trying to sing the James Brown songbook. The end result is neither as mordant and clever as Socalled, nor as danceable as Raichel or even Cohen’s previous CDs. Rating 2 ½ stars.

Deleon: “Deleon” (JDub). Although Daniel Saks, the leader of this Brooklyn-based band, claims pre-Expulsion Spain as the primary flavor in this slippery but inventive stew, you can probably hear almost as much of Los Lobos or Los Lonely Boys as you might of romanceros. That they draw on Sephardic musical traditions is indisputable, but you aren’t likely to mistake them for Alhambra or Voice of the Turtle. The lightning flashes that carry them from one register to another are occasionally dizzying for their own sake, and the heavy beat underpinning everything is a bit repetitive, but the ideas are interesting, and on the strength of the rockin’ “La Ner V Livsomim” about half-way through the set, I’d like to see what they do on their second album. Rating: 3 stars.

Leverett, Margot and the Klezmer Mountain Boys: “2^nd Avenue Square Dance” (Traditional Crossroads). When their first album came out, I thought that there was something askew in the concept behind this band, but the notion of a klezmer-bluegrass fusion was sufficiently unusual that I hoped that in time the elements would come together. On the basis of this new set, I must reluctantly conclude that I was right the first time. Reluctantly because the musicianship in this band is first-rate. Leverett is one of the best klezmer clarinetists on the planet, and she has surrounded herself with equally talented musicians; you can’t do much better than Kenny Kosek, Barry Mitterhoff, Joe Selly and Marty Confurius, not to mention guests like Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, Jorma Kaukonen and Hankus Netsky. But I still don’t hear a connection between the two halves of the equation, and that’s frustrating. Rating: 3 ½ stars (but the playing is a lot better than that).

Yosef, Tomer: “Laughing Underground” (JDub). One of the masterminds of Balkan Beat Box, Yosef is a fire-breathing Israeli rapper-singer-songwriter who has literally performed hanging upside-down from a beam over the stage during a BBB concert. This, his second solo album, owes as much to reggae and Middle-Eastern rock as to hip-hop. It’s strong on the liquid beats and rhythms of the region. Eminently danceable, this might not knock you on your butt the way BBB does; it’s more like a seduction, but the end result is just as funked-out and fun.( I do wish somebody had included a lyric sheet with translations. Maybe next time?) Rating: 4 stars.

A Landslide of CDs from Mid-2008

As promised, here is a record column (actually, several of them) prepared for the fall but (mostly) unpublished. Some of these reviews managed to find their way into the Jewish Journal of LA, but the majority have not seen the light of day until now. Unhappily, the lead, which was timely in September, is more timely in January 2009. [One small technical note: I haven't linked to Hatikvah Music or CDBaby, because they are in the permanent links lists; other sources for individual albums, however, are linked directly.]

This is not a good time for Jewish music business-wise. The same trends that have injured mainstream music labels affect small niche labels, only more so, and the tottering national – make that global – economy doesn’t help. Of course, the industry mavens like to blame all their troubles on illegal downloaders, but I doubt if Jewish labels are the victims of massive piracy and their woes are, if anything, worse. Brick-and-mortar stores are disappearing, and legal downloads are not taking up the slack. I hear complaints from retailers, wholesalers and label honchos all over the Jewish music world. The irony is that this is happening at a time when artistically Jewish music has never been healthier. Across a remarkably broad range of genres, Jewish musicians are making vital art. The problem is that fewer people will hear it.

Of course, there is a solution. If everyone who reads this [blog] were to buy one of the fifteen records reviewed below . . . well, it wouldn’t alter the state of the economy, nor would it revive all the many dead or dying record labels that specialize in Jewish music, but as the Jewish joke goes, it couldn’t hurt.

Featured Recording: Afro-Semitic Experience, The: “Yizkor – Music of Memory” (Reckless DC Music). From the opening bass notes of this set, stating the theme of David Chevan’s “Mah Adam,” you know you are in the hands of some powerful musical voices – centered, focused, inventive. I’ve always thought that bassist Chevan and pianist Warren Byrd, the band’s founders and leaders, derived a lot of their inspiration from the mystical wing of the ‘60s jazz avant-garde, from the likes of John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. This brilliant recording confirms that notion. Unlike Sanders and some of his groups, though, this band is calm even when storming, precise yet loose. Add to the mix the radiant voice of Cantor Alberto Mizrachi floating above the churning rhythm section and cooing reed players, and Chevan’s forceful settings of the Yizkor liturgy and you have the Afro-Semitic Experience’s best CD to date and one of the most fruitful fusions of jazz and hazanut yet recorded. (Available from www.cdbaby.com.) Rating: 5 stars.

Featured Recording: Monk, Meredith: “Impermanence” (ECM). Monk is one of the giants of the post-‘60s avant-garde, a brilliant performer, composer, choreographer, filmmaker, who has created some remarkably theatrical events using a hand-picked, personally trained ensemble of singer-dancer-performance artists. Monk has said, “"I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema." The new CD preserves (in defiance of its title) her 16-part suite written in the wake of the death of her long-time partner Mieke van Hoek and, as the title suggests, it is a meditation on the evanescence of our lives. The piece begins with a somberly beautiful piano-and-voice by Monk and pianist Allison Sniffin, an astonishing showcase for her vocal pyrotechnics that never loses sight of its intent. With each additional selection, she adds more elements to her palette and the suite builds slowly in a manner that occasionally recalls the early minimalism of Steve Reich et al. In addition to her always superb vocal ensemble, the performances by Sniffin on piano and violin, Bohdan Hilash on woodwinds and John Hollenbeck on percussion are more than noteworthy. Monk’s work has always been refreshingly open in its feelings, even when there are few words, but she has never been more emotionally naked than she is here, and the result is a triumph, the capstone to a brilliant career. Rating: 5 stars

Featured Recording: “Shtetl Superstars: Funky Jewish Sounds From Around the World” (Trikont), I count it significant that several of the most interesting records under review here come from European or Israeli artists, one of the signs of health that I mentioned above. This sampler ranges all over the place, from thunderous hip-hop of Balkan Beat Box to the ornately rhythmic-romantic klezmer of Oi-Va-Voi, from the mash-up inventions of Solomon and So-Called (featuring Oi-Va-Voi’s Sophie Solomon) to the ska-and-reggae stylings of King Django and Dave Gould. Some of these bands will be familiar, others less so, and you probably won’t like everything on the CD, but as an introduction to the newer trends in post-klemer-revival Jewish music, this is an excellent collection. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). Rating: 5 stars

Featured Recording: “A Song of Dawn: The Jerusalem Sephadi Baqqashot at the Har Tziyon Synagogue” (Jewish Music Research Centre). This is an extraordinary package, six CDs preserving a unique and little-known liturgical-musical tradition practiced in a small number of Sephardic congregations on Jerusalem. The baqqashot are poems/prayers of petition to God and, like the piyutim, a specifically Sephardi tradition. The recordings here have the double value of being authentic field recordings (Har Tziyon performs its baqqashot on Thursday mornings, so Essica Marks, the ethnomusicologist involved in this project, was allowed to record during a service) and the work of a surprisingly accomplished choir of non-professionals, led by Abraham Caspi, the synagogue’s cantor. From the throbbing, pulsating “El mistater (God is concealed)” that opens the first CD, through to the final cut, a melancholy Kaddish sung by Caspi, this is powerfully moving music and, unlike most field recordings, the performances are surprisingly polished. Not to be digested in a single sitting (there are nearly eight hours of music here), this is a rich resource to be dipped into at length and leisure. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). Rating: 5 stars.

Cohen, Liat: “Variations Ladino” (Buda Musique). The sixth recording in the excellent series “Patrimoines Musicaux des Juifs de France,” this is pleasant recital by French classical guitarist Liat Cohen. She is joined by guitarist Ricardo Moyano and the Israeli male vocal duo The Parvarim for a set composed mostly of contemporary pieces written in the familiar Ladino styles that we have come to know from groups like Voice of the Turtle. The result is mostly a very sprightly and often surprisingly pop-sounding set, but there are moments of sober classicism, and Cohen is definitely a keeper. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). Rating: 4 stars.

Kanter, Simcha: “Lag B’Omer Live” (IgraRama). Kanter’s new CD is a live set recorded on the festive day of Lag B’Omer, which comes towards the end of the Omer period, a period of mourning and restraint. There is an energy to this record that suggests the release that accompanies the cessation of 33 days of solemnity, and it is no small part of what makes the record rock. The repertoire owes a lot to Shlomo Carlebach but also to Atlantic r&b classics of the ‘60s, especially when Mike Lee is soloing on alto sax with a sound redolent of the great King Curtis. Kanter says at the beginning of the recording, “We do things differently,” and the opening strains of a reggae-powered “Shalom Aleichem” send a strong message that he’s not joking. Available from www.simchakanter.com. Rating: 4 stars.

Lapidus, Benjamin: “Herencia Judia” (Tresero). This is a gentle, genial album from the master of the tres, a Cuban folk instrument that is perched somewhere between guitar, mandolin and ukulele. Lapidus has included at least one Jewish number on each of his previous albums but this time the entire program is a seamless fusion of Afro-Caribbean and Jewish materials. The merger of son, plena, bomba and other Latin music forms with Hebrew liturgy is a pleasing one. There are also wonderful instrumental exchanges between Lapidus and guest Andy Statman on mandolin on two cuts and the gloriously shifting polyrhythms of an expert percussion section throughout. Available from www.treseroproductions.com. Rating: 4 stars.

Naim, Yael and David Donatien: “Yael Naim” (Atlantic/Tout ou Tard). It’s nice that the latest flavor of the month singer-songwriter is a Israeli-Tunisian woman who writes and sings in Hebrew, French and English. In fact, Naim has been around for a while, releasing an album in 2001, but this, her second, has drawn a lot more attention, in no small part because her song “New Soul” was used in a Mac Airbook commercial. She owes almost as big a debt to Joni Mitchell, Sade and Norah Jones, all of whom can be heard in her breathy little-girl-lost vocals. I find her singing too mannered, her writing alternately too arch and too self-pitying. But I never much liked Mitchell either, so take what you will from that. Rating: 2 ½ stars.

Ramatayim Men’s Choir, The: “400 Years of Synagogue Music” (self-produced). This is probably an excellent men’s chorus, and their choice of material, ranging from Salomone Rossi’s Adon Olam, written in the 17^th Century, to contemporary compositions by Zvi Talmon and Sol Zim, looks innovative. The arrangements are complex, sophisticated and clever and as far as I can tell, well-sung. And therein lies the problem: the sound quality of the recording – at least on my copy of the CD – is murky, the harpsichord accompaniment sounds piercingly metallic and shrill and the overall effect is to render the entire disk unlistenable. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). No rating given; if you can’t hear the music, you can’t make a judgment.

Schubert, Cantor Anita: “D’vora Ud’vash (Honeybee and Honey)” (self-produced). Schubert is the cantor at Temple Beth Sholom in Manchester, CT, an imaginative composer and arranger who has chosen to showcase her liturgical settings for congregational and choral singing on a CD. She has a sweet lyric soprano voice, which this set shows off to great advantage, and much of the writing here is quite pretty. Depending on your tolerance for children’s choirs, you might give this an extended listen. If you are looking for material for your own shul, you definitely should. Available from cdbaby.com/cd/anitaschubert. Rating: 3 ½ stars.

“Sephardi Voices from Sarajevo” (Saga). Another in the excellent series “La Tradicion Musical en Espana,” this set of field recordings is a vivid reminder that in the embattled city of Sarajevo, there were Jews as well as Muslims, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. As anyone who has heard Flory Jagoda will add, those Jews have a rich musical tradition. Mind you, these recordings, made by the estimable Suzanne Weisch-Shahak, are of amateurs, mostly transplanted Sarajevans living in Israel, and the performances are anything but polished. Many of them make up in zeal for what they lack in technique and, as I have said of similar records in the past, the preservation of these musical traditions as passed down by people who lived them is of great importance. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). Rating: 3 stars for performance, 4 ½ stars for significance.

Shapiro, Paul: “Essen” (Tzadik). The long-awaited debut recording by Shapiro’s “Ribs and Brisket Revue” is a wildly swinging blend of jump blues, Yiddish vaudeville and novelty song shtick, romping from a Cab Calloway chart for “Utt-Da-Zay” to an Anglophone “Grine Kuzine” as “My Little Cousin.” This is loud and raucous by design, with Shapiro doing everything but walking the bar on his solos, while Babi Floyd channels Cab, Slim Gaillard and the Barton Brothers in a hefty, gravelly belt. Brian Mitchell contributes some tasty solos and is even more effective in support. The band is just tight enough to seem very loose and the result is fun, but one suspects this aggregation is fresher live. Rating: 3 ½ stars.

Sisters of Sheynville: “Sheynville Express” (self-distributed). If you loved the Barry Sisters (a.k.a. the Bagelman Sisters), you will get a huge charge out of this swing-oriented all-female klezmer outfit, which doffs its collective caps to those estimable ladies. Based around the tight-harmony trio of Lenka Lichtenberg, Isabel Fryszberg and Fern Lindzon (who also plays piano), ably abetted by Lorie Wolf on drums, bassist Rachel Melas and clarinetist Kinneret Sagee, the Sisters offer up a nicely varied program. By changing tempi, moods and modes they draw attention away from the fact that the three voices are rather similar in timbre and range. But it doesn’t really matter because the choice of material (mostly Yiddish vaudeville and theater standards, but with an occasional curveball like “I’m an Old Cowhand” or the Delmore Brothers “Blues Stay Away from Me”) and the performances are adroit and intelligent. Available from www.sistersofsheynville.ca. Rating: 4 ½ stars.

Soul Aviv: “Soul Aviv” (self-distributed). Anyone remember a minor ‘70s band called Stoneground? They were formed for a traveling rock festival sponsored by Warner Brothers, which was making a film of the event. They had a powerhouse rhythm section, several strong female voices and a nice line of “blue-eyed soul,” as it used to be called. Soul Aviv is an LA-based band, led by guitarist Rob Raede, which reminds me a lot of Stoneground on the rockers on this debut CD. He’s assembled a very versatile trio of vocalists – Erin Berkowitz, Liat Wasserman and Jamie Green – and an eclectic repertoire ranging from Bill Withers’s chestnut “Lean on Me” to spirituals like “Wade in the Water,” in addition to three originals by Raede and another by Green. The thread that runs through this variegated program is an intelligent attempt to link Jewish themes and lyrics musically to the African-American gospel tradition, something I am wholly in favor of. Raede’s musicianship is commendable, the voices blend beautifully (think Tracy Nelson times three), and much of the material is nicely thought out. I’d like to hear a bit more grit, but I’m from the other coast, so you may take that for what it’s worth. Available from iTunes or www.cdbaby.com/cd/soulaviv. Rating: 4 stars.

Yankele: “Paris Klezmer” (Musique du Monde). Five excellent musicians doesn’t always add up to excellent music. This mixed bag of Franco-Yiddish skitters along the edge of kitsch, tottering but not quite toppling into bathos. There are exhilarating moments but it never feels much like klezmer, and they don’t have the burning passion of Les Yeux Noirs, the band they occasionally remind me of. Pleasant but unexceptional. Available from Hatikvah Music (www.hatikvahmusic.com or phone 323 655-7083). Rating: 3 stars