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Jewish Journal

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Music

A Resonant Voice

Naomi Pfefferman June 3, 2004

The first thing one notices about Theodore Bikel is the voice.\n\nAs he settles on a divan in his book-filled West Hollywood apartment, chatting about his upcoming 80th birthday gala, it\’s not so much his strapping frame, white beard or sharp blue eyes that make an impression as his voice.\n\nThis is the resonant baritone that has sung countless folk music concerts, recorded 27 albums in 21 languages and performed in approximately 35 films. This is the actor who has appeared more than 2,000 times as the milkman Tevye in \”Fiddler on the Roof,\” besides playing Captain Von Trapp in Broadway\’s \”The Sound of Music\” and opposite Bogie in the film, \”The African Queen.\”

Material Girl Nixes Israel Dates

Gaby Wenig May 27, 2004

Has the Material Girl become the new target for terrorists? According to Britain\’s The Sun, Madonna cancelled the Israel leg of her Reinvention Tour after terrorists allegedly threatened to kill her and her children, Lourdes and Rocco, if she performed in Israel.

The threats reportedly came in the form of a series of poison-pen letters that were sent to Madonna\’s Los Angeles office. According to The Sun, Madonna first thought she was being targeted because of her kabbalah beliefs, but then she realized that she was being threatened because she represented all the things that these terrorists hate about the West. The terrorists were reportedly Palestinian, and Madonna took them seriously enough to cancel her three September concerts at Tel Aviv\’s Bloomfield Stadium — her first concerts in Israel since 1993 — because they knew intimate details about members of her staff.

Cantors Plan Charity Concerts

Andrea Adelson May 6, 2004

With religious school winding down this month at many synagogues, some cantors will regularly seize the opportunity to produce a brief season of secular concerts with guest artists and visiting cantors.

Peter Yarrow — Peace, Love and Tikkun Olam

Naomi Pfefferman April 1, 2004

Back in the social-action heydey of the 1960s, tikkun olam was everyone\’s favorite mitzvah. Repairing the world was hip, and folk anthems such as \”Times They Are a Changin\’\” were as de rigueur around Jewish campfires as that ditty about animals boarding Noah\’s ark two by two.

Clarinetist Finds His Klezmer Voice

Naomi Pfefferman March 11, 2004

\”I came to klezmer quite by accident,\” said virtuoso clarinetist David Krakauer.\n\nHe was a noted classical musician around 1987 when a chance encounter on a Manhattan bus changed the direction of his career.

Etan G — A Nice Jewish Homeboy

Naomi Pfefferman March 4, 2004

The boychick is Etan G, who calls himself The Jewish Rapper and whose CD, \”South Side of the Synagogue,\” features songs such as \”Yo Yo Yarmulke\” and \”Hava Na Wha?\” Even so, it\’s startling when he ushers a visitor into a living room that appears to be decorated by the set dressers from both \”Yentl\” and \”Shaft.\”

Folk Singer Observes a Pensive ‘Holiday’

Naomi Pfefferman January 1, 2004

Some years ago, folk diva Chava Alberstein discovered the rundown immigrant neighborhood around the south Tel Aviv central bus station. For the Israeli superstar, the area became a refuge, a place to stroll or sip coffee unmolested by fans. The residents were foreign workers from countries such as China, Thailand, Nigeria and Romania.\n\nBut as their numbers swelled to replace Palestinians after the intifada, Alberstein — considered Israel\’s Joan Baez — saw conditions deteriorating.\n\n\”These people are brought to Israel, their passports are confiscated so they can\’t go anywhere and they\’re forced to live in the worst situations,\” she said. \”You see people crawling out of the most unbelievable hovels. It\’s bothered me for a long time.\”

Vocal Musicians Make a Joyful Noise

Lauren Korduner January 1, 2004

Human voices converge on the same note, echoing a haunting harmony — arousing complicated emotions.

This has been the buzz surrounding an award-winning Jewish a cappella group, Shir Appeal, a group of college students from Massachusetts, who will bring their hypnotizing harmonies to Orange County\’s Temple Bat Yahm (TBY) for Shabbat evening service, Jan. 16. The group was named after Tufts University\’s mascot — Jumbo the Elephant. The Hebrew phrase shir hapeal means \”song of the elephant.\”

Where It’s Hip to Be Yiddish

Gaby Wenig December 11, 2003

Hip-Hop music might be cool, funky and ghetto, but DJ Socalled thinks that an infusion of an Yiddish could make it even better.

\”Hip-hop is all based on breaks, and the Yiddish theater records have amazing breaks in them, and they are original breaks,\” said Montreal-based Socalled, who is known as Josh Dolgen when he isn\’t working the sound sampler. \”You never hear anyone do them — everyone has sampled James Brown breaks, but nobody has sampled these records.\”

Socalled is going to be bringing his Yiddish-hip-hop-funk-jazz-dance music collage to Los Angeles on Dec. 18, where he will sample the night away at an early Khanike (Yiddish for Chanukah) concert for a new group called Avada.

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