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Jewish World Review
March 2, 2004
/9 Adar, 5764
NEW PURIM PARTY MUSIC!
By Paul Wieder
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The main theme of Purim, says the Megillah, is "v'nahapachu," or "turnabout." And the main activity of Purim is… making noise! So what better time to explore some of the new Jewish music that is turning the (turn)tables and standing music's Hamans on their triangular ears:
The Rabbinical School Dropouts ear-popping CD, Cosmic Tree. The standout track is its irrepressible opener, "Dung Gate." The Arabic-tinged big-band sound is made by, well, a big band: 10 musicians on 18 instruments, ranging from a trombone to a tabla to a toy piano. Fun is the objective, as evidenced by the titles themselves: the swinging-in-the-shuk "Mosquito from Megiddo," the lounge jazz of "Nuclear Jet Set," and spacey tango "Warp to Level Three."
The Dropouts record on John Zorn's envelope-shredding Tzadik label. So does Paul Shapiro, whose album Midnight Minyan is interested in exploring traditional Jewish liturgy through jazz. There are no vocals, but you will find yourself doing mental karaoke to "Ma Lecha Hayam" from the Hallel, "Sim Shalom," and "Aitz Chaim He." Shapiro experiments more with these melodies than say, Jon Simon, but so ends up in more dissonant territory. He also plays some niggunim not often thought of as songs: Haftarah blessings, the Misheberach, and the Amidah.
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Back in 2000, a DJ known as Zoom Golly put out an elctronica-dance album called Let My People Go-Go. Along with Wally Brill's The Covenant from the previous year, it opened up the idea of laying Jewish vocals (in Brill's case, those of classic cantors) over electronica tracks. Go-Go features Golly's booming voice and is the more dance-able of the two. The songs on it are evenly mixed between Israeli folk songs and Jewish traditional; Golly weaves them with reggae, disco, Latin, and other rhythms and both acoustic and electronic instruments. The sound is that of a kid happily discovering which of his old toys work with the new ones he just got for Chanukah.
Somewhere between Brill's work and Golly's is that of Zohar's onethreeseven. Not to be confused with the American-Jewish band Zohar (from Putumayo's Jewish Odyssey), this UK outfit twines traditional cantorials like Yoselle Rosenblatt's with sophisticated electronica tracks. Where Zohar's work expands on Brill's is in the use of modern and non-Jewish singers like Zehava Ben and Oum Kalthoum, and in their cutting and pasting these vocal tracks themselves. The album is also more subtle than either Zoom Golly's or Brill's, but matches them in playfulness.
Still, in that area, few can match the rambunciousness of YIDcore, the Australian Jewish punk band. Their second release, The Great Chicken Soup Caper E.P. is more of their speaker-immolating desecrations of favorites from the Jewish holiday and campfire songbooks. The top-of-the-lungs delivery, the faster-than-speed guitars, the turn-that-junk-down drums… this is a Spinal Tap done by a Jewish doctor (in fact, the lead singer is a lawyer). The last track is a live cut of "To Life" done at the legendary CBGB's, so they have "cred," too.
If punk is "from" that club, then David Krakauer is from Krakow, and that is exactly where he cut his most recent album, called, simply enough, Live in Krakow. Krakauer, a veteran of the Klezmatics, plays klezmer clarinet. But his music is anything but old-fashioned; his band, Klezmer Madness!, features an electric guitar- and on this concert, he was accompanied by samples and beatbox provided by turntable prodigy SoCalled Krakauer switches between klezmer bulgars and street beats, and sometimes combines the two. Less than an hour's drive from Auschwitz, Krakauer summons up music ancient and anguished, futuristic and freylach. Am Yisrael chai, indeed.
Purim is a time when, as a great Jewish poet has said, "The first one now/ Will later be last… For the loser now/ Will be later to win." It is a day of masks, surprise endings and turnabout. So this Purim, surprise yourself and your guests with some of the endless supply of innovative Jewish music. You just may end up enjoying the whole megillah.
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JWR contributor Paul Wieder is a public relations associate at the Jewish United Fund and a columnist for
JUF News. Contact the author or the magazine by clicking here.
© 2004, Paul Wieder
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