The community’s got talent

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The abundance of talent in the Vancouver Jewish community is stunning, with four new CDs recently released by locals, or transplanted locals who now call elsewhere home.

Returning to Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia from Toronto is Jessica Stuart, as part of a cross-Canada tour. The Jessica Stuart Few – Stuart on vocals, guitar and koto (a Japanese harp-like instrument), Dan Fortin (bass) and Nico Dann (drums) – will be playing songs from Kid Dream, many of which can be heard at myspace.com/jessicastuartfew.

Stuart’s eclectic musical and geographic influences – she is a member of several bands and two choirs, and has lived not only in Canada, but also Japan and Australia – are apparent in her upbeat jazz/folk compositions. One favorite is “Midgey Ponchey,” in which the backup vocals sound like something you’d hear on the TV show Glee, but which has utterly serious lyrics about the potential for words to be misleading and looks to be deceiving; that people can lie and cry to prove something is true.

Close harmonies, a sense of whimsy and fun characterize the music of the Few, who have been together since 2007. Led by Stuart, who cites musical influences as diverse as her mother, Wendy Bross Stuart, Joni Mitchell and Nine Inch Nails, British Columbians should take the chance to see the Few live when they’re here, as their performances will no doubt be energetic and entertaining.

The Few are in Vancouver March 30, 8 p.m., with singer Shannon Scott, as part of the Speak Easy Living Room Series (at 2175 Pandora St.), for which more information is available on Facebook; and April 9, 9 p.m., at Wise Hall, for which advance tickets ($15) are available at Zulu Records, High Life and Red Cat Records. There are many other concert dates around the province, all of which are listed on the band’s Myspace page.

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Earlier this month, the release concert for Harriet Frost’s new CD, Random Days, sold out.

The songs on Random Days delve into politics, dreams, love, life. “I have been inspired and drawn to songs that are lyrical and evocative, that summon questions of the spirit,” Frost told the Independent in an e-mail interview.

She added, “The songwriters who have inspired me have managed to draw me into that heightened consciousness. Writing songs and performing them has always been the most satisfying and potent form of self-expression.” Among Frost’s influences are Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Steely Dan and the Waterboys.

“It’s all about the songs as stories, stories that should have their own life out there in the world,” explained Frost, whose storytelling ability is clear. She wrote eight of the CD’s 11 songs, with the title track being one of the most memorable. Her lyrics and music for “The Coming of Age” and “Marusa” evoke Chris de Burgh at his “Spanish Train” storytelling best.

“The Random Days project has taken five years to complete,” said Frost. “The timing and my collaboration with Jim Woodyard and all the musicians made this endeavor as joyful and organic as it gets.”

Woodyard produced the CD, as well as played guitar and piano. Glenda Rae is on background vocals, Brett Wade on background vocals and guitar, Miles Hill on bass guitar and Phil Robertson on drums and percussion.

Frost has performed all over the Lower Mainland and, no doubt, given the success of her CD launch, she will continue to do so. Random Days is available on iTunes, cdBaby and other online music sellers. For more information, including future concert dates, visit harrietfrost.com.

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Vancouver musician and songwriter Mark Fenster and his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, describe Cantoria as a “small project of loving kindness.” Their intention is to “remind us of our united truth and reunite us in love, peace and harmony, just as our God, your God, their God, whomever and whatever they may be, told us all that we could.” The CD uses prayers with words “that form the foundation for at least three of our world’s profound faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” linking each to different Chakras. For example, “Ma Tovu,” which acknowledges “our source, our presence and our gratitude for these,” is linked with the first Chakra, “Muladhara, found in the perineal region at the base of the spine ... where we discover our source, our home (our body), who we are, where we come from, and simply, that we are beautiful.”

The CD includes each blessing’s explanation and Chakra connection, as well as beautiful original paintings by Lahana Grey. What comes through most in the music and accompanying notes is Fenster’s great love of and pride in his daughter.

Cantoria also features music by Rabbi Shefa Gold and performances by Vancouver musicians Joseph “Pepe” Danza on shakuhachi (a Japanese flute) and udu (African drum) and Cantor Mike Zoosman, Cantor Naomi Taussig, Ba’alat Tefilah Debby Fenson, Neri Tischler and Liz van Warmerdam on the few, but lovely, background vocals.

Cantoria is available at various retailers, including Banyen Books, where there will be an in-store performance April 29, 7 p.m. Other scheduled dates are May 22 on Joytv’s Winds of Change and June 10, 7:30 p.m., at the Cultch. For more information, visit autumnstudios.ca.

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Last but not least is Ha’Orot: The Lights of Rav Kook, a collaboration of former Vancouverite, now Jerusalemite, Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein and Greg Wall’s Later Prophets. Its 14 tracks combine 12 poems and two niggunim composed by Rabbi Avraham Itzchak HaCohen Kook with Wall’s original music and Marmorstein’s spoken word, in Hebrew and English. Its stated goal “is to inform the Jewish and non Jewish world of Rav Kook’s extraordinary light in an entertaining, thought-provoking and inspiring way.” It succeeds.

Reviewers have commented, “From the chill jazz of ‘The One Who Seeks the Good’ to the spaced-out noise experiments on ‘From a Distant World,’ Ha’Orot endeavors to be faithful to Kook’s poetry while not being limited by it”; and “Their inventiveness and the richness of the musical vocabulary of the band members ... suggest that these texts could, perhaps, have been part of a canon of modern Beat poets.”

Excerpts from Ha’Orot can be heard at myspace.com/orotharav, where it can also be purchased.

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