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April 22, 2005
A garden of musical delights
Of the CDs reviewed by the JWB, a local guitarist has one
of the finest.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
It's always nice to see people do well in life, especially someone
you know. Local Jewish community member Jill Newman released her
debut CD this week at the Railway Club and it's great.
Fragile Walls blends country, blues and folk. The title track
is one of the best, musically and lyrically: "Fragile walls
that we see through / Thought I was hiding / but everyone knew...."
Other highlights of the CD include "Dead End Road (surf song),"
which could have been on the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction,
and "You Can't Get There From Here." Featuring all original
tunes – albeit with a few not so original melodies, "Baby
Just Left Me Blues," for example, but blues are blues –
this recording showcases Newman's songwriting, guitar playing and
singing talents. The songs have a genuine sentiment and sound.
According to her website, www.jillnewman.net,
Newman's love of music began at an early age, with a mom who played
Chopin on the piano and a dad who listened exclusively to Hank Williams
and Dolly Parton: "By the age of six, Jill was entertaining
her family by loudly singing Jim Reeves songs while riding through
the Wisconsin hills in the family station wagon." After being
introduced to the electric guitar by a friend, Newman "had
found her calling: She was going to be a professional guitarist."
As a teenager on Vancouver Island, Newman performed in local coffee
houses with her original songs. By 21, she was singing and playing
guitar for a living. After university, she headed to Alberta, where
she was soon working seven nights a week as a pick-up guitarist
with everything from country rock groups to an all-female punk band.
Eventually, she returned to Vancouver and began playing and singing
in bands, theatre gigs and concerts throughout the Lower Mainland.
Newman was a lead guitarist and a vocalist for the all-woman roots
band Jessee Jane and she worked several years as the lead guitarist
for the roots-alternative country band, the Swinging Doors. With
the help of producer and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Nikleva (Sandy
Scofield, Ray Condo, Red Herring, Veda Hille, Animal Slaves), Newman
created Fragile Walls.
It's been a long road for Newman to reach this creative milestone.
Hopefully, it's the first of many.
In time for Pesach
Sometimes a good idea is not enough. Let My People Go! A Jewish
& African Celebration of Freedom (2005) by Kim and Reggie
Harris and Rabbi Jonathan Kligler blends traditional Jewish songs,
spirituals and civil rights-era folk songs in an effort to highlight
the common experiences of Jews and African Americans, two historically
oppressed peoples. There are some moving songs that evoke the political
context and emotion of the period, but there are also those that
are quite poorly rendered. As well, there are spoken-word interludes,
translating the Hebrew text or detailing the personal experiences
of figures in the protest movement. While these are interesting
the first few times you listen to the CD, they eventually inhibit
enjoyment of the music. This is a good CD to have available in a
library, as a learning tool, but it probably won't be one that you
play often if you buy it.
For more information, go online to
www.kimandreggie.com.
From India to Iraq
Rahel Musleah is an award-winning journalist with hundreds of
published articles to her credit. Her work has appeared in the New
York Times, Publishers Weekly, the Jewish Western
Bulletin and numerous other publications and Jewish journals.
When the Bulletin received a copy of her book Apples and
Pomegranates: A Family Seder for Rosh Hashanah (Lerner/Kar-Ben,
July 2004), which introduces the Sephardi custom of blessing the
Jewish New Year with symbolic foods, it seemed only natural and
we trusted (and were not disappointed) that it would be a good publication.
But when a copy Musleah's new CD arrived – Hodu: Jewish
Rhythms from Baghdad to India (2004) – it seemed slightly
odd: How talented could one person be?
It turns out that Musleah is incredibly talented. Born in Calcutta,
India, the seventh generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces
its roots to 17th-century Baghdad, Musleah now lives in Great Neck,
N.Y. Much of her work is an attempt to pass down the legacy of the
Indian Jewish community to her two daughters, as well as to the
Jewish community at large. Hodu is the latest such effort.
("Hodu," in Hebrew, means both "India"
and "Praise God.")
The CD features ancient texts and blends traditional melodies and
contemporary rhythms. Musleah's soprano vocals blend well with the
violin, oud and other instruments, albeit not as well with fellow
vocalist Alan Iny, who joins her on a few songs. Many of the words
can be found in the siddur (prayer book) or in various songbooks,
and many Sephardi Jews will already be familiar with the tunes on
Hodu (but might benefit from having a recording – to
fill in those parts where they're not quite sure about the exact
melody). My favorites on this CD are "Tzur Mishelo," "L'chah
Dodi," "Havdalah Medley" and "El Eliyahu"
– ones that I could sing along with best. My least favorite
is a song that probably means most to Musleah; "Pesach Medley"
is a family affair, but sounds too rehearsed and not as heartfelt
as the others.
There is a uniformity to the melodies of the various songs, but
upon more frequent playing, the differences do make themselves known.
This a high-quality recording, well worth adding to any collection
of Judaic music.
For more information on Musleah, visit www.rahelsjewishindia.com.
Making klezmer sexy
Oi Va Voi is a six-member band from London, England, featuring trumpet,
guitar, drums, bass, clarinet and violin. While obviously klezmer-influenced,
you can also hear elements of contemporary dance rhythms and garage
band music, a mix of acoustics and electronics, and the influence
of Ashkenazi and Sephardi melodies. The group's CD Laughter Through
Tears (2003) has broad appeal, with its alternative music sound
and its powerful lyrics.
The first song on the CD, "Refugee," is one of the best.
The vocals of K.T. Tunstall are beautiful and you wish that she
sang more on this recording. Oi Va Voi's rendition of what is generally
considered a happy song – "Od Yeshoma" – has
a yearning quality to it and you can almost envision the languid,
sexy dance, with a touch of sadness, that would go along with it.
Sometimes the electronics make the Hebrew or Ladino lyrics sound
a bit cheesy, but, overall, this is a unique CD that ably mixes
a broad and eclectic selection of musical styles. This is a band
that should be very successful.
For more information about Oi Va Voi, visit their website www.oi-va-voi.com.
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