Looking forward, going back

KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR

Our holiday issue round-up of CDs includes some beloved classics, modern pop, a soundtrack for Shabbat and, of course, klezmer.

Sounds of the '60s

Two new releases are a throwback to the Age of Aquarius.

The Klezmatics won this year's Grammy Award for best world music album with Wonder Wheel: Lyrics and Music by Woody Guthrie. It's the third instance in which Guthrie's daughter Nora has given permission for contemporary musicians to interpret and record her late father's work (she has also collaborated with folk artists Billy Bragg and Michael Franti).

Guthrie himself was steeped in Jewish tradition for many years. As well, his wife, dancer Marjorie Mazia, was Jewish and his mother-in-law was celebrated famous Yiddish poet and activist Aliza Greenblatt. Despite that, there isn't as much of a Jewish flavor to this album as you might expect, especially from this band. With a few minor contemporary flourishes, it sounds essentially like plinky folk music from way back when.

Klezmatics members took turns writing the music for Guthrie's lost lyrics, which run the gamut from the banjo-laden "Mermaid Avenue" – Guthrie's tribute to his multicultural Coney Island neighborhood – to "Pass Away," a bass-heavy track that resonates with Indian melodies. There are some Yiddish touches to a couple of numbers, including "Headdy Down" and the niggun-like "Get Through This World," but this widely available album is really more for Guthrie fans than for klezmer traditionalists.

Of comedians past

Another '60s reminder is the combined re-release of two comic albums, You Don't Have to be Jewish and When You're In Love, the Whole World is Jewish, on the Jewish Music Group label. Conceived by Bob Booker and George Foster (who were not, in fact, Jewish) and recorded live in a New York studio in 1965, the sketches epitomize Borscht Belt humor and Yiddish stereotypes. The cast includes film actor Lou Jacobi and actress Valerie Harper, who went on to play Rhoda in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

You Don't Have to be Jewish became so popular in its day that the cast appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the album hit Billboard magazine's Top 10.

With literally dozens of sketches on this CD, the jokes are a little hit-and-miss – not to mention, in many cases, somewhat dated. But there are definitely stand-outs, among them "Classified Ad, Israeli-style" and "Secret Agent, James Bondstein," in which the home base of everyone's favorite international spy is not a regal London office but the back of a candy store in Tel-Aviv, where the password is, "Give me an egg cream, please."

To hear more, visit www.jewishmusicgroup.com.

Playing against type

Legendary composer and producer John Zorn launched his Tzadik label in 1995 with the goal of "releasing the best in avant-garde and experimental music." With series like Radical Jewish Culture and New Japan, Zorn's roster numbers dozens of artists who might not otherwise get widespread exposure.

Among them is Talat, a New York-based ensemble who fuse experimental jazz and klezmer rhythms. The band's debut album, The Growl, features the kind of music you'd expect to hear in a big-city basement piano bar – but with a twist. "Hasidic Monk" has a sample of "Avinu Malkeinu" worked into the undertow, while "Tikkun Olam (A Ladder to the Rainbow)" riffs off popular favorite "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

This is multi-flavored jazz infused with the spirit of Miles Davis. While the members of Talat are undoubtedly talented musicans, as with Davis, you'd have to be a fan of the experimental sound to really love this CD. To find out more about Talat and other Tzadik artists, visit www.tzadik.com.

In Borat's collection?

Listening to Gypsy Grooves, the latest in the Putumayo label's World Music series, is a little like being at a Jewish wedding in a Greek restaurant with Roma musicians. Featuring "Balkan beats and gypsy jams from the dance floors of Eastern Europe and beyond," this compilation brings together artists who've all warmed to the oompah sound of brass bands.

They include Israeli-born New Yorkers Balkan Beat Box. Matisyahu's former label mates on JDub Records, once a part of Ukranian punk outfit Gogol Bordello, are now among the rising stars of the contemporary Jewish music scene.

Also in the mix: Amsterdam Klezmer Band, who manage to give the accordion a hip-hop groove in "Sadagora Hot Dub," Slovenia's Magnifico & Turbolentza, who wash the romantic dinner song "Zh Ne Sui Pa Pur Tua" with a ragged drum and bass beat and the curious melding of klezmer and salsa sounds on "Bucovina," from Germany's Shantel. The standout dance track is the uplifting "Virágok a Réten" by Hungary's Kistehén Tánczenekar (which literally translates as "Little Cow Dance Band").

Gypsy Grooves is pretty much guaranteed to get everyone moving. If Borat had a favorite party album, this would probably be it.

For more information, visit www.putumayo.com.

A Jewish journey

Dana Mase, according to her press materials, has a somewhat unusual Jewish story. Although her family celebrated the High Holy Days and Passover and she was sent to Hebrew school, by the time she was a teenager, she had lost her connection to Judaism. After a heart-to-heart with a Catholic friend, Mase decided to go to Bible school and become a Christian missionary. It was there that she suddenly found herself wearing a Star of David around her neck and longing for her Jewish roots. She now lives "a Jewish life" with her family in New York.

Mase's material – compiled on the CD The Colors of Black and White – has since been used on TV shows like Dawson's Creek and Joan of Arcadia. It's acoustic, with a poppy beat to it and echoes of female singers like Jann Arden, Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow. The ballad-heavy selection delves into the joys and vagaries of interpersonal relationships and features a great deal of imagery from the natural world, such as these lyrics, from the song "Touch and Go": "There was this boy I used to know/kissing him tasted like fallen snow...."

"It's intensely personal," Mase has said of the album. "My music has always reflected the inner struggles I've battled while searching for an authentic Jewish place in my life."

For more information on Mase, visit www.dana mase.com.

Building momentum

Shawn Zevit doesn't look much like a rock star. Bearded, bespectacled and middle-aged, the former Winnipegger with relatives scattered throughout the Vancouver area is now a Philadelphia-based Reconstructionist rabbi. But he's sure got his musical chops. Were it not for the Hebrew liturgies, you could easily mistake the first half of Zevit's album, Generations: Journey Across the Ages, for a new entry by folk-rock hipsters Jack Johnson or John Mayer. Despite the fact that Zevit released this album himself, it has high production values. The 15 songs designed to take listeners into Shabbat ripple with crisp guitars and gentle melodies, highlighted by Zevit's harmonious tenor. Even the spoken word on the first track, "Beshem Hashem (In the Name of the Holy One)" is soothing, as Zevit runs through the days of the week and intones: "Breathe it in, and let it go ... let Shabbat bring you home."

Zevit clearly knows how to build momentum in songs, from soft intros to sustained choruses. Each track blends easily into the next, creating a spellbinding Shabbat mood. Alongside him are talented backing vocalists, including several other musically inclined rabbis.

Unfortunately, the album's second CD, in which Zevit sings a cappella style along with his grandfather, is less successful. While it may have sentimental value, the hissing background noise and slightly overwrought tones of Zayde Zevit jars against the calmer influence of his grandson.

For more information, visit www.rabbizevit.com.

^TOP