Kommuna Lux (photo by Maria Dmytrenko)
[Editor’s Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances related to flight restrictions, the Chutzpah! Festival must postpone Yamma Ensemble’s performances to March. However, the festival has found a vibrant alternative for Nov. 5: Itamar Erez Trio and special guests. Click here for more.]
Original music that honours the culture and traditions of its creators. Unique songs that you’d have to travel thousands of kilometres to see and hear live. Or, you could buy tickets to Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz Festival of International Jewish Performing Arts, which runs Nov. 1-10.
Kommuna Lux from Ukraine brings its unique “Odesa Gangsta Folk” – which they describe as “thrilling klezmer music and common gangster folk songs from their hometown, all with a dose of rocket fuel” – to Vancouver to open the festival Nov. 2, 7 p.m., at the Pearl. The event is presented in partnership with Caravan World Rhythms. The group will also travel to Victoria, for a Nov. 1 show at the Edelweiss Club.
Kommuna Lux’s music is specific to their part of the world, Volodymyr Gitin (clarinet) told the Independent.
“What I like most about this style is the special energy that charges both us and our listeners,” he said. “But I also really like how diverse our music is, because it includes almost everything related to the cultural heritage of Odesa.”
Similarly, Yamma Ensemble from Israel brings its unique heritage-rich music to Chutzpah! – on Nov. 5, 7 p.m., at Rothstein Theatre. They also give an intergenerational matinee performance Nov. 4, geared to school and seniors groups, in which they will “include as many explanations as possible about the ancient musical instruments, about the Jewish communities around the world, about the songs,” lead vocalist Talya G.A Solan told the Independent.
“We wish to celebrate and enjoy the richness and the immense beauty of the Jewish culture and our origins,” she said. “We mainly bring out the mix of Jewish cultures, the mix of our different backgrounds and the fact that we came together into an organic and whole music ensemble…. So, in our music, you can hear the music of Spanish Jews from Thessaloniki and Spanish Jews from Turkey, the singing of psalms by the Jews in Iraq and the singing of religious poems from Yemen.”
On the group’s website, they note that Yamma means “toward the sea” in Hebrew and “mother” in Arabic.
“The connection between Hebrew and Arabic is not only a connection between two very similar Semitic languages, but also a connection between the countries of origin of the Jews who lived in Arab countries and their descendants, who were born here and grew up in Israel,” explained Solan. “Our musical heritage, like our origins, is connected to the Jewish communities in the Middle East who immigrated to Israel with the language they spoke, the Arabic language in its many dialects (Yemeni, Iraqi, Moroccan, etc.). They came to Israel and had to speak the local language – Hebrew.”
Hebrew is a central element of the ensemble’s repertoire, directly tied to the members’ identity as Israeli musicians.
“Hebrew is our mother tongue, the language we were born into and the language in which we dream and communicate,” said Solan. “It is an ancient, gorgeous and special language that became extinct and was revived in the 20th century. We try to perform mostly in Hebrew. We mix between our own original creations (always Hebrew) and traditional music (Sephardic, Yemenite).
“There is no Israeli music group that performs out of Israel and has been active for a long time [mainly] performing Hebrew music,” she continued. “This fact is odd and crazy, since Hebrew is the spoken language in Israel, but none of the Israeli musicians active abroad focus on this magnetizing and beautiful ancient language.
“One of the reasons that Yamma Ensemble’s YouTube channel is the most viewed channel of Hebrew music for foreign audiences,” she said, is “the accessibility of Hebrew for foreign audiences who do not speak it. We translate all the songs, so people can watch them with English translation. We receive daily messages from all over the world from people who write us that they learn Hebrew with the songs, that they get closer to their Judaism through the songs. It feels like a serious task that we didn’t ask to take on, and it happened naturally.”
Yamma Ensemble has four albums – Yamma (2011), Basket Full of Stars (2017), Rose of the Winds (2020) and To Awaken Love (2023) – the last of which comprises entirely original music, inspired by traditional sounds, said Solan.
The group is working on an album of psalms. Their performance of Psalm 104 is “the most viewed Jewish chant on YouTube, [in the] category of live and traditional music,” she said. “It has already passed 10 million views! So, we need to record this psalms album.”
However, to produce a recording is an expensive undertaking, and that’s one thing when the music will have a relatively large market. For music “that is not commercial and does not carry profits or compensation, there must be a budgetary basis or significant support,” said Solan. People who are interested may support the psalms project via the ensemble’s website, yammaensemble.com.
Coincidentally, Kommuna Lux’s original name also has to do with the financial side of the music business.
“Dengi Vpered means ‘Money Forward’ or ‘Cash in Advance,’” explained Gitin. “This name appeared before I was in the group. One day, the guys didn’t get paid for a performance and, since then, they started taking money in advance. At the same time, they named the group that way, with a bit of Odesa humour, and also so that it would be immediately clear how they do business.
“After six incredible years of being together, it so happened that our vocalist decided to go his own way and we needed to figure out how and with whom to continue our journey. Also, for various reasons, we felt that it was necessary to change the name…. So, first we found [singer] Bagrat [Tsurkan], who quickly became a valuable member of our team, and then the name itself came along, which resonated with us very much.
“Kommuna Lux has several meanings,” he said. “One of them is ‘the Commune,’ which is united by the common idea of bringing light and joy to people. But ‘Kommuna’ can also mean a communal apartment in which several families live. In such apartments, there is a shared kitchen and sometimes a bathroom, and people need to agree with each other to live in peace and harmony. And ‘Lux’ in this case has another meaning, as a sign of the quality of how we look and sound on stage, the quality of the luxury level.”
Gitin joined the band, which has one album to date (OdesaFM), in 2014.
“I was attracted by the idea of reviving Odesa songs and Jewish folklore in a new, modern way,” he said. “Everything was created and performed with great enthusiasm and a desire to share positive emotions with people. We felt that we were doing something special.”
And they do something extra special in some of their performances – they raise money for Ukrainians affected by the ongoing war with Russia.
“Mostly, we collect money for 110 Brigade, they always need different vehicles for different goals,” said Gitin. “Also, during our last tour, we [participated in a] joint initiative of Rotary E-Club of Ukraine to buy beds for burn victims, for a hospital in the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region.
“Our whole life is connected with our home and we feel that every Ukrainian joined to help our people,” he said. “So, our reasons are the same, we can’t just watch, we feel that we should do what we can.”
He added, “Music is very important, especially in such periods, because, through it, it is possible to express the whole spectrum of feelings. Music can raise the spirit, unite everyone around a common idea, and also help people experience deep feelings, especially when they lose loved ones.”
Rounding out the musical offerings at Chutzpah! this year is New Orleans multi-instrumentalist Mark Rubin, “offering Southern Americana from a Jewish, socially conscious point-of-view.” Jacob Samuel headlines a comedy night hosted by Kyle Berger, and Jeremy Goldstein’s Truth to Power Café includes stories from Vancouverites in response to the question, “Who has power over you and what do you want to say to them?” A dance double bill features Fortress (Rebecca Margolick and Livona Ellis) and About Time (Ne.Sans Opera & Dance, Idan Cohen). Canadian Yiddishist Michael Wex brings The Last Night at the Cabaret Yitesh (di letste nakht baym yitesh) to the festival, and the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and Chutzpah! co-present the screening of Gimpel the Fool Returns to Poland by Nephesh Theatre artistic director Howard Rypp, which “follows the show’s journey throughout different towns of Poland, while tracing [Gimpel writer Isaac Bashevis] Singer’s escape from the Holocaust, finally finding refuge in the USA.”
For tickets to any of the festival events, visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.
New this year for the Chutzpah! Festival: Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver members receive discounted ticket prices and concession purchases at the theatre. Select Student/Senior/JCC Member tickets and ChutzPacks and bring your membership card to the theatre.
