What Gives? A Party Planner Tale

Just got a call from a client. We'd been booked earlier this week to play her daughter's upcoming engagement party on Sunday. This morning she called to cancel, because her wedding party planner booked a band, "either Neshoma or Neginah" (I thought it was funny that she wasn't sure of the band name. I know who it is.) and they were "throwing in the engagement party gratis." So, obviously, rather then spending the extra money, she was calling to cancel.

I should mention that the party planner had told the client to make arrangements for music for the engagement party herself. As far as I know, this party planner has never heard us, so there's nothing personal from that end. (The client has heard us at several affairs and was quite pleased we were available when she'd called to book us.) I can't imagine that the band knew that someone had been hired for the engagement party already, but the party planner was aware that the client was going to hire someone. I think her approach (the party planner's) on this is unethical.

I'm curious as to how other musicians would handle this situation.

Questioning Hatikva

One of DovBear's readers asks::

On Purim night we had in our shteeble a band that played some good music. In between sets, the keyboard man started hammering out the Hatikva. One of the people at the party took the mike and began to sing. Would you believe that the Rav's son ran out so as not to hear the music, he said later? And the Rav himself claimed not to know that it was the Hatikva, but later when he found out he was really steamed. The Rav isn't a Naturai Karta person. He's just a plain old Chusid.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

In Which Blog in Dm Makes The Radio

We're in the car after an early ending gig tonight, and flip on the radio to catch some Purim music on the Jewish station 620 AM. Zev Brenner's show is on and he's trading "Purim news" with Adam Dickter of the Jewish Week. After several "news" bits by Adam, Zev asks him if he's heard the latest; "Agudah Bans Weddings -- Cites High Cost Of One-Man-Bands." Hmm... where have we seen that before?

A Tale of Two Albums

The Jerusalem Post reviews Amit Sofer's "Purim Hits" and The Binyomin Ginzberg Trio's "Purim Sameach."

About "Purim Hits":

Hassidic pop act Amit Sofer offers Noam Productions' official auditory Purim barrage for 2005.

Presented in the manner of non-stop wedding music, this recording is a must-have for any religious store or Purim carnival looking for the obligatory background music. Each section of Purim Hits supposedly focuses on a theme of the festive holiday, but many of the schlocky niggunim are, for some reason, repeated in more than one section.

About "Purim Sameach":

Doing gigs since 1998, The Binyomin Ginzberg Trio is a New York area band with a stripped-down sound. The music would be run-of-the-mill Hassidic pop, but thanks to its sophisticated and worldly methods, standards are mixed in with less-known gems and presented in an honest, jazzy manner.

The group's newest recording, Purim Sameach, is a veritable world tour, exploring the Purim holiday's various musical themes through the prism of a mind-bogglingly eclectic mix of inspirations.

Washington, DC's well-known DJ duo Thievery Corporation is famous for making albums that lead listeners around the globe with moods, samples, instrumentations and rhythms from Brazil interspersed with those from India, France and elsewhere.

Here, Ginzberg's arrangements draw from a comparably varied well, with each track focusing on a theme such as "Mordechai Medley" or "Mishenichnas Medley" and putting it all together into an ambitious yet cohesive composition.

Little Known Beach Boys Purim Music

Out of Step Jew presents the "The Tragedy of Reb Yankele Doniel."

JM Industry Purim News

In the spirit of the season, here are a number of JM news items and headlines you won't find anywhere else.

Agudah Bans Weddings -- Cites High Cost Of One-Man-Bands.

JM In The AM Raises $300,00 -- Jewish Community Demonstrates Support For Free-Form Radio.

Sax Player Fired For Playing Actual Swing Tune During "Swing Set."

Latest Hit Album Flops.

Keyboard Player Plays Melody. Horn Players Flummoxed.

Musician Plays Whole-Tone Scale On Club Date. Bandleader Demands Explanation.

New Miami Boys Choir CD Sounds Just Like Previous Releases.

Sold-Out Concert Sells Out -- In a surprising turn of events, a fund-raising concert billed as "sold out" actually was. Organizers were floored to find that people were actually buying tickets and planning to attend. It is rumored that the sponsoring tzedakah organization may have even broken even. Various JM personalities and "noch-shleppers" are said to be distraught about the dearth of complimentary tickets.

One-Man-Band Plays At Low Volume -- Makes Musical History!

Antares Auto-Tune Is Pleased To Announce It Has Reached An Endorsement Deal With EG Productions.

New CD, "Mostly Jewish Music," Released By Aderet.

Hashkafa.com Member Acknowledges Blog in Dm When Quoting.

Bandleader Encounters Polite, Sober Bochurim At Purim Gig -- "This never happened before!" he says.

J-Walking 2 Goes Platinum. (This could happen.)

Lakewood Bochur Books Acoustic Klezmer Band For Wedding, Demands Low Volume -- Peers Are Outraged!

New CD, "Lipa Schmeltzer Unplugged," Flops.

Brooklyn Wedding Hall Feeds Musicians.

HASC 2006 Concert Lineup Announced. Will Be Exclusively Shwekey.

Band Plays Entire Wedding With No Rock Groove. Bride's Mother Alleged To Be Extremely Satisfied.

JM Singer Retires -- Aging, slack CD sales, and poor audience reaction cited as factors. Also, Jewish organizations' refusal to pay $50,000 for "benefit" appearances.

NY Couple Flies Cleveland Band In For Waldorf Wedding -- "We wanted it to rock and the NY bands just weren't cutting it," the couple said.

Nafsheinu Loses Gig! Price Cited As Determining Factor.

Pre-Purim Link Dump

Psycho Toddler's posted some Purim bootlegs.

MOChassid writes about the concert that made Aish Kodesh ban liquor.

He also has a Purim post about an evening of Litvish music.

A bit late, here's MoC's St. Patrick's Day Purim post.

LIFE-of-RUBIN has a "Shrekleche" concert poster. He's also posted The Next Big Thing in JM

Here's A Simple Jew on Uncle Moishy.

Here's Wecker's Matisyahu review.

The recovering professional trombone player is in a ZZ Top groove.

Get your Farbrengiton shot glasses here.

Velvel posts some Matisyahu bootlegs.

Here's Noa:

We don't want what I think of as a "red-roses and 'final countdown'" wedding.

Here's a flash movie, Giant Steps by Michal Levy.

Impinging on Only Simchas -- Mazal Tov!

DovBear researches Purim lyrics.

Lammpost points out something interesting about a "secular" song Dan Rather once signed off with.

Finally, here's a nice Buddy Rich drum battle video clip.

French Unions

Brian M. Carney writes that they're arresting conductors in France.

3/15/05 Link Dump

Here's our eBay item of the day. A Glatt Kosher Huntington Townhouse wedding this Sunday. Paid in full!
(Thanks, Moshe!)

Paul at Bloghead wants to know: "What is the difference between Mozart and Yeedle Werdyger?"

Drummers and percussionists will like this method of tax collection.

Prodly went to a Simply Tsfat concert.

MOChassid was invited to Blue Fringe's Purim gig at B.B. Kings.

You can now Pre-order the NEW Matisyahu on Amazon!

Haaretz has a list of Israeli Jazz venues.

Here's an interesting Messages from the Ether post.

chikkimunkee is plugging Jeremy Gaisen.

Finally, here's ADDeRabbi on "yehei shmei rabbah" at the Siyum Hashas:

And besides, Phoebus also pointed out (at the last Siyum 7.5 years ago) that the ma'ariv minyan at the end of the Simon & Garfunkel concert in Central Park had a much more impressive yehei shmei rabbah.

Purim Humor

Biur Chametz has posted a purim spoof of blog post titles. His Dm post:

13/14 0:00 AM Blog in Dm: Forgettable new release by Shoeshine Boys

Shameless Purim Music Plug

Mishenichnas Adar Marbin B’simcha!

Purim Sameach gathers together Purim tunes from around the world, from Chassidic nigunim to traditional Israeli songs, and from Klezmer melodies to contemporary Jewish folk rock. The tracks feature The Binyomin Ginzberg Trio in both woodwind and guitar trio formats, as well as one track with a guest fiddle player, and one track featuring a collaboration between members of the guitar and woodwind trios.

In addition to the standard Purim repertoire, the album includes arrangements of Diaspora’s “Ish Yehudi”, Chaim David’s “Layehudim”, Reva L’Sheva’s “Kein Tihyeh Lanu” and Ruach’s “Shoshanas Yaakov”. The album also includes popular Israeli melodies like Shoshanas Yaakov and Sason Viykar, as well as many Chassidic classics.

And now back to our regular programming…

Interesting Search Engine Refer

Here. A Neginah musician, perhaps?

Avast Ye DJ's

Jothar writes:

I live in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, where there are a few pirate Jewish LPFM stations. Did anyone ever compose a list of these hidden goodies on the dial? I have heard, at various points in the neighborhood, 96.7, 102.5, and 87.5. I wonder what Brooklyn has.

What's Missing?

JWR has an article titled "NEW PURIM PARTY MUSIC!" that reviews several albums. None of them have any Purim music on them.

Mishenichnas Adar...

The Happy Song!

Music Musings From Around The J-Blogosphere

Velvel warns about a bad Matisyahu bootleg.

Miriam comments on a baby named "Aspaklaria." Turns out it's the name of the father's band.

Ari Davidow wants to know if Newbury Comics is boycotting Jewish Music.

Jake Marmer points us to a "Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan."

Finally, The Town Crier links to an autographed photo of JM in the AM host Nachum Segal which is up on eBay.

Breaking News.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Germany's highest court on Thursday declared a notorious neo-Nazi rock band a criminal organization and rejected its former leader's appeal against his prison sentence.

Whistle While You Work

The Forward has an article on "the unsung art of whistling."

Diaspora Update

George Robinson writes about Avraham Rosenblum in "Back From Musical Diaspora."

Mauled, er not!

DovBear unwittingly "reverse fisks" us by proving our point. His numbers demonstrating the low level of support among Democratic voters for Sharpton only emphasize the absurdity of, for instance, Sharpton's speaking at the Democratic convention.

It may be possible to distinguish here between rank-and-file Democrats opinion of Sharpton and the Democratic leadership's view, but there is no denying that the leadership gives Sharpton way too much face time. And, as DovBear helpfully points out, it can't be because of his popularity with black voters.

Al's Big Idea

This anti-Semitic race-baiting demagogue, notorious for his false accusations, demonstration leading, and arson inspiration, who for some reason is taken seriously by Democrats, has a plan to end rap violence.

3/10 Update:
Spellchecked by DovBear.

Deja Vu All Over Again

For the second week in a row, Ben Jacobson is dismissing a Dos Pop album as "not artistic."

The result is not particularly artistic or creative, and the songs are not as catchy as usual for the world of pop, but the slick production values and arrangements replete with skilled playing make the disc successful - in the ears of its intended target market, if nowhere else."

He does like Eliyon Shemesh's album.

Eliyon Shemesh hails from the English-speaking, Israeli hippie hotbed that is Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's Moshav Mevo Modiim. In a Jewish world overrun by Shlomo wannabes, Shemesh has a reputation for carrying the torch in a manner that is not only genuine but also truly his own.

In recent years, Eliyon (the word means "the highest") has become known as the wild drummer for the popular Chaim Dovid, but Shemesh's career as a frontman for his own band, the Kochavim, is still developing.

To Catch A .... Thief.

I was in Tuvia's, a Judaica store in Monsey, the other day. The Jewish music section has a sign posted informing that someone has been opening CD's and cassettes and stealing them while returning the empty cases to the racks. There seems to be something particularly incongrous about someone stealing religious music. If you are in the store and see this occuring, please let them know.

Ben Who?

Last night, I get into the car just as Zev Brenner starts playing a clip of Shwekey's song, Ben Bag Bag. After the words Ben Bag Bag Omer are played, he proceeded to talk over the music and advertise Ben Barber -- a Boro Park-based shirt maker. The juxtaposition of "Ben Bag Bag" and "Ben Barber" was funny if somewhat sacreligious. Oh well, it is Adar, after all.

Concerted Effort

The Town Crier has posted the top ten ways to be an unsuccessful Jewish fundraiser. He's giving extra credit to those who "get to be the cause for a yesivish concert."

Hashata Hacha

Ben Chorin on dancing. He misses the Miserlou. The schmatte ladies he writes about would probably have demanded the Dick Dale version anyhow.

Steyn's on a Clapton roll

Here's Mark Steyn on Syria's Assad:

Nor has he any wish to sing I Shot The Sharif - that would be Khalil Mustafa bin Muhammad Sharif, a prominent Syrian Kurd who got questioned to death in Damascus last year. In any case, the Syrian government's official position remains that, whether or not they shot the Sharif, they did not shoot the Lebanese parliamentary deputy.

The essay is full of Clapton references.

PSA for musicians

Play well during rehearsals, or else you may lose the gig.

Radical non-Jewish Culture

John Zorn has opened a new music venue in the city.

A few interesting items:

All expenses are paid for by the MUSIC itself —through the online sale of special Limited Edition CDs released yearly on the Tzadik label. Each month a different musician is responsible for curating the programs with 100% of the nightly revenue going directly to the musicians. There are no refreshments or merchandise at The Stone. Only music. All ages are welcome.

The Stone is booked purely on a curatorial basis. We do not accept demos of any kind.

If the current calendar is representative of the kind of music the club intends to feature, then it seems like Jewish music (traditional and avant-garde) will not be well-represented.

Via Jewschool

A little bit of this, a little bit of that!

Yonah Lloyd writes:

"Matisyahu's got a real record deal - same label as 2005 grammy-winning los lonely boys."

Mixolydian mode is back with some Klezmer melodies:

"The MIDI files I post should never be mistaken for real music. They can show you approximately how melodies go, but the tunes don’t live until a real musician plays them. This is emphatically true of Klezmer. At best, what you hear here are the skeletons of the tunes, and with Klezmer, sometimes a few of the smaller bones are missing — it is difficult or impossible to reproduce the quick slides, sobs and chirps characteristic of Klezmer, not to mention subtle rhythmic variations, with the cheap notation software that I struggle with.

Here is What Goes On - The Beatles Anomalies List.

LIFE-of-RUBIN reports on new Jewish Music internet broadcasts.

JERUSALEM SYNDROMEon how to mess up your iTunes random shuffle.

I'm with the first commentor on this -Jewschool post. I wrote as much at the time.

Here's one way to demonstrate your instrument's durability.

David Bogner is a recovering professional trombonist. So far as I know, it's incurable.

Not Beyond

Yehudah Schupper writes:

I happened upon your opinionated blog and wanted to tell you about a show a band I manage is having that you just might enjoy...

EDEN in Concert (w/Rakan)

Saturday - - March 5th, 2005 - - Doors 9:15pm

Brooklyn College Hillel House (http://bchillel.org)
2109 Campus Road
Brooklyn, NY 11210

Tickets: $10

For Driving/Subway Directions and other Info call Hillel at: (718) 859-1151

Shirei Alumim, er Alumni

Ben Jacobson reviews "The Alumni":

Presumably in emulation of Ricky Martin's post-Menudo success, four former members of the choir have recently released The Alumni, seeking fortune and glory (although apparently not artistic achievement) in the world of dos-pop boy bands... There's way too much of this type of thing finding its way into my headphones lately.

American Idol - Cantorial Edition

DovBear is organizing a J-blogger field trip.