DovBear posts a link to the NY Times obit for Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, ZT"L.
The Mir Yeshiva is exclusively devoted to the study of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. It has 1,200 members. Another branch is in Jerusalem, with an estimated 4,000 students. In contrast with other Orthodox and Hasidic traditions, it shuns all music, song and dance in the belief that secular learning is useful only for earning a living.Having played a number of Mir Yeshivah events over the years including, at various points, Simchas Beis Hashoeva" and Purim gigs, this assertion is bizzare.
Teruah posts a link to Arnie Davidson's Project Ben David - an attempt to create prayer melodies which "will soon become the new 'standards' for this generation.
Jack doesn't like the project as a whole, but did like Davidson's "Esa Einai" which is available as a free download from Davidson's site. I checked out the tune last night and there's a gross mispronunciation that I just can't get past. The vocalist, Davidson, I believe, consistently mispronounces the word "heharim" as "hekharim", substituting a "khet" (or "ches" for the non YIVO-ists) for the "hey". Oh, well.
The J-Post reviews discs by Mare Winnignham and Sarah Aroeste.
Life-of-Rubin is posting viewer complaints about the new Gerstner DVD.
We missed this at the time. Here's a Nafshenu promo interview about their CD, "A Heimishe Wedding." A highly informative video.
To address just one point...
The claim is made that --unique to Nafshenu-- all of the musicians on the album are actual musicians you might see on the bandstand at Nafshenu weddings, and are not studio guns for hire.
This claim is untrue. To cite one example, Neshoma Orchestra's "Neshoma @ Your Simcha" CD featured only Neshoma's regular bandstand musicians on the recording. Nafshenu is well aware of this, as Aaron was still working for Neshoma when that album was produced.
Finally, courtesy of YouTube's Kol Isha division, here's Rosenblatt's "Kaddish" performed by Mezzo-Soprano Dorothea Fayne.
