Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Musicians' Reference

Rav Eitam Henkin HY'D is quoted in the the Seforim blog post "Torah Under Wraps":

“The definitive assignment of each person into specifically this community or that one is often artificial. It is absurd that the public considers many comedians, musicians, and low-brow entertainers (for purposes of this example) as “Haredi” because they attended heder and wear a hat in the synagogue, while thousands of families who give their all for Torah and are punctilious about every jot and tittle (not to mention that for them television, secular newspapers, and the like are not even up for discussion) are “not Haredi" because they wear a colored shirt and also rejoice on Yom Ha-‘Atzma’ut. Although people can only see externals, they can ascertain what they will have to account for in the Heavenly court, whether they will be asked about Torah study, honesty in business, and hoping for the redemption,[5] or whom they cast their vote for in national elections.”

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Peeps in the mailbag...

A. writes: Got a few peeps of my own all from one chasunah. "The loud key-changer" Violinist leads the guests who are singing the Alter Rebbe's Nigun (at a Chabad wedding) to the badekenish. Until one very large and very very loud singer becomes the leader, moving the entire crowd from D to D# and eventually to E. Poor violinist tries to override him, then tries to play along, then gives up. "The faster faster guy" Beginning of the 2nd set, band is about 2 minutes into an upbeat funky hora medley, crowd is having a great time. One younger brother/cousin/nephew/friend starts yelling at me to play faster. When ignored, starts gesticulating wildly. Still ignored, actually gets up on stage to yell right next to me about which fast songs I should play right now and everyone will go wild. I resist the urge to go punk rocker on him; anyway I'm wearing earplugs so his ranting is barely detectable. Eventually he gives up and disappears. "The interminable tribute/parody singers" Two family members play instruments, so we've agreed to let them take over on guitar & drums, and sing a tribute song they've written TTTO "Just One Shabbos." Except it turns out it's the 2 musicians plus 3 singers and the monitor mix is totally wrong for them, so it's a complete trainwreck, at about 80% speed, with even more verses than the original. Oh well, at least the band got 15 minutes to get dessert and drinks.

Monday, July 04, 2016

Some Links

A completely over the top review of Eleanor Riessa's new collab with Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars, The Glorious Debut of Yiddish Songbird Eleanor Reissa as the Jewish Beyonce, that contains both factual inaccuracies -- Delilah wasn't Jewish -- and super schmaltzy writing. But schmaltz is appropriate, no? There's a great clip at the link.



Meanwhile, WNYC is Remembering Elie Wiesel, and you can hear him singing in two short snippets.