One-Man-Band

I had the privilege of guesting at a simcha recently in one-man-bandville. 'twas an informative experience.

A few high (low?) points.

1) Two women emerge from around the mechitza and approach the "musician" with the following request. "Can you possibly turn down/off the speaker on the women's side. We understand that, for the men, its geshmak like this. By the ladies, its too loud."
The fun part was that the speaker on the women's side was already off. Gives an idea of the volume, though.

2) Carlebach's V'hayu Limshisa as a 4/4 rock song! Arranger technology can make even a one finger player sound way better than he deserves. That said, the musician still does need to be able to tell the difference between counting to three and counting to four.

3) Who said musicians need to present properly/dress up for simchas? Apparently, there's no need to shave, put on a jacket, tie, or even tuck in your shirt.

4) Apparently, disco is the style of choice for "dinner" music. Who knew?

5) All Am/C Major, all the time!

Behind On Reviews

So, I've fallen woefully behind on reviews and the stack has been piling up...

I've just loaded the review CD's/zip files into iTunes, and am hoping to get to them in the near future.

Here's what's on tap.

1) Jay Rapoport - "With All Your Heart"
2) Richard Locker - "Masterpieces in Transcription"
3) Three CD's of solo accordion music by Zevy Zions - "Olive Blossoms", "Dizzy Accordion", and "William Tell"
4) Shlock Rock - "A Shabbat in Liverpool"
5) Asher Hillel Burstein - "Am Kadosh"
6) Yiddish Princess - "Yiddish Princess EP"
7) Eden - "The Knock At The Door"
8) Julie Silver - "Reunion"
9) Marty Levitt - "King of the Klezmers"
10) Peter and Ellen Allard - "Little Taste of Torah"
11) Prodezra Beats - "Proud to Be" EP

More On Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak's Ban

Parshablog posts "Why We Should Ignore Rav Amnon Yitzchak's Latest Kol Korei."

Ovae at Rationalist Judaism, Rabbi Natan Slifkin posts " New Concert Ban."

Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak Makes Stuff Up (Ban content)

In the previous post, I linked to a widely publicized report that "R’ Elyashiv Refuses to Sign Israeli Ban On Chasidic Music ."

This past August, Life in Israel posted a video of Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak attempting to get Rav Shteinman to sign onto a ban against one such singer, without success. That video is also a sad example of how people attempt to manipulate these elderly rabbis.

Now Life in Israel reports that Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak has publicized the following ban against Jewish concert singers.



It bans concerts whether or not they are separate seating events.

The bullet points:
1) These concerts are prohibited both in Israel and in "chutz la'aretz."
2) The prohibition includes everyone, organizers, participants, men. women, children, and especially the singers who are "machtiei es harabim" (lit: induce the public to sin).
3) It is prohibited for newspapers etc. to accept ads/publicize these events.
4) Those singers who appear at these events may not be invited to sing at any event, including tefilot and "kosher" occasions i.e. at simchas.

The postscript says that one should not sing any of these artists songs even at kosher events, mitzvah celebrations, etc. (The ban explicitly states that this postscript was agreed to by all of the signers. Two of the alleged signers? Rav Eliashiv and Rav Shteinman.

Nice. Once again, a huge chillul Hashem on the part of those opposed to this music and these events.

Amnon Yitzchak FAIL

According to VIN, "R’ Elyashiv Refuses to Sign Israeli Ban On Chasidic Music."