Talk To The Hand!

It's Jewish Rock Star Puppets!

A New Approach to Shiur

Autotune the shiur and give it a beat.

8th Day "All You Got" Preview

Check this! A preview of 8th Day's forthcoming album.

Changing Orthodoxy

Y-Love says "It Got Better After Coming Out!"

In Review – Milken Archive of American Jewish Music – Great Songs of the Yiddish Stage

Founded by Lowell Milken, the Milken Archive's goal is:

...to record, preserve and disseminate the music that has and will continue to emerge from the unique confluence of Jews reconnecting from across the Diaspora to the freedom of America. Over the three-and-a-half centuries since Jews first arrived on these shores, the sacred and secular body of work that has developed provides a powerful means of expressing the multilayered saga of American Jewry. At the same time, this music reflects a remarkable universality of the immigrant and broader human experience.

This three CD set is a compilation of songs from the legendary American Yiddish theater. The first disc focuses on Abraham Ellstein, the second on Sholom Secunda and Alexander Olshanetsky, and the third on Joseph Rumshinsky. Each disc also includes select songs from other songwriters of their circle,.

The music on all three albums is performed by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Elli Jaffe, with a handful of tracks played by the Barcelona Symphony. The singers on this collection are Robert Abelson, Bruce Adler, Robert Bloch, Joanne Borts, Amy Goldstein, Benzion Miller, Elizabeth Shammash, Nell Snaidas, and Simon Spiro, all of who are excellent here. In the main, these are solo features, but there is the occasional duet as well.

In many cases, there are no extant scores (and perhaps never were) full orchestrations of these tunes. For this project, the Milken Archive hired reconstruction orchestrators to create historically considered orchestrations. The results are quite good. The primary focus here, as with most songs from musicals, is the lyrics, and so the arrangements stay in the background, for the most part, tastefully accompanying the well-chosen vocalists.

The material presented includes a nice cross-section of songs, and a listen to this series gives an excellent overview of Yiddish Theater music.

The songs presented touch on subjects like Jewish guilt in “A Brivele Der Mamen”, and pro-worker/anti-capitalism sentiment in“Fifty-Fifty” and “Dir A Nikl, Mir A Nikl”. There’s love in “Oygn” and “Oy, Mame, Bin Ikh Farlibt”, pathos in “Der Dishvasher”, longing for the shtetl in “Slutsk”, and optimism for life in America in “Lebn Zol Kolumbus”. Naturally, there’s humor in songs like “A Malke Af Peysekh” and “Ikh Bin A “Boarder” Bay Mayn Vayb”. There are even mussar-laden songs like “Watch Your Step” and “Oyb S’iz Geven Gut Far Mayn Mamen”, as well as a liturgical setting of “Hamavdil”

My grandmother’s husband, a longtime Yiddish editor and writer, is fond of reminiscing about the music of the Yiddish theater, which in his day was considered heresy for a young Chasid to listen to. “A mohlige apikorsim” he muses, pointing out how even the largely secular Yiddish theater was able to produce passionate music rich with pride and faith in the Jewish people. He is wont to cite lyrics from “Dos Pintele Yid” which is not included in this collection, but the same holds true for songs like Meyerowitz's "Got Un Zayn Mishpet Iz Gerekht", performed here by Robert Abelson, Rumshinsky’s “Shma Yisro'el” and Secunda's "Dos Yidishe Lid", both performed here by Benzion Miller.

These albums come with incredibly detailed liner notes, which include background information about the songs and the shows the songs came from. Translations of the lyrics are provided as well. The jackets do not provide the original Yiddish lyrics, but those are available for download from The Milken Archive website. It takes a bit of looking around, as each song has its own page, but you can find them on the website. I’d have liked to see one page with all of the Yiddish lyrics, including the text typeset in Yiddish as well as transliteration.

It’s hard to narrow it down, but fave tracks include Bruce Adler’s turn on “Hudl Mitn Strudel” (which features David Krakauer on clarinet), his exuberant rendition of Kanapoff’s “Hu-Tsa-Tsa” with terrific comedic timing, Joanne Borts’s peppy “Watch Your Step”, Simon Spiro’s take on “Vos Iz Geven Iz Geven Un Nito” and Robert Abelson’s somber singing on “Got Un Zayn Mishpot Iz Gerekht” and Benzion Miller’s presentation of “Dos Yidishe Lid”.

Amazon has the discs here:

Volume one:

Volume two:

Volume three:

Up next, a review of clarinetist Aaron Novik's "Secrets of Secrets" release on Tzadik.

Post Asifa Suggestion

I haven't written about the anti-internet asifa held this past Sunday at Citifield. There has been lots of talk about it online. One thing that is clear from both the "pro" and "anti" sides is that one event "raising awareness" about the internet is not enough. More practical steps need to be taken.

In the absence of realistic proposals from the leadership at the asifa, I humbly propose that Jewish musicians step into the breach and help increase awareness by playing the following song at every wedding they play this season. It's the perfect ballroom opener, it works as a chupa song for the little kids to walk down to, and it can fit in a dance set too...

Oh, one thing. Since it is on the internet, it goes without saying that this link is inappropriate. You've been warned!

Aaron Razel: Yeshiva Bochur

Play that funky music, yeshiva boy!

In Honor of Yiddish

The Shira Choir sings a R' Shlomo Kalish composition! Check this clip!

From the mailbag...

Dovid Kerner writes:

Sometime between Naphtali Imber and Neshama, I too lifted the melody of La Mantovana and set it to some words I put together. Here's "Hills of Yerushalayim". Yom Yerushalayim Sameach!

Want 100,00 Hits On YouTube in One Day?

Easy. You just need to be a black (ex)chassidic rapper and come "out of the closet, looking for love."

As Expected

Avraham Fried shares his inspiration (and the source) for the lyrics to the song R’ Kaneivsky was asked about.

So, what did the people who shlepped Rav Kanievsky into this achieve?

Heeb: Oy Vey, Y-Love is Gay

Mandatory Heeb coverage.

More On Frum Songs....

E. comments on More Music Questions for Rav Kanievsky...

I don't know about Rav Kanievsky, but we did have a few rabbeim in high school who got very angry and agitated when they heard a few boys singing "Avrohom and Yitzchak will be there to greet us, Yaakov and his sons will stand by and smile...." "REALLY? WHO SAID??!?! WHO SAID?! Some singer? Some entertainer? Some fat oizvarf with a microphone?"

But what I really wanna know is, how can Mama Rochel cry for us again when the day will come that she raises her sweet voice, if she was truly laid to rest on the roadside forever?

Oh and on that note, something which has bothered be for decades: "Never will i be alone, with his help i can stand on my own." Make up your friggin' mind, buddy.

I'm glad Rav Kanievksy clarified that tears thing. I always wondered how the bricks would function descending in fire if they were wet.

I can safely say that there is no 'frum' pop lyric that has bothered me for decades.

More On Frum Songs....

E. comments on More Music Questions for Rav Kanievsky...

I don't know about Rav Kanievsky, but we did have a few rabbeim in high school who got very angry and agitated when they heard a few boys singing "Avrohom and Yitzchak will be there to greet us, Yaakov and his sons will stand by and smile...." "REALLY? WHO SAID??!?! WHO SAID?! Some singer? Some entertainer? Some fat oizvarf with a microphone?"

But what I really wanna know is, how can Mama Rochel cry for us again when the day will come that she raises her sweet voice, if she was truly laid to rest on the roadside forever?

Oh and on that note, something which has bothered be for decades: "Never will i be alone, with his help i can stand on my own." Make up your friggin' mind, buddy.

I'm glad Rav Kanievksy clarified that tears thing. I always wondered how the bricks would function descending in fire if they were wet.

I can safely say that there is no 'frum' pop lyric that has bothered me for decades.

Y-Love Comes Out

Out magazine reports that "Y-Love is Ready for Love."   Guest starring Yoeli Weishauss. I hope he got paid enough to go visit his grandmother a few times.

More Music Questions for Rav Kanievsky

Psachya writes:

Now that we have received an unambiguous psak from R' Chaim Kanievsky shlita that the third Beis Hamikdash will not be built with tears - Avrohom Fried's lyrics to the contrary - I have a few more pressing shailos that I hope R' Kanievsky will address. Perhaps some of his askanim, who are so careful not to waste a gadol's precious time, would be kind enough to run them by him:

- Will we really be free if we have just one Shabbos?

- Are we only supposed to not talk and just daven for our tefilos to reach Hashem, or are we also supposed to go "sh, sh"? In rhythm?

- Do we really have to throw away our hammer every erev Shabbos? Particularly in this economy? (Maybe we should make a takana about that...)

- Are you even allowed to have a minyan in the back of a hardware store?

- Should we really teach our children to treat their fellow friends like they were you? What if you're not a very nice person?

- Why would an eagle want to get into a fight with a bunch of vultures anyway?

- What is the punishment for saying "She-T'hei La-Mazal" to an Ashkenazi?

- Can we finally start selling Jerusalem once the Mormons all go back to Utah? And finally, the most important question of all -

- Did the flame of Torah really flicker on the day that the soldiers rushed in to the dark frigid cellar and led away the small group of men? And why are we required to sing the chorus of that song at every single Jewish wedding?

I await R' Kanievsky's psak regarding these pressing issues. The fate of Klal Yisroel hangs in the balance.

A Nigun With Class!

Learn the Pilpul Nigun.

BRING BACK LIPA!

Dovid Teitlebaum has a message for the anti-internet asifa organizers -- "My final plea to the organizers of the Asifa at Citi Field: BRING BACK LIPA!"

Chinuch Roundtable: Sefirah Edition

Oh dear! Frum Satire spoofs the Chinuch Roundtable in "I can’t live through sefira without music."

New Haredi Sport

Running to Gedolim for their take on frum pop lyrics.

Lag B'omer Music

DovBear on Lag B'omer Music.

Lipa Faith Promo

Kars for What?

Over at Hamavdil, Chaim Bray takes on Oorah in עורה-עורה שפלותי and "Stuff One No-Account Blogger Says About Oorah." Indeed.

Y-Studa Acapella

Received a couple of emails from various Y-studs asking me to post their video... Here it is... I don't get it. I mean I do... but I don't... know what I mean?

Neshoma Courts Controversy

Neshama Carlebach releases a new version of Hatikva  to be more inclusive to Israeli Arabs.  She also posted a non-statement to her Facebook page:

Friends, I know many of you have been waiting for me to make a personal statement about situation around this version of Hatikva. I haven't yet responded deeply and publicly about my own pro-Israel beliefs and have so wanted to. The wait has only been due to my large (and incredible) Team (everyone is involved and helping to create it) and my new Publicity Team needing to approve all that is released. Thank you for your patience, I hope to post my video statement over the next day. I love you all, thank you for being there and for believing in me and in my quest for goodness.

Hakol Kol Yaakova!

Over in South Africa... Women refuse singing ban!

Via Hirhurim.

Lag BaOmer is coming!

The Klezmer Shack posts a Tribute to Meron klezmer Avrum Segal, z"l.

"Histalkus Metal" in Crown Heights

At FM: Ex-Hasid Death Metal Band Flourishes – In Crown Heights

I Wanna Be A Polar Bear (With A Bomb)

This just might be the weirdest version of Abanibi I've ever seen.