Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Kosha Dillz's 'Dodging Bullets' Video Feat. Matisyahu

Premiering on Billboard: Kosha Dillz's 'Dodging Bullets' Video Feat. Matisyahu



From Chabad to dancing girls (Tznius warning), but an Israel supporter (of sorts), which is not easy these days.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Vu Zenen Di Froyen?

Over at the Forward surprisingly tolerant piece about Yiddish Soul, A Concert of Talented Men.



Some, however, had complaints, not about the quality of the singers or musicians but rather about who they were. In the middle of the show a woman stood up and shouted “Where are the women? Women can sing beautifully too you know,” and promptly left the venue.

It is, of course, a serious and fraught issue. Besides the Folksbiene’s Executive Director Bryna Wasserman not a single woman appeared or spoke during the three-hour show. Not one woman played an instrument, let alone sang. In the days following Yiddish Soul some secular Klezmer musicians and Yiddish singers took to Facebook to decry the Folksbiene’s decision to “discriminate” against women in order to assure that a religious audience would attend.
I have a lot of sympathy for such arguments but in this case I don’t agree with them. If all of the Folksbiene’s concerts and plays only featured men it would be an entirely different story. But it’s just the opposite: the company puts on a womanless show just once a year so that religious Jews who would otherwise be unable to attend can enjoy it. It’s worth it to do it once a year, especially if it allows the Folksbiene to present such great cantors and singers as Lipa Schmeltzer, Yaakov Lemmer and Benny Friedman.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt if next year’s Kulturfest featured a second concert on the same scale in which the Yiddish world’s many talented women singers and musicians could perform.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Friday, June 10, 2016

Ay Yai Yai, Indeed!

"But, of course, Hakadosh Baruch Hu comes and "matzileinu's us"...

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Ein Li...

E. and David both emailed about Lipa Schmeltzer's cover of Ein Li Erez Anchoret performed with the song's composer in Hebrew and Yiddish: "Israeli lesbian composer moved to tears by NY haredi singer’s Yiddish version of her classic tune"



It's a horrible version musically speaking, IMO, but it doesn't much matter, because what's important is the dialogue that's happening here. Now it's easy to pretend that this is new, but the reality is that over the past few years there has been an increasing crossover of Chasidic artists willing to step out of the community's comfort zone to perform with/for secular/differently religious Jews (and non-Jews).



And that's the important part of this, the bridge-building that has been going on despite the leadership on both sides.