T-Shirt Slogan

Had an idea for a JM related T-shirt:

I love Jewish Music.... it's the disco I hate!

Whaddya think?

Song Requests

Tonight the band got a request for "Kol Sasson". It took a while to figure out which song the kid who requested it meant. He wanted to hear M'heira by Ya'akov Shwekey. The high part of the song begins with the words "kol sasson."

Incidentally, that high part makes a lot of folks think of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."

Very often, people come over to the band to request songs w/o knowing the song's title. This frequently makes for some laughs on the bandstand.

Best request in this vein ever, "Shifty Whoo", by someone who wanted to hear an older version of Achas Shoalti that was popular in their summer camp.

Carlebach Lawsuit

Here's an article about the copyright infringement lawsuit Neshama and Nedara Carlebach filed several months ago seeking 2.6 million dollars in damages.

Troubling part:
"In a joint statement to the Forward, Neshama, who has launched her own successful music career, and Nedara said: "It truly breaks our hearts to see how badly and unjustly [our father] has been repaid for his unconditional giving. And it is especially sad because some of those who are the worst offenders are religious Jews who hide behind the claim they act in the name of G-D and holiness. We pray that somehow this is rectified. We pray that one day, after all these years, our father can truly rest in peace."

I fully support the families right to obtain royalties for the use of Shlomo's music, but the gratuitous Orthodox bashing is disturbing. (All of the named defendants are Orthodox.) To my knowledge, none of the performers, producers, distributors, or retailers have claimed that they are distributing Shlomo's music "in the name of G-D and holiness." More likely, given the poor quality of the bootlegs, they are distributed "in the name of making a quick buck!"

I do believe that religious Jews ought to be held to a higher standard, and if the Carlebach sisters would have said something along the lines of: "...and it is especially sad because religious Jews are obligated to abide by the laws of the land (dina d'malchusa dina)," then I wouldn't find their statement troubling.

However, the assertion that these people are "hiding behind the claim that they act in the name of G-D and holiness," frankly, sounds to me like an anti-Semitic slur rather than the type of criticism that I imagine Shlomo would have found appropriate.

Band Name Generator

I put the name of the largest Jewish band in town, Neginah Orchestra, into the "Band Name Generator."

My best result: "Greedy Neginah"
Although "Neginah Shameless" has a nice ring to it too.
"Snake of the Disgusting Neginah" isn't bad either.

Try it yourself!

The Artist Formerly Known As...

First, Prince changed his name to a glyph, then Puff Daddy became P.Diddy...

now Yisroel Williger is "Srully Williger!"

What is it with Sheya Mendlowitz produced recordings? First, Jonathan Morgenstern gives up any name recognition he had from his days as a soloist for the Miami Boys Choir to become Shalom Morgenstern, and now this! What's the point???

As a side rant, why do so many of the "YU" artists feel the need to pretend to be "yeshivish" to market their albums? Jonathan Morgenstern becoming "Shalom" Morgenstern is one example - BTW, wouldn't the authentically yeshivish spelling be "Sholom" with two O's? - and the Kol Zimra guys, who put on black velvet yarmulkas instead of their usual kippot srugot for their album cover are another.

Silly English Lyrics

I've always been fascinated by the lyrics to the English language songs on Jewish music albums. They usually contain cheesy cliches, silly analogies, and are often meant to be tearjerkers, although they more often induce laughter. They contain words like "strive" and "yearn", and consist of elementary-school level statements of faith end belief. And, although there are exceptions, they are rare.

My nomination for the worst English Jewish music song ever is the song "The Shabbos Candles" from the Miami Boys Choir album "Stand Up" (not to be confused with "Shteyt Oyf "by the Klezmatics.) Released in 1999, the song was basically outdated by the time the album was in stores.

The best verse:

"They call it Y2K - the experts say
We'll all be confined to a room
Will the world stand still? They said it will
Bringing sadness, heartache, and doom
We'll still have the light of the Shabbos candles."

Runners up include "The Voice of a New Generation" from Yisroel Williger's debut album, and more recently, "Watch Over Me" from Lev Tahor 2.

Coming soon: The first ever "fisking" of a Jewish music song. Feel free to suggest a song!

About Eli Gerstner

"Eli Gerstner didn't gradually rise to celebrity status. No such luck. Fame hurled itself upon Eli and hit him like a ton of bricks.... Only recently he was a little-knowing counselor banging on his drums in summer camp."

All this and more on his website.

Little-knowing!!! Have I mentioned that I love Jewish music PR!

80's Music Reviews

Here are some interesting reviews/reminiscences on Jewish music from the 1980’s.

Best Line: "The first song,[on MBD's Double Album] “Da’agah Minayin,” lets us know that the man we all want to hire for our weddings but realistically know we can only afford Shelly Lang, is bringin’ it."

Public Service Announcement

Public Service Announcement

Here are the lyrics to "I'm So Sick of Racheim."

The Key Change Controversy!

Here’s an interesting website dedicated to particularly egregious key changes called the "The Truck Driver's Gear Change Hall Of Shame."

Greg agrees with this characterization of modulation, but Steve thinks that key changes are cool.

Personally, I think that interesting key changes can add a lot to an arrangement, but I think that the technique is overused and often poorly done, on many of today's jewish music recordings.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE:
An example of a "gear change" key shift on a Jewish tune can be found in the arrangement of "Kein Yehi Ratzon" on The Chevra's debut album.

What You Hear Isn't What You Get

Recent comments on the Yahoo Jewish Music group website point out that often, the musicians that show up to perform at an affair are not of the same quality as the musicians on the groups recordings.

This post addresses the issue as it relates to vocal groups, but the same criticisms can be applied to the wedding bands as well. The quality of the band at a given affair is often lower than what the client expected.

This can happen for several reasons.

1) It is quite common for some bands to misrepresent which musicians will be at an affair in order to book a gig. This can take many forms from using musicians who aren’t available with that band on their demos to promising musicians that they know are unavailable that evening, possibly even because they are already on another job for that band.

2) On busy nights, the larger offices may hire a lot of freelancers so that they can send out more bands. The band may rely on one or two of its regulars to “hold things together” on each bandstand, and fill the rest of the band with ringers. These ringers may be good musicians, but the band will still not be as “tight” as it is when the regulars who play together all the time are on the job.

3) Some smaller bands promise “name” musicians who are available at the time the job is booked, and take the job, but then cancel when the their regular band gets a gig. This is often an honest mistake on the part of the small bandleader, but it’s also one that is to be expected.

4) Some bands have released many albums and people assume that that’s what the band sounds like. A closer look at the liner notes reveals that the musicians used are not the bands regular players, and often aren’t even in the USA. Incidentally, many times the band has had nothing to do with the album, and the artist puts their name on it because he gets a lot of work from them.

5) Sometimes the bandleaders are too lazy to make the calls to find a good musician for a particular slot and rely on their band leading skills to hold everything together. I regularly receive calls in on Thursdays in June from “name” bands that need a musician for a wedding the following Sunday. Weddings aren’t usually booked at the last minute, so what this tells me is that either they were lax in trying to fill the slot, or one of their musicians cancelled on them. The fact that this happens regularly leads me to believe that it’s the latter reason.

Look for my recommendations on how to avoid this issue coming soon!

Williger gets dissed!

There's a backhanded swipe at Yisroel Williger in reason number nine here!
I wonder why many of these jokes seem funnier if Williger is mentioned instead of Dachs, Wald, et al.

Anyone have an explanation?

Take My Blog, Please!

Today I was called the “Henny Youngman of the J-blogosphere” by Protocols. A link and a compliment! Cool!

This blog is meant to include serious thought-out musings and essays, as well as humorous Jewish music related posts. It is very much a work in progress. Any thoughts, suggestions, comments, links, or feedback is appreciated.

Please note: Blogging will remain slow due to an extremely busy gigging season of camp concerts and Catskills gigs as well as the usual wedding and Bar/Bat Mitzvah performances. No gig details because I've chosen to remain anonymous for now. (This despite the offer of a free Jewish music CD from the album's producer.)

Zen thought of the day!

If a new Yisroel Williger CD is released, and no one buys it, will it still make a sound?

Rockin' Rabbi

For all you rock music fans, Rabbi Sol Blazowitz sings a "Heimish" version of Helter Skelter.
(Flash player required)

Torah Thought!

I thought that I’d share a music related thought on the “Three Weeks” with you.
I heard in a taped shiur by R’ Yosef Gavriel Bechofer that it’s OK to play kid’s tapes for young children during the “Three Weeks”, despite the prohibition on listening to music, because “it’s annoying.”

Who says that music criticism doesn’t have practical halachik applications?

I wonder, would this mean that Michael Steinhart, would be permitted to attend a hypothetical Shwekey concert during the “Nine Days?”

As a side note, the end of the “Three Weeks” means that I’ll be really busy gigging over August as people try to squeeze their simchas in before the Chagim start so blogging may be intermittent for the next few weeks.

Linked by the Elders

Some of the commentators on Protocols link to my earlier post What You Hear Isn't What You Get (Part Deux) seem to have missed the point. (BTW, thanks for the link guys!)

One writes "Another compelling argument to make a "takkanedigeh-chassunah" and book a one-man band. (As if we needed more reasons...)" while another says: "Best solution: more frum disk jockeys."

Talk about missing the point! Instead of a finding and hiring a good live band, these folks would rather sit through an evening of canned electronic music. A good DJ or one-man band can get the job done, but they'll never compare to the energy put out by a good live band.

Better Than Chevra!

Look out Chevra, Kol Zimra, Beatachon, Az Yashir, et al.

Here come the singing horses!

Great Moments in Music History!

I've never gotten asked to play this!

I have actually been asked for each song separately, though.

High Expectations!

Here are some gift giving tips for all you engaged Brooklyn couples out there who aren't sure what you should get for your fiancée.

Sadly, this is meant to be serious.

But, G-d forbid that anyone should spend "too much" on the band!