Jorge Liderman: Aires de Sepharad: 46 Spanish Songs for Violin and Guitar
www.albanyrecords.com
I rushed to recommend this graceful recording to the music department at Classical KING-FM. The much-honored Argentina-born, Israel-trained composer Liderman made this hour-long suite for violin and guitar [editor’s note: corrected from originally stating the suite was written for flute and guitar] out of 46 short songs, many of which will be deeply familiar to Sephardic Jews, and all of which receive performances of the highest caliber from “Duo 46″ — Matt Gould, guitar, and Beth Ilana Schneider, violin. Liderman’s death earlier this year at age 50 was a major loss, especially in the Bay Area music community, where he was on the faculty at UC Berkeley.
Gershon Veroba: Reach Out
www.veroba.net
Did your summer camp, day school or Hebrew school drill a certain corny grace after meals tune into your head? That crusty old tune hides a tender wish for honor for everyone, which reveals itself in Veroba’s opening track. Every now and then, liturgical stuff needs a wake-up call like this. This is a very American album, engaging and accessible to anyone across the Jewish spectrum who takes his or her spirit seriously. Guest artists include Sam Glaser and Yosi Piamenta. Interesting artist, this cantor’s son, Veroba: On YouTube, doing a greenroom interview with Paula Abdul about her Shabbat candle lighting; on his blog, wrestling the “What is Jewish music?” question into articulate corners with passionate correspondents. Hanukkah bonus: A new warm-by-the-fire tune for the complete “Al Ha-Nisim,” to follow the candle blessings.
The Jewish Songbook: The Heart and Humor of a People
www.shoutfactory.com
That’s Seattle Symphony’s new Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch doing a solo piano turn on Hatikva in this showy program that runs from heart-on-sleeve straight to risqué and back again: A zip through 20th-century American Jewish pop culture. Includes tracks from such diverse company as Neil Sedaka, Theodore Bikel, Adam Sandler, and Triumph the Insult Dog. Proceeds are said to benefit “The Jewish Federation.”(Which one?) Apparently Barbra Streisand almost never agrees to release single tracks for any compilations, but she did for this one.
Georg Benschmid & Friends: Wien Bleibt Krk
www.zappelmusic.com
The Blue Danube meets Frank Zappa in this adventurous outing from a European classical bassist-turned-jazzman. The title, referring to a Croatian island, Krk, turns the expression “Wien bleibt Wien” — “Vienna remains Vienna” — into a declaration that Vienna, at least musically, is the Balkans. You can watch that happen on YouTube in a couple of different performances, one as a string trio, one with muted trumpet, both with the composer on bass. The only explicitly Jewish track is the last one, inspired by a movie, Mirjam Unger’s Vienna’s Lost Daughters. But perhaps this reminder of how Vienna used to be what New York became — a Jewish urban sophisticate’s idea of home turf — makes our still-Shoah-sensitive ears pick up more than just contemporary European jazz, not only on this track but on the whole exciting album.
Michael Winograd: Bessarabian Hop
www.michaelwinograd.com
A new generation of klezmer masters is rising, trained at Klezkamp and KlezKanada, fed on Klezmatics and Klezmer Conservatory Orchestra tracks, and speaking fluent clarinet. That would be Winograd. Subtle advances in harmony and phrasing make this album a pleasure both to those comfortable with klezmer as it’s been done, and to those who hope that it is evolving in its Americanization.
Benjamin Lapidus: Herencia Judia
www51.pair.com/tresero
Know any Jews who grew up in South America? I certainly do, and this album sounded like home to those ears. Lapidus was born in the USA and learned these tunes second-hand, but you’d never know. Inspired by Cuban-style Catskills bands, and by his own family roots search (and his doctoral-level research), Lapidus’s take on common Jewish prayers only occasionally turns corny; mostly, he’s too musically sophisticated for that. An African drum pulses through some deeply serious Days of Awe chant; surprising rhythms emerge from the common “Eitz Chayim Hi” tune; from the Passover Haggadah, there’s the entire “Dayenu.”
Lapidus manages to dance — and I do mean dance — on the line between religious and fun, substituting “k” and “shem” in the respectful manner referencing the Eternal, even as he goes all Cuban on “Aleinu.” There’s a setting of the Kaddish that could bring a smile until you realize it’s complete, and it’s dedicated to the musically adventurous Jewish martyr Daniel Pearl. A Cuban-style “Son de Hanukah” makes this a spicy seasonal treat.
Paul Shapiro: Essen
www.paulshapiromusic.com
So I have this friend who once worked as a waiter at a Catskills resort, and speaks fluent Yiddish. Would he love this? It’s a send-up of the stuff he saw played straight, but he’s a guy with a sense of humor. Would you love it? “Essen” means “eat, y’all” (okay, I grew up in Texas), and it is a feast, indeed — a sly take on all things classically Noo Yawk Joo, from the label that specializes in stretching Jewish culture to its edges (John Zorn’s Tzadik). In the spirit of Cab Calloway’s recording of “Ut a Zay,” there’s an earthy-voiced female vocalist, a slinky sax, and abundant late-night-in-the-Village keyboard playing to carry these tracks from “Dunkin’ Bagel” to “A Bissel Bop.” Nearly an hour’s worth of latke-flipping company from this band of specialists.