Encompassing four events and a showcase of our state’s Jewish history, the culmination of a year’s worth of planning at Town Hall Seattle will bring Judaism to the masses. Its upcoming series, the latest in its annual celebration of world cultures, brings together local and national musicians, a silent film that was an allegory for Fascism that still resonates today, and a photo exhibit of some of Washington’s oldest Jewish families.
“Each year as part of our Global Rhythm piece we do an “˜In America’ program. In previous years we’ve done “˜Mexico in America’ and “˜Japan in America,’” said Spider Kedelsky, Town Hall’s curator. “This year we decided to celebrate our local Jewish community. And rather than bring in artists and do a program that people would be familiar with, we’ve tried to do a unique ensemble with some really great performers.”
The showcase event will take place on Sat., Jan 31 at 8 p.m. The Jewish in America gala performance features The Zmiros Project, a side project of Frank London and Lorin Sklamberg, founders of the world-renowned klezmer band The Klezmatics. Joining with pianist Rob Schwimmer, The Zmiros Project is a collection of niggunim (melodies) and prayers set to jazz fused with klezmer and Chassidic undertones.
The performance serves as a reunion of sorts as the band collaborates with the Joshua Nelson Ensemble. Nelson is known as the “Kosher Gospel” singer, a superstar in his own right. Nelson and the Klezmatics collaborated on the 2005 recording Brother Moses Smote the Water.
The evening takes a local bent with A Sephardic Suite, songs and music drawn from the rich traditions of Sephardic Jewry performed by Seattle flamenco artists Marcos Carmona on guitar, vocalist Rubina Carmona, and Madeleine Sosin on vocals and violin.
“These are all traditional old Sephardic songs, almost troubadour in their feeling, and most Sephardics know them,” says Marcos Carmona, founder of the local
performing group Flamenco Arts Northwest. “What we’re doing with them is we’re playing them in a flamenco style.”
The style, a form known as Farruca, will encompass all four of the songs the trio performs, with the instrumentation in flamenco and the vocals sung completely in their traditional form. Flamenco, Carmona says, is based about 25 percent on Sephardic music.
The performance may hold some surprises as well.
“A lot of the music will be semi-improvised as we’re doing it,” Carmona says, “so it should be pretty interesting.”