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This set contains three tunes by Naftule
Brandwein. The first, "Fun Tashlach",
refers to the Rosh Hashnah tradition of
casting bread on the waters, thus the
English title "Returning From the River".
Brandwein came from the Polish province of
Galicia, a musical crossroads situated
between the Carpathian Mountains and the
Crimea, and his songs reveal a wealth of
these influences. For example, "Terk in
America", which was recorded on
Tanz, an earlier project I did for
Tzadik, is set in a rhythm like a Greek
Kalimatiano. "Der Heisser", or the "Tartar
Dance", is written in a Persian sounding
6/8 meter. "Fim Di Mekhutonim Aheym", a
wedding song, alludes to a tradition of
musicians "Walking the In-laws Home" in
the early morning hours at the end of the
wedding party.
There are two more Klezmer gems mined from
old 78's by the Abe Schwartz Orchestra:
"Baym Rebn's Sude" and the "Sadagora
Chusidl". I learned "Abu's Courtyard", an
Israeli Hasidic tune associated with Mount
Meron, from a version by Klezmer violinist
Yehoshua Rochman.
"Kefer Yefefiya" is from an old Yeminite
chant, which is demonstrated on the Beth
Hatefutsoth Museum's recording titled
Ahavat Hadasa. It's a song about Jerusalem
and translates as Beautiful
City.
The Sephardic tradition represented by
three selections, "La Serena" was taught
to me by David Harris, who has traveled
and done fieldwork to collect Sephardic
songs and their variations. he found this
version in one of the oldest Sephardic
communities in the Balkans; Salonika,
Greece. David also introduced me to Flory
Jagoda. Flory is a big inspiration, and
her guitar style in particular informed my
own concept for adapting Jewish music to
fingerstyle guitar.
I first played "La Jave Espana" in a
concert with Flory and her family band at
the Center for Jewish History in
Manhattan. Flory came from a village in
Bosnia near Sarajevo. The first Sephardic
immigrants had arrived 400 years earlier
after being expelled from Spain. Hoping to
return someday, many families kept the
keys to their homes, and passed them down
for generations, thus the title, "The Keys
From Spain". "Todos Si Hueron" is a Ladino
dialect for "They Have All Gone". This is
a haunting tune about Flory's return to
her old village decades after the end of
the Second World War. Flory wrote this
song especially for David's group, Voices
of Sepharad.
Finally, "Mashav" is by John Zorn and
means "Thought". There's a Yiddish saying,
"Man thinks and God laughs." This song
shows a quieter, meditative side of the
iconoclastic composer.
For this recording, John Zorn invited
guitarist Marc Ribot and cellist Erik
Friedlander, in addition to Greg Cohen on
bass and Cyro Baptista on percussion. We
wanted to try a variety of textures and
you'll hear solo guitar, guitar duets,
guitar and cello, guitar with cello, bass
and percussion, and so on. Collaborating
with these great musicians was
exhilarating to say the least. If you're
enjoying this collection of tunes, it's
due mostly to all the ideas they
contributed.
There's a way in which a guitar can
uniquely embody these Jewish songs,
something about the guitar having evolved
from the medieval Judeo-Arabic culture in
Spain. Cyro suggested we ask Marc Ribot to
bring his nylon-string and happily, he
did. At one point, Marc looked at me with
a slight smile and said, "Classical
guitars get jealous if you don't play
them." Fortunately, Marc and his guitar
made up, as you can hear in his solos.
Erik Freidlander brings all the skill and
poise of a consummate classical musician
to the table, and then improvises and
plays great time - and when he plays he
has a great time and you have a great time
playing with him! I especially like Erik's
take on At the Rebbe's Table,which
we made the title track for this CD.
Now Cyro Baptista is like some kind of
force of nature. I never worry about what
he's going to do. It just bubbles out. In
fact, watching him work out is as much fun
as listening. This is the second recording
I've done with Greg Cohen and I've come to
realize he doesn't merely play incredible
bass but has a sense of humor and
personality that puts everyone at ease
before he plays a note. Greg suggested
many improvements to these arrangements,
and for this, we can be thankful.
A word of thanks also to Jim Anderson, who
came out to hear us play, and also took
the time to sit in on a rehearsal in order
to get a sense of the ensemble sound,
which he captured very well. Scott Hull
did the mastering, tweaking things and
generally putting the icing on the cake,
and lighting it just right for the
presentation.
This is the third volume in a series of
guitar explorations of Jewish musical
traditions for Tzadik and I'm grateful to
John and Kaz for the opportunity to record
some of the most beautiful music I've ever
arranged for guitar. Kazunori Sugiyama is
a man of few words. He just calmly
shepherds the organized chaos of this
process toward a happy conclusion. And
John Zorn, what can I say? Two words come
to mind, Contagious Enthusiasm. That, and
he plays a mean abacus.
- Tim Sparks, 2002
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