Proof that you can't tell a book by its cover

We read this book over the weekend and it was impossible to put down. Popular Music and National Culture in Israel by the amazing Motti Regev. It tells the story of the evolution of Israeli ideology via the development of the nation's music scene. Enjoy this classic from the High Windows, pioneers of Israel's pyschedelic scene. If any one has any albums from this era, we would love to hear about them.

Our Take On Poland Runs In Tablet

As promised, a bit about our Krakow experience with the remarkable Seymour Stein, from Tablet, which is one of the smartest web sites we have come across in a long, long time.

We Salute the Career of Jo Amar. Another Legend Lost.

Jo Amar, Genre-Bending Jewish Singer, Dies at 79

By Bruce Weber (from the New York Times)

Jo Amar, a Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose melding of Andalusian and Israeli musical influences made him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish communities around the world, died on June 29 at the home of his son Ouri in Woodmere, N.Y. He was 79 and lived in Jerusalem.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his son David said. Mr. Amar had been in failing health for several months, and he came to the United States in February to be with his children and grandchildren, all of whom live in the New York metropolitan area.

Mr. Amar’s music was a hybrid, fusing Sephardic and North African-Arab songs, Jewish liturgical vocal styles and even Western-style harmonies into a kind of Middle Eastern pop. He sang in a bright, engaging tenor, recording about 20 albums, and with his crowd-pleasing manner, he performed not only in large performance halls with full orchestras but also in cabarets and at weddings and other private functions. He was often asked to be the guest cantor on Jewish High Holy Days, invitations he accepted selectively, in cities including Paris and Casablanca.

A composer of songs as well, he performed for Jewish audiences throughout the diaspora, in places like Brazil and South Africa; in 1963 he even toured in Iran, performing before mixed Jewish and Muslim audiences and appearing on Iranian television.

Yosef Amar, who was known as Jo from an early age, was born on June 1, 1930, in Settat, Morocco, where his grandfather had been the chief rabbi. He studied at a yeshiva in Meknes, Morocco, and planned to become a Hebrew language teacher, but his affinity for music directed his life. During a visit to Israel, before moving there in 1956, he persuaded a radio station to listen to his music by gathering an impromptu choir on the street outside to perform one of his songs. He became popular in Israel, especially among immigrants from northern Africa and the Middle East, his hybrid music helping to open European Jewish ears to new, exotic sounds.

Mr. Amar came to the United States in 1965 to perform at Carnegie Hall, in a well-received concert that eventually persuaded him to move to New York with his family in 1970.

“In a variety of Oriental-flavored popular songs he displayed a broad range of feeling, a penetrating projection, regionally nasalized intonation and strong rhythmic sense that communicated warmly with the audience,” the music critic Robert Shelton wrote in The New York Times.

In the late 1980s Mr. Amar returned to Israel with his wife, Raymonde. She died in 1997.

Besides his sons David, of Fresh Meadows, Queens, and Ouri, Mr. Amar is survived by two daughters, Esther Umanoff of Tenafly, N.J., and Madeleine Labovitz of Highland Park, N.J.; 11 grandchildren; 5 great-grandchildren; and 7 siblings, who live in Belgium and Israel.

From: The New York Times

Back in one piece...

We are back... full report to come... but here are some images...

We are going to Polska

The Idelsohn Society has been invited to participate in the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, Poland which is a big honor. If you are in the vicinity, come see us speak about our work on Friday July 3rd at midday. We are excited to attend the festival which is one of the world's greatest, and to track down many of the musicians and sounds from Eastern Europe who have influenced much of the music we are tracking down with such passion over here. We will be blogging from Poland, but if you are going to be there, be in touch.

Idelsohn Showcase rocks San Francisco

Part of the reason we formed the Idelsohn Society For Musical Preservation was to change the legacy of the performers we meet. Over the past five years we have uncovered a lost world of Jewish Music replete with performers whose careers have been in danger of being written out of history. A core part of our strategy is getting them back on stage to rock a young audience. A little like the Buena Vista Social Club but a little less Cuban. We were elated to sell-out the CJM in San Francisco on April 30th with an Idelsohn showcase that saw 93 year-old Irving Fields play the city for the first time, Jonny Yune, the Korean master of Jewish melody, and a special guest return to the stage by Lynn Burton of the Burton Sisters who were re-found thanks to readers of this site.

Thanks to Connie Wolf and the board and staff at the CJM in San Francisco for giving them the opportunity to take the stage again, so a young audience can rock out to their sound and appreciate their legacy. Next stop, the Lincoln Center on August 23rd.
Sold Out crowd at the CJMIdelsohn Society co-founder David Katznelson welcomes Lynn Burton of the Burton Sisters onto the stage for the first time in 50 years.
The sell-out audience mobs Irving Fields, Lynn Burton, and Jonny Yune. Scenes not enacted since Beatlemania.

Irving Fields, 93, rocks the kids.

Jonny Yune closes the show with a sterling version of Ose Shalom.

Why Gavin Newsom Should be Governor...

Irving Fields played in our showcase Thursday night with the Korean Master of Jewish melody, Mr. Jonny Yune, and Newsom made April 30th officially, Irving Fields Day in San Francisco. This was the first time Irv had played the city in his 93 years, proving that it is never too late to try something new. More photos from the magnificent gig, which also saw the return to teh stage for the Burton Sisters for hte first tiem in 50 years, to follow.