[Rerelease] From Abbey Road to Mt. Zion: The Jewish Music Revolution Part II (replay)

a date which will live in infamy. Both of those [music] projects initiatives got off the ground because of the ga >> the 11 Olympic team members [music] slain in West Germany. to get by the breeder Americ who were killed were Americans who had come to learn and cover. I say 1 million Jewish children who were made to be cut. [music] Whoever heard such beautiful words. >> It is never [music] too little. It is never too late. And it is never enough. Jewish history sound bites bringing alive the world of our glorious [music] past. Here is our host live from Jerusalem, Jewish historian and tour guide. [music] >> Welcome everyone to Jewish history sound bites. This is Yudi Gber with another episode of Jewish History Sound Bites. And this episode, part two of the Jewish music revolution has been generously sponsored in honor of Ali Sharf and his large impact on Jewish music over the decades. and it is dedicated by his favorite sons-in-law. So, I guess those favorite sons-in-law know who they are. Um, I just want to we're going into part two of this very popular um miniseries of on Jewish music and the Jewish music revolution um and the development of Jewish music over the 20th century. So, before I even get into part two, I want to get an enormous amount of feedback from part one. And I'm just going to choose a few uh a few letters to read. One listener actually gave me a nice summary of of the history of hockey uh and the NHL which put Gretz Wayne Gretzky into context and he pointed out that he's not as great as people make him out to be. I'm not going to read that whole letter because it's less re directly relevant to the Jewish music scene, but it was important to know that history as well. Here's another letter from someone who's, you know, big in the Jewish music scene today and quite knowledgeable about music and many other things, you know, in general. He's sent me quite a few letters in the past. So, I'll read his letter as well. Ding's first name is David Nman, hence the nickname Ding. His last name is Golding. I think parathetically, I think I knew that. I just it name slipped my mind when I said it on the episode. Okay, going back to his letter. We know that the objections to Rev Schlma were not only that he left Lakewood, but we'll let you go on that though. If you do more on this topic, you must give mention to someone who is definitely a gamecher in the sound of Jewish music, and that is none other than the great Israel Lamb. His arrangements introduced us to a fresh modern yet batumpta sound. when he went to mention a Yankul Talmud well-known niggan I would certainly say instead of Shirales the well-known leashi that everyone sings you didn't mention Lei by Ben Shanker I hope you didn't mean that one and by the way I'm almost sure that the shishakob is not Shanker's own composition but rather of Majitz and here's a cute Yonkul Talmud story he had a great sense of humor and once asked someone in Yiddish What does it mean that I hear people in the street saying Beethoven Bach and Talmud? AB Rottenberg's song is a work of genius, but I'm sure that you know where he got the idea from. It's from a Billy Joel song very similar. The first Jewish music album was released by Kafitiva singing au of among other old nigunim. End of letter. Very interesting. A lot of good tidbits there and a funny story with Y uncle Talmud and mentioning Ycle Tmed. I got another feedback from another very knowledgeable listener who said a funny story um also I think these stories by Yank are more about how he was a pishid more than he was a a pioneer in Jewish music. Someone once confronted young uncle Talmet outside of Gab this morning after Davening and he told him that the Kellin this morning wasn't up to par. So he shrugged his shoulders and he said okay so gozik in other words if you don't like it then you could go ahead and become go be convert to Christianity if that's uh if your issue is with my uh next letter. Uh another famous classic of Benin Shanker is his Msmmer Leav. Benin Shanker had an awesome story when he was on vacation in Switzerland and an old survivor completely destroyed his famous Ms. Merlovian tried doing some damage control and got bered that he was some young American who does not know how to sing it the way he heard it from his father in the Altahheim. Menin came home laughing with that tale. That's the end of that letter. And it illustrates what I was saying in part one about how some of his songs became such classics that that people thought they were really much older than than they really were. And his was not his own composition. It was maz maj. But that also illustrates the illustrate, excuse me, illustrates the point that I was making that he and maj were almost synonymous. Okay, that's enough for letters this time. Maybe we'll get to more next time. By the way, you should check out Mishbah magazine this week. The For the Record, you should check out the whole magazine, but the definitely the for the record column of David Safir and myself. It's a pretty easy to find column this week because we're pretty much the only one that is a non-political article in this week's magazine. Um, it's Romesha Salvich's 80th yard sites. We got a nice two-pager about Romesh Salvich and his influence and his life and it's very very in interesting about someone who there's definitely not enough written about. So you definitely want to check it out. By the way, in general when I say magazine and I referred to an article there, I obviously mean Mishbah magazine. Some listener asked me when I said the magazine which one I was uh referring to. So the only other magazine in my house is the Journal of the Israel Historical Society. And I definitely would not punish you by referring you to that. So I I'm I mean the Mishbah magazine. So getting to part two, we left off in part one in the 1960s ended off by mentioning Aradash Yasi T later famously country Yasi and then Schmela Brazil now known as Rabbi Schmool Brazil. He's a rashiva today. Um so they were friends at the emerging sharash of Schllay Fryfeld. There were a couple of others involved as well. I forget their names but country would come out to make a huge long-term impact on the Jewish music scene with with his several albums of parodies of non-Jewish songs and later Ki and Tuki which which I hadn't listened to for 20 years but now I listen to all day and night because my kids are are obsessed with it. and then he had his country radio show. So it's an enduring uh legacy of of country and of course Brazil at the time with our kadesh. So niggan became the classic wedding song of the 1970s much like when I was growing up in the '9s the dagayan was the classic wedding song at theish weddings. Um so so the niggan was a decade or two decades earlier. Um and of course Bil Vavi uh is the is an all-time classic. So that was um that and much more was Khadesh's uh influence on on the Jewish music scene. And of course this would not be the last time the world would hear about Brazil, but we'll have to get back to Regesh and his collaboration with Abish Brat when we get to the 1970s. Also began to mention Pir in the part one. Jeep Jeep and Pir um the two go together kind of and they're in 1966 they start off um and they uh it's an initiative of of Israel involved in Israel the youth youth groups of Israel P the people who were involved in Pir Josh Sberman's Ellie titlebound and Sberman's tapped a young Ellie Sharf to compose songs for the early Per albums which would be the beginning of a lucrative career for Sharf in the Jewish music industry as a composer, a songwriter, a singer. He composed among others the Ishassid classic song and later he composed for Vegas as well and later on with Rivel and Dove Lavine which also we'll have to get back to when we get to the appropriate decade. Josh Silberman's warned Ali Sharf to keep the songs Jewish. And I want to use that quote of Sberman's as a again to give it a historical context. There seems to have always been this internal tension in Jewish music about the amount of influence uh that non-Jewish music is allowed to have on the Jewish music scene as it developed. And it goes back and forth. And it ranges from straight up knockoffs of songs, full albums of knockoffs like I mentioned country later on in the 1980s. You'll have Geishon verba and variations and uh continues till today have the contemporary Jewish music scene. You have the Makabates, you have others, but but there's there's um there's influence that is seen in the 1960s where we're talking about the decade that we're talking about in of instrument usage of styles, different arrangements, of uh sound um in the compositions that come out and there's always this tension. How much are we striving for puristic music or are we allowing an influence of the outside and non-Jewish music and very often it's not deliberate. It's just that's the prevalent sound that's that people are used to and and it influences the compositions as well. So that's uh that's something that that comes up already in the 1960s and and and continues till this very day. Now Pir and Jeep were used for fundraising for the outreach programs of Jeep. Um and it brought the camp the c the cats camps scene to outreach to the less affiliated Jewish youth and it brings together the young crowd of New York. Um um and and uh in the it's a young small uh Jewish music world at the time and uh it's in the embriionic stages still of Jewish music the late 60s and early 70s and it brings it together to Kiru to outreach um to produce some incredible uh albums during that time. I also mentioned at the end of last part one just started to mention the London school of Jewish song Eagle Salic who um was one of the few uh one of the one of the few not you know there most of the Jewish music scene was in the United States and to a lesser extent in Israel. One of the few manifestations or products was Eagle Salic which was neither which was uh in England starts in 1970. He also had has the credit of discovering Yasi Green who was a learning in yeshiva in England at the time. Um like I mentioned last time I seem to remember I couldn't find the song again. I looked for it. I think he had a a a song that was related to Lennengrad or the Soviet Union. So it was one of the first songs that had political overtones which would later become popular. Believe it or not in Jewish music. You had the Miami Boy Choir. The first album was about victory at Antebi. Um and then he had Mr. Carter. Um that was also one of the early Miami boys choir. MBD would have on Soviet jury let my people go and he explicitly says Nadellan Sharansky and so many more. In other words, there's a you know explicit uh political statements in Jewish songs. And of course David also had on on yushim is not for sale. a later album about the Mormon building on Harajum. Um um remember the lyric was um go back to Utah overnight before the mountain top open wide and swallows you inside something like that. Um and many more so political statements in comes to Jewish music as well. So that's an interesting development uh from a historical uh uh perspective also that uh it takes in current events at the time. One of the greatest um uh products of Jewish music starts in the 60s, really starts much earlier. So you don't doesn't become famous until the 1960s is Joe Amar. Joe Omar grows up in Morocco in the 1950s. He's in his 20s. He's already a khazen in Morocco, a prominent khazin in Morocco. So his career starts in Morocco in the 1950s. I don't know if we have recordings of his at that time. And he moves to Israel in 1956. The Moroccan jury is slowly shifting towards France and Israel and to a lesser extent also to Canada to Montreal and uh he moves to Israel and he's a pioneer in the popularization of Moroccan Jewish music and some of his famous songs Barcelona, Shalom Leventodi and others. um and he doesn't quite make it in he mentors some of the next generation Moroccan singers like Zora Argo and others in Israel but he himself at that early stage doesn't quite make it in Israel and he he comes to tour the United States in 1965 he performs at Carnegie Hall and he later moves to New York City later later to Los Angeles and he later years he moves back to Israel his family was there um he's honored in his later years in Israel as as one of the pioneers of Moroccan Jewish music But he um is has a very important place in the history of Jewish music because until Joe Omar Jewish music in the religious uh um New Yorkish world for sure uh Jewish music religious Jewish music was considered eitheric or cantoral and here he brings the um brings the world of sphartic Jewish music up to the forefront. Another um Israel sourced music at that time also in the 60s is Kaim Banet who's still around still composing still very active born in Romania toidic family and as a baby his parents attempted to illegally come to Palestine and they're sent by the British to the to the internment camps in Cyprus where he is as a young child and he eventually moves to Israel and he the he joins the serret visionus in Kyifa and he serves serves in the artillery uh unit in the Israeli army and he runs the Audis boys choir and he works together at the time with another young aspiring uh Israeli in the in the Israel Israel music scene Mona Rosenlum who we'll get to also so Benet among his many many albums and compositions so one of his most famous songs which is his composition it might be one of the greatest songs of the modern era of Jew Jewish music. Um, so that's Bernet. Um, once we're talking about the 60s, um, and we're going to go into this transition into the 70s in a minute. So, I just want to, um, to to speak for a couple of minutes about producers, composers, arrangers, and conductors um before we get back to some of the performers. So, you have already in the 60s Shia Mendlowitz. Um he starts his illustrious career as a producer with arranging Carlbach Schma Carbach concerts and then at that time you also have Suki Bry and Dman Golding make suki and Ding they become literally the architects in the production of Jewish music. later on also uncle Mishi which is a different genre but almost everything back in the day in Israel you have Mosha Lauer who really only becomes a major uh producer in the 1980s but he starts off earlier he's Belgian originally grows up at Tel Aviv and then he rises as a producer and a composer and then of course like I mentioned earlier now aside from his music talent and a conductor and a gin orchestra and an arranger the fact is that he is one of the first ones in the religious music scene who got a serious music education. Didn't rely just on raw talent and practice but uh actually got out and got a music ed education which raised the entire industry to a new level. um you know what a little education could do for people you know the sound became different the arrangements became different um and then in Israel you have um Mona Rosenblau um who who went to school at Dudu Fischer by the way which hopefully I'll get to also and he he starts off as Datilumi national religious and he begins composing in the 1970s so the end of the 1980s he shifted to the right and he becomes more uh more more part of the karedi community in Israel and he he he came from a Polish garidic family and and he also becomes one of the great composers and producers in Jewish music. And of course you have Yasi Green Yasi Green who grew up as a sat massid born in Ben then later on in Williamsburg to be for his family his father wanted to be near the Satarov and his father actually had been a rabbi in Romania. Um and he himself learned in a yeshiva in England and he started off as a young bacher in the yeshiva in England composing for yealik in the London school of jo Jewish song before he goes on to become a prolific composer. And if we go ahead a little bit to the future before we jump back to the 70s, um, Nakam Seagull and his role, Nakam Seagull, his impact on promoting Jewish music through his radio show, the MC of many of the famous Jewish music concerts, he becomes in a certain extent the face of the modern Jewish music scene. And in this context, it's worth noting someone who's a little bit diff different than you're talking about all the producers and the performers, but Velvac. Passenac was the most preeeminent historian of Jewish andidic music, Israeli Jewish music, and Latino Jewish music, which is often overlooked, Yiddish music, Holocaust music, which most people don't even know exists when I interviewed uh survivors. So um high priority was given u in the advashm instructions and how to interview the survivors to request of the survivors to sing songs both of pre-war songs that they grew up with um shul songs shabas smears lullababis school songs camp songs and also of any songs that they remembered that were sung in the ghetto or even uh on more rare occasions in in the camps. Um so in general it's just uh it's good to know it's it's part of part of our history as well. Sevelvo Pastine wrote uh Jewish music, wrote books about it. He was a historian of Jewish music. He's the lecture on the topic. He just passed away recently and that's another uh angle of the story. So the field diversifies. We come to the 1970 and where there's a diversification of the Jewish music field. Diaspora yeshiva band becomes the major story of the 1970s. Aram Rosen Blum, Ben Solomon, Ruby Harris, Manakim Herbin who lives right near me in Bamesh, Sim Abramson, Gdalia Goldstein, Adam Wexler and others. David even started off in in diaspora. Diaspora Yeshiva was the first Kirv Yeshiva founded by Goldstein who was actually friends with Schlomak. Um and it was started on Mount Zion heartion right outside the old city which have some people mistakenly believe is where David's Kev is. So the Baltu movement is in its heyday and the band begins in Nakot neighborhood in 1975 and they used to have these legendary M shabas concerts malava malas kumziten onion in the 1970s. It brought new styles in Jewish music in in a certain way. They were unabashedly borrowing from the contemporary non-Jewish scene and giving it Jewish themes and very influenced by the rock and roll uh of the of the styles of the 1970s. In fact, they themselves, the band members were connected to the contemporary rock and roll scene and their personalities. They used to host them on their visits to Israel and one or two of them, I think, even actually spent some time in Diaspora Yeshiva. um diaspora has diaspora band has an influence on the Jewish music till today through many offshoots Moshave band and several other bands um that that are in the contemporary Jewish music scene. The other product of the 1970s is the Miami boy choir begun. We did discuss the history of Miami boy choir and begun on our cities series episode of Miami. So, you'll just want to check out um our Miami episode of Jewish History Sound Bites and uh and uh and that and then you'll and that's all about the how it started in Miami in the 1970s and how it was brought uh up north to New York um and those early albums. Another um Israeli to America, Israel to America story of the 1970s is Dudu Fischer um who starts off as a kazin in in the Tel Aiv great synagogue. Um but he expands and he moves to the United States. He also performs on Broadway. He's the first person to have Shabas observance in his Broadway contract that he doesn't have to come to pract to to theatrical you know rehearsals and stuff like that on Shabas. He brings style music he brought to to new audiences. He sang lots of Yiddish songs. He participated every year in what was the thenic music festival which doesn't exist anymore in in Israel in the army when he served in the Israeli army. He was in the Rabanut army official Sahal choir and he brought and he brought Yiddish music and music to the wider world and he um again still performing today but someone who who brought a whole new angle to uh to Jewish music at the time. And then of course in the 70s you also have the beginning of the illustrious career of AB Rottenberg. Um in the 1970s it was Dvkus together with really label Sharfman who was originally from the rabbi's sons and Yasi Sanlick and Ellie Cranler and Revy Schwebble. Um so that was the Dvkus era in the 1980s. it was Journeys um his journey songs which made brought English songs to a new level in certain way a pioneer of the English song genre and then in the 90s it was Lean and A and lots more multi-talented and and huge impact on Jewish music that can't be over uh exaggerated and then of course in the 1970s you have mentioned in part one MBD I'm sorry in part one I mentioned David Whartiger. So his son Morai Ben David who uses his father capitalizes on his father's fame. So in 1973 is his first album but a year later is his his first famous album his first big hit. He heni in 1974 that's when his career begins and he's later to become crowned as the king of Jewish music and he was already a rising star in the 1970s. Um there's definitely a lot to speak about him, but he's one of the more famous ones and I like to focus on the less famous ones. Another 1970s uh beginning is of the Pmenta brothers, Yasi and Avi Pimementa who grew up in Tel Aviv, Israelis, and they're also the ones who make the transition from Israel to America. Um also um you know came from a religious home but was drawn closer to religious Jewish life. Later on they popularize yasi pimea popularizes the electric guitar in Jewish music and kasidic music brings again a new music style. I remember when I was a child, I was by a friend's bar mitzvah in Muny in the 90s and I went to one of the barit this this particular bar mitzvah. He was um it was Yasi Pimementa and Matt Hill was on the drums and I don't remember any of the food at the baritzah which is you know kind of unique. I usually that was the main thing I remembered. I don't remember even if I said mazle to my friend. I just remember being mesmerized just sitting there in front of Yasi Pimementa and Man Hill and it was the music was just completely different than than anything else you heard live in those days at a average bar mitzvah. Um, someone else from the 1970s was Mosha Yas who grew up not religious. So he starts off in non-Jewish music in the 1960s but then he transitions with his his path towards Labavich, towards Kabad. um into religious Jewish music. In 1980, he puts out Midgama, which became a classic in Jewish music. The 1970s also saw the birth of Nino Orchestra, Shali Lang. It's interesting in the 1960s, you saw music groups, bands, diaspora we mentioned, and the Rabbi Sons earlier, and then it transitions into singers, performers, and orchestras. I don't know if that's a interesting historical trend. I don't know if there's what to say about that. And and and if that developed and there's, you know, anom anomalies and exceptions either way, but the Nagino orchestra is becomes uh becomes the the a new thing, the the orchestra, the band of of uh to play for concerts, weddings, albums. Um and that becomes a fixture on the Jewish music scene as well. Another um 19 late 1970s uh production is the Amu Shesh boy choir. Um and and also um the Schweil Sharf and Lavine group put out four albums. Um Ali Sharf actually sang on both uh Amu Shes I think Ruby Schweel as well and and and then with the Schweil Sharf and Lavine group after having previously been primarily a composer. So he realizes Ali Sharf that he could also be a singer and the uh and he started composing as a child and he realized only as an adult that he could be a singer as well inspired by music greats like Ab Rottenberg and Bar. So they they go along Ryel and Ali Sharf and they go on to become singers as well. So that brings us kind of a close to the 1970s. Um, and part three, I guess, will have to be on the 1980s, bringing us all the way up to the contemporary music scene of Eighth Day and anyone else who's on the contemporary music scene. Um, so that will have to wait for a part three. So, be in touch with me about sponsorships for that. This is Yehudi Gabber with Jewish History Sound Bites. You can reach me at yehudyhudgabra.com for questions, comments, sources, tours, trips, lectures, sponsorships. You can subscribe to Jewish History Sound Bites on Podbean or your favorite podcast platform. Follow us on Twitter at J sound bites.