The 10th annual Washington Jewish Music Festival June 4-11 is more eclectic than Semitic.
The exciting festival offers an extremely wide range of music, from a “dragapella beautyshop quartet”, a "hip-hop violinist", to "outrageously hip Jewish music for kids", and Jewish klezmer music.
The WJMF festival opens June 4 with the Andy Statman Trio, which fuses bluegrass and blues with avant-garde jazz, klezmer, and Hassidic music.
"Oy Vey in a Manger" by The Kinsey Sicks
The "New York Times" has called Statman a "virtuoso on the clarinet and the mandolin" who "unearths the soul of Jewish music". But “Rolling Stone” has pointed out that his music is bound not “by denomination but a beautiful, vital sound full of heat, heart and a love of God.”
Proving the point, Statman was nominated for a 2008 Grammy® Country Music Instrumental Award for “Rawhide!” on his “East Flatbush Blues” CD.
He has recorded with celebrated musicians including Itzhak Perlman (“Itzhak Perlman Live in the Fiddler’s House CD"), Jerry Garcia (“Wanted Dead or Alive”), and pre-eminent banjo player Béla Flek (“Fiddle Tunes for Banjo” CD). So Statman has unearthed far more than solely the soul of Jewish music.
A WJMF 10th anniversary party follows the Andy Statman Trio's performance.
The Kinsey Sicks, appearing June 6, dub themselves a “Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet” have taken the Greg out of Gregorian chants. They combine a cappella singing with satire, shtick, schmaltz, and more'n a dollop of kitsch. For example, the photo above shows them warbling “Oy Vey in A Manger”. Their newest of six CDs offers “Send in the Clones” and “We Arm the World” but not their classic "Everything But the Kitch 'n' Synch". Oy vey, indeed.
You may have seen the Kinsey quartet on “America’s Got Talent”. Don't be cruel, none of the group’s two lawyers or two actors posed as the Scotswoman on “Britain’s Got Talent.” Anyway, the Sinks’ talent has earned some boffo press in the “New York Times” and other publications for their performances from the Las Vegas Hilton to the Boston Center for the Arts, and from Montreal to Mexico.
Speaking of talent, Pitom is the epitome of talent. The “Wall Street Journal” picked Pitom’s first CD as one of the best albums of 2008 – “A dazzling debut.” The article added, “guitarist Yoshie Fruchter mixes grunge, jazz, Zappa, noise-rock and a dollop of surf music with Jewish modes and scales to create a loud, raucous album full of noise and virtuosity. The rhythm section can explode with heavy-metal thunder...”
Yoshie Fruchter, also a composer and bassist, grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, a DC suburb. Pitom appears on June 8, including a pre-concert workshop on Radical Jewish Culture -- exploring what is Jewish music, and what its future is.
The festival closes on June 11 with Grammy-winner “The Hip-Hop Violinist" Miri Ben-Ari. She has arranged music and played with hip-hop artists including Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean and Kanye West. With West and Che Smith, Ben-Ari won the 2004 Grammy award for (co-writing) Best Rap Song. The song “Jesus Walks” is from their multi-platinum album “The College Dropout”.
West has said “Miri Ben-Ari is to hip-hop now what Miles Davis was to jazz”. And Wynton Marsalis, a mentor who played on two tracks in Ben-Ari’s CD “Song of the Promised Land” has said, “Miri’s playing is wonderful, beautiful, exquisite, unpredictable, original and spontaneous.” Other mentors whom the Israeli violinist has played under include Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern. Also, Bem-Ari's music has been heard in films including Hillary Swank’s “Freedom Writers”.
One truly Jewish tradition is a kosher Friday night dinner with ShirLaLa, whose "outrageously hip Jewish music for kids" spreads the Sabbath spirit.
These are only a few of the festival's highlights. Click here for the full schedule, and to buy tickets.
A pre-festival event June 2 showcases Ivri Lider, one of Israel's most successful pop/rock artists, at DC's popular 9:30 Club. Lider has composed for the excellent Netherlands Dance Theater, and for films including "The Bubble", "Walk on Water", and "Yossi and Jagger". "OUT" Magazine named Lider as one of the "Out 100" in 2007.
This is the 10th year that the Washington Jewish Music Festival has fostered a broader appreciation of Jewish culture through its multi-layered, diverse presentations, combined with workshops and films.
For more information: Washington Jewish Music Festival, www.wjmf.org, 202-777-3251, info@wjmf.org. Most events are at Washington DC Jewish Community Center, www.washingtondcjcc.org, 16th and Q Streets, NW, Washington, DC. Pre-festival Special Event Ivri Lider, June 2, at 9:30 Club http://www.930.com/faq, 815 V Street, NW, Washington, DC, 202-265-0930. Tickets at www.tickets.com, 1-800-955-5566. Information at www.teev.com or 301-230-2232. Electro Morocco and DJ Balagan event June 10 at Station 9, http://www.station9dc.com/ 1438 U Street, NW, Washington, DC, 202-667-1661.
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