Newark Mayor Corey Booker wished Judith Jamison a Happy Birthday at NJPAC this past Sunday and the crowd sang a round of the traditional birth anniversary tune. The company opened with a Sweet Honey in the Rock piece that lacked coherence, but followed with a fantastic piece set to Otis Redding’s music and parts of Revelations, which is now almost 50 years old, but is as strong a piece as I’ve ever seen.
I ran into two of the Dardashti sisters last Shabbat and when Galeet told me about her latest project I checked out her website. Dardashti’s music has tremendous depth — intense, haunting stuff. She also manages to reclaim Middle Eastern Jewish musical traditions and rework them without sounding contemporary or world music-y.
Check out this SWEEEEEEEEET article on Noam and Jonah in the New Jersey Jewish News (kudos Johanna and Andy – love it)
Check out Noam and Jonah’s album in progress “Holidays with the Jews Twins” on their Myspace page: www.myspace.com/noamandjonahbrenner
If you are on Facebook, you can check out the recently posted grainy B& W video (hat tip to Charles Schletzbaum) of Rob Spears and I recieving the State Championship trophy for Varsity Debate in 1986. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=98418417328&comments= I am acting all cool, like it didn’t mean much. But it was HUGE!!!!!!
I know that most of the people on the planet could care less, but I am thrilled that Killing the Buddha now has a Rabbi Daniel Brenner page! Yes, all three of my warped pieces can now be located on one easy webframe! Allelujah! p.s. that photo is circa 1994…folksinger days…back when the only chords I knew were Am and G….
Nice little write up in the hyper-local online ‘zine Baristanet. But noone can beat the kudos for the clerk at the wine shop in West Orange who sings mah nishtana.