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A
T T H E
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E B B E ' S T
A B L E
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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