Worse Than Shiny Shoe Music

I was sitting this morning at the Rimon Cafe in the mall outside the Jaffe Gate having a lovely working breakfast. (I have recently bought in heavily to the idea of taking a lap top everywhere I go and hooking into wifi; a little late to the game but not bad for an alter kocker)

They were playing very nice music (including a tune from Mati Caspi from about 35 years ago when I spent a year at Hebrew University that had me going nostalgic). Then they played a pretty song called "Killing Me Softly" by someone whose name escapes me. Suddenly, after a couple of verses, a rapper intervened in the song. The whole rap thing then surrounded the pretty song and totally ruined it.

I've been meaning to post about this phenomenon for a while but haven't had the chance. This morning was the last straw.

What IS this?

I am often subjected to this horror at spin classes. They take classic rock songs and surround them with either a rap or disco beat. I recently went to a spin class where the instructor was a few years older than I. She announced that she would be playing "oldies" from her era and hoped that everyone would get into it. Unfortunately, I was then forced to listen to 45 minutes of this horrible music. I felt myself longing for The Chevra or the Yeshiva Boys Choir! (OK, not really, but you get the point).

There ought to be a law.

Stop The Music

Please!

I went to Brach's after court today. Instead of the regular horrid shiny shoe music one is normally subjected to, I was inundated by even more horrid shiny shoe acapella music.

Would it kill them to just shut the music off for three weeks? Isn't that part of what the Three Weeks is supposed to be about?

Ich kenesht.

Raz Hartman* in the Metro Area

Please welcome Rav Raz Hartman for 3 nights of inspiration, live music & chizuk...

Sunday July 5th - Woodmere, NY

Hosted By: The Gerber Family, 325 Howard Ave, Woodmere NY
8pm / $15

Monday July 6th -Teaneck, NJ

Hosted by: Rapps Family, 1499 Sussex Rd. (Corner of Warwick), Teaneck NJ @ 8pm / $15
Info: Sruli - (551)795.0508 / srulirapps@gmail.com

Tuesday July 7th- Camp HASC
361 Parksville Rd., Parksville NY 12768 (NYS Thruway, Exit 99) @ 9:15pm / $15
(Separate Seating)
Directions: http://www.hasc.net/camp/contact.php


*Raz Hartman is a Rebbi at Yeshivat Simchat Shlomo and Rav in Nachlaot, Jerusalem. He is a gifted teacher, (specifically of Rebbe Nachman & Rav Kook), and is an exceptionally talented composer as well. His beautiful Niggunim are unique in their depth and sweetness. Please join us for an evening (or three!) of inspiration. Bring your friends, and help us show our support for a dear friend and very special Marbitz Torah. [MoC's thoughts: Raz Hartman's CD is very special (albeit very difficult to actually get one's hands on). I am looking forward to seein Rav Hartman in person)

For more info, click here.

Chaim Dovid and Aaron Razel at Aish Kodesh

Chaim Dovid and Aaron Razel return to Aish Kodesh for a joint musical performance Thursday, June 4th at 8:00 p.m. They are sure to play a bunch of stuff from K'Shoshana as well as a bunch of their own tunes.

Sadly, I will have to miss it. Happily, the reason I will have to miss it is because I will be flying from London to Israel at that very time. But you can go....

Admission: $15

Separate Seating

Ivdu Es Hashem B'simcha

Unconventionally.

Hat Tip: OOD

Eitan Katz under OOD's Chupah.

Click here. Two video's at the top of the page.

Lag B'Omer at Aish

This coming Monday night, May 11th/18 Iyar, Aish Kodesh will be having it's annual Lag B'Omer Hilula L'Chvod the Yahrzeit of R. Shimon Bar Yochai. The Hilula will take place at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst (SPruce and Broadway in Lawrence)beginning at 9:00 p.m. It will once again feature the Divrei Torah of Rav Weinberger, along with the music of Eitan Katz, Nochi Krohn and Avi Feinberg.

Suggested Donation: $10 (I suggest you take that suggestion seriously).

Separate seating.

Nice New Old CD

Last motsai Shabbos, my holy chaver Danny dropped off a CD by Shuly Rand, the actor from the movie Ushpizin.

I've been listening to it all week and really like it. Very Israeli style but, unlike much of the post-Carlebach Israeli Chassidic music, very melodic. Some very original stuff and very fine arrangements.

I particularly like the first and last songs but many of the others are growing on me.

Being oblivious, I thought the CD was new but wghen I googled it, I realized that it's been out since the summer.

Well worth the investment.

Ein Od Milvado in Woodmere

UPDATED

Shivi Keller, the front man for Ein Od Milvado, will be playing a kumzitz in Woodmere this motsai Shabbos at 8 p.m. at the Gerber residence, 325 Howard Avenue (corner of Bryant Street). $15 per person at the door.

I have never seen Shivi Keller in person so I am looking very forward (and I hope to see my holy friend from the Ayalon Valley who also promises to be there).

Update: More Video of Shivi in Teaneck

(Hat Tip: JBVChabakukist)

No Mas

After attending the hilula with Yosef Karduner and watching these videos during the same week, it occurred to me what a waste of time it is to bother writing about Shiny Shoe Jewish music (TM).

Karduner represents all that is holy, pure, refined and uplifting about Jewish music. Jumping MBD and his ilk represent all that is prust and unrefined. It is silly to even mention them in the same paragraph. It is like comparing, l'havdil, Mozart with Madonna.

So I won't anymore.

Pictures From The Hilula

Courtesy of Dixie Yid.

Before I leave on Thursday for my Alyn Hospital bike trip, I hope to write my last post on Jewish music. It occurred to me during last night's hilula that there is simply nothing more to say. I will explain soon.

"Blog in Dm Asks: What Would Shlomo Say?"

Shoot me.

Karduner

Cong. Aish Kodesh will once again be hosting Yosef Karduner this motsai shabbos, 4 Cheshvan (November 1st), at 8:30, as part of the hilula for the yahrtzeit of the holy Rebbe of Piazcezna, the Aish Kodesh.

The hilula will take place at the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, corner of Spruce and Broadway. Rav Weinberger will also offer words of hisorurus.

While there is no admission fee, a donation of $10 per person is suggested and would be appreciated. Separate seating only.

If you've never been to the hilula, and especially if you've never experienced Karduner live, you really ought to make it your business to show up. It is really something special and all that is right with Jewish music. (There will be no smoke coming out of the stage. In fact, there will be no stage).

(My music company, Shirei Shmuel, will be recording the gig live and producing a CD in cooperation with Reb Yosef.)

Fighting Poverty: Creating New Jobs

JBloggers everywhere are getting all bent out of shape by the new music ban.

I take a much broader view. Think of how many jobs this will create for the Committee for Jewish Music division of the Guardians of Sanctity and Education!

Losing The Shul

I've been attending my shul for about 13 years. I served as president for six of those years and as chairman of the board for about the last five. When I started there were about 70 member families of which about 40 were core. Today there are something like 250 member families (and tons of freeloaders).

When I started, there were a handful of baalieh tefilah. They ranged from very good to good to acceptable, with a couple of kalyikles who were painful to listen to.

(A friend from high school once remarked that in most places money talks; in Orthodox shuls, money sings).

But one thing virtually all of them (with one exception) understood, is that davening for the amud at my shul meant a lot of communal singing. Consequently, it also meant choosing niggunim that everyone knew. While there was a natural tendency to use Carlebach niggunim, the shul was by no means a "Carlebach Minyan" and any niggun was ok so long as the kehilah knew it, it was simple and everyone could sing along.

As the shul has grown, some excellent baalei tefilah have joined. Some not-so-excellent baalei tefilah have also joined and some truly dreadful ones have joined. The gabbaim have done a very good job of weeding out the brutal ones.

What they haven't done (and what is very hard to do) is reinforce the principal that davening for the amud is about engaging the kehilah. For example, for the past few months we have had many baalei tefilah get up on Friday evening (when the shul is routinely packed to the rafters) and use complex, unknown, shiny shoe niggunim for Lecha Dodi, taking the wind out of the sails of the kehilah and wasting the amazing energy of the mispalilim. There are few things (in this context) more disappointing.

The same thing has happened on Shabbosos and yom tovim.

While there are many more important issues facing Klal Yisrael, after stewing about this trend for months, I finally brought my frustration (which is shared by many) to the attention of the Rav. The good news is that he agrees with me.

The question is how to address the problem.

As the Rav said with a smile at the end of our conversation, "That's why they pay me the big bucks".

IYH, we will take back the shul.

Karduner

Yosef Karduner will be back in the metro area in late October and early November. If you are interested in booking him, please be in touch.

Free Chaim Dovid Concert in Far Rockaway

Monday, June 23rd.

Free Rides for the Kids

Inflatables - Moonwalk - Slides - and More

Reads Lane and Oak Drive Far Rockaway, NY (Weather Permitting)

Rides start at 4:00pm - Concert 6:30pm

Concert Rain Site: TAG Elementary School Auditorium 444 Beach 6th Street

For More Information or to Sponsor Call The JCCRP 718-327-7755

Also Featuring The Music of Aryeh Kunstler

The Real Greatest Threat To Yiddishkeit

UPDATED

To my guests via Dov Bear who do not know me so well and did not get the joke: This is, indeed, satire. And, as Jewboy, points out, it is a page out of Joe Schick's playbook. Finally, this is a definition of Shiny Shoe Music

I will never forget an address by Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman at an Agudath Israel of America convention on the topic "Living a Life of Ruchnios amidst Gashmius." I had never before heard Rabbi Wachsman, and I practically jumped out of my seat when he thundered: This topic represents a fundamental mistake. There is no ruchnius amidst gashmius. To the extent that a person is living in the world of gashmius he is removed from ruchnius.

I was reminded of those words recently on a recent trip to Brooklyn, where I had a rare opportunity to speak with a rav whose wisdom has always impressed me. In the course of our conversation, he asked me, "What would you say is the greatest threat to Yiddishkeit today?" I leaned forward eagerly, confident that he would mention one of my favorite subjects. But I must admit that his answer would not have been on my top ten-list.

"Shiny Shoe Music," turned out to be the winning answer. And my friend's central criticism was similar to that of Rabbi Wachsman: the Shiny Shoe Music industry takes what should be one of the ultimate spiritual experiences of every Jew's life and encases it in a thick wrapper of materialism. Read the advertisements, he told me: "MBD: The King Of Jewish Music" right next to "The Greatest Concert Ever;" "600 Piece Orchestra" next to "Separate Seating Only."

Smoke and sound effects, digital distortion, dancing bears, disco sound and famous singers are de rigueur for the full musical experience. And many throw in exotic locations – Hawaii, Cancun, the Bahamas. What exercised my friend the most was the way that well-known community leaders are impressed into service in the advertisements, as if to put an imprimatur of ruchnius on the festivities.

My friend was raised in a particularly biting style of mussar, and he was just warming to his subject. He described the screaming by teenie bopper girls when the kids in goofy vests runs out and the rush forward on stage. Concert producers have to put security guards around the stage, lest some poor soul from the audience jump up to wish a Shkoiach to the performers.

"The chilul Hashem alone," he said, would be reason enough to close the concert extravaganzas. What does the staff at the record producers and concert halls come to think of frum Jews? That they care only about playing horrible music and nothing but money? What impression does it make to see a group of pot-bellied men in Armani suits and shiny black shoes trying to reach ridiculously high notes?

He related to me the story of one local frum boy who had accompanied his father to a kumzitz. They found only a guitar and some percussion. On the way out, the boy asked his father why there weren't 25 horns and ten violins. He had never in his life seen, much less participated, in such a kumzitz.

That boy, my friend lamented, cannot possibly connect to the idea that Jewish music parallels an inner process of removing the se'or she'b'isa – the physicality and inner materialism that holds us back in our performance of Hashem's commandments. His experience of Jewish music has nothing to do with destroying the chametz either within or without.

When we gather in our homes around the CD player, and contemplate the deeper meaning of a niggun, we link ourselves to all the generations of our ancestors. But if our ancestors could return to observe our kumzitzin, they would recognize their descendants and feel comfortable joining us. It more doubtful they would recognize us gathered around a concert hall stage – even if we were wearing a shtreimel and bekeshe.

EVEN MY FRIEND recognizes that there are many perfectly legitimate reasons that families might go to a shiny shoe concert. Not every Jew understands the depth of a beautiful niggun.

For such cases, there should be alternatives. But it is not these families that are fueling a hundred million dollar industry, or who have transformed Jewish music into a kosher version of disco.

The issue of concert extravaganzas is, in truth, just one more aspect of an ongoing tension in modern Orthodox life. Rabbi Yehoshua Geldzhaler once described to me the pre-war Antwerp Jewry of his youth. During the Three Weeks, he said, you would not see an older Jew smile or engage in any frivolity. The Churban was present for them. Today, Jews listen to "sefirah CDs."

Jews who can really feel the destruction of the Bais HaMikdash are much rarer today. On the other hand, Rabbi Geldzhaler remembers, most of the younger generation in his day was in headlong flight from Yiddishkeit. Today, however, we have made it so much easier to be frum. Our kids can enjoy most of the pleasures of their secular counterparts, and no longer feel the need to rebel to such an extent. Religious observance may not be as internalized as formerly, but at least most of our youth remains within the fold.

We ask our rabbonim and roshei yeshiva to elevate our understanding of Jewish music to the point that a series of horrible, digitized, overproduced CDs is self-understood to be a contradiction to the freedom from materialism that Jewish music celebrates.

Stevie Wonder and the Closet Shiny Shoe-er

I started to suspect that OOD was a closet shiny shoe music fan a couple of years ago but I kept it to myself. Not that she doesn't appreciate Carlebach et al; she does. But she also liked to occasionally listen to some other Jewish musicians who who dress in Armani Suits and shiny black shoes, wear hocker glasses, are pudgy and sound like the Chipmunks (or some combination thereof). Over time, I could deny it no longer; OOD is a shiny shoe music fan.

As a parent, one must continue to show unconditional love and acceptance despite this chisaron, and hope that, one day, OOD will see the light and come back to the proper music derech.

Then, this morning, I heard something that both surprised me and gave me hope. OOD and The Toddler were dancing to a Stevie Wonder song off her iPod. Stevie Wonder? Where did that come from?

I don't think I had ever heard OOD play a rock song. Ever. Stevie Wonder?

It turns out that her very good friend hooked her up. She purchased a couple of songs on iTunes.

L'maisa, I used to love Stevie Wonder. (I actually saw him open up for the Rolling Stones in Madison Square Garden about 35 years ago).

I told OOD that I approved. I noted that Stevie Wonder played b'simcha rabbah, and that I'd rather that she listen to Stevie Wonder than to shiny shoe stuff.

Could this be the beginning of her return?

Nochi's Wedding

I was zoche to attend Nochi Krohn's wedding last night. Nochi is one of the nicest, most sincere and most lishma guys in the J music business and you could just feel the warmth at the wedding hall. I've know him since he was a 17 year old kid doing sound and playing keyboards for Chaim Dovid.

Not surprisingly, the crowd at the wedding reminded me of the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars. Lots of J musicians, wanna be J musicians, yeshiva bochrim (do they all have to smoke so much? It reeked of tobbaco anytime I got in the middle of the dance floor with them).

Lots of, shall we say, interesting people there.

All in all, a lovely ime was had by all.

Mazel Tov!