Avraham Fried, Yishai Lapidot and Amiran

Now I got a video of that Brazil wedding, and you can see how cool A. Fried, Amiran and Lapidot sound together. Power play! And a great remix of Ohad's Veerastich.

Matisyahu + Children's Choir

It's quite amazing what Matisyahu is doing, and whether you agree with his mainstream approach or not, he is a real talent and is bringing a very meaningful message to the world. Great video and a prime example of how children's choir can be harmonious, pleasant and interesting. Jewish Music has a lot of catching up to do in this issue, but "one day", our choirs will be like that too.

Just in time for the World Cup..

Avraham "Avremel" Fried and Amiran Dvir show their true colors in a wedding last week.
Go Brazil!

Shloimie Gertner's Say Asay

I got a hold of Shlomie Gertner's new album and I think it deserves a review. True, my blog was omitted from the list of Jewish Music blogs featured in the album's jacket and I didn't get a courtesy copy from the distributor, so be prepared for some fiery negative remarks throughout this review. Now seriously:

Say Asay is the album's main song and it has a creative shtick from Yossi Green, yet, the song is plain. It doesn't builds up, and the English lyrics are very weak, even for JM standards. Kudos for the risk-taking but this bet didn't pay off. ***

Hashomain is a big song and it brings Shloimie to the next level, forcing him to improvise and use his voice smartly - something we didn't see in his first album. This is one of Waldner's best compositions and in my opinion, the album's real deal. *****

Ashrei is an average fast song with a cool arrangement. ***

Nishmas is an "outlier", not a regular slow song like we are used to hear in JM. Shlomo Simcha once showed me a database of Yossi Green's songs, categorized by style, and many of them had a special term to describe them - something like "Yitzur" or "Yetzira", I can't remember exactly, but it means "novelty". Nishmas fits in this description and it's a strange song. Honestly, it doesn't makes sense to me musically but... it's different, and that's a compliment. ***

Besimcha uses a lot of repetition and it's probably a song YG composed having Lipa in mind - Gertner couldn't make this one work. The third part of this song - the niggun - is not bad and along with the Shloimie's middle-western improvisation in 3:26 saves this song from being a total flop. **

Shabbos Hayom, by the great Boruch Levine, is a really good song. The lyrics are original, the tune is catchy yet different than what we hear in JM, and Gertner was the perfect guy to sing this song - superb vocals. In the second part there's a great harmony (using the fourth notes) that wasn't explored by the vocal arranger and that's my only let down here. *****

Finally, a very good fast song - Boruch She'amar. This is Gertner's kind of tune - simple, catchy and modern, as seen in his first album. Gertner's improvisations and vocal arrangements were excellent and this song should have been featured earlier in this album.
Re'eh is a typical Pinky Weber song but it isn't his best. Too predictable and surely not the album's best slow song. ***

Ein Kelokeinu is another solid fast song, with a great arrangement and like Boruch Sheamar, this is Gertner's kind of song. Simple, fresh and different, this song is "vanguard" and it's just a pleasure to listen. I see that Waldner's fast songs are ahead of Yossi Green's in this album, surprisingly. This is the way JM is going recently (think Benny Friedman) and I'm happy to see Gertner doing a song like this.

Yossi Gurvitz, a family relative of mine, was the man behind Gertner's best songs in his first album and this song does resemble Rachel and Shma Beni a little - Gurvitz likes to use a lot of repetition in his slow songs and Min Hameitzar is composed with this same concept, and it's quite good, something different. ****

Mesameach is interesting, another solid composition of Waldner. This is the future of JM and even though this might not be a crowd-pleaser this song is very well done and groovy. ****
Mi Von Siach - the most beaten down lyrics of JM. Yes, the song is beautiful but there's gotta be a limit of how many Mi Von Siach YG can compose. Or not? ****

Dedi comes to my mind when I hear Happy Birthday, a very creative song - credits to Yossi Green. This is the 13th song and yet very solid - unusual. ****

Yevarechecha - closes this album in the right note. Complex and interesting. ****

What I like about this album is the risk-taking, something I mentioned in Benny Friedman's album. Okay, the bets will not always work but this album had many clear successful songs that are hard to find elsewhere in JM. Until this week, all I heard about this album was that it wasn't as good as the first. A big mistake - it's actually better. Everyone asked to Shlomie to take more risks after his first album and here he is, making big bets and really going for originality. The only thing I missed was a more contemporary choir and vocal arrangements, and a guy like Mike Boxer would add a lot to the songs. But all in all, it's a really great accomplishment and credit should be given not only to Shloimie but to all the production team, who managed to produce a great, groovy album.

Binyan Adei Ad Shtick

A Jewish Star - Final Review

COLlive's A Jewish Star concert took place a few days ago and the three finalists had a chance to sing one more time to the public. The concert was clearly small, and Benny Friedman had the tough job of carrying the flame over this not-so-enthusiastic crowd. But he is a cool and confident guy and he managed just fine, even with the language issue.

By the way, one thing stood out very clearly - all three contestants were "aliens", or if you prefer, non Americans. COLlive could've pushed for a local finalist but everyone sticked with what really matters - the performance and Ohayon, Sadon and Moshe were clearly ahead of the rest. That's great.

Let's get to the facts. The first was Ohayon and he did a fine job singing Ale Katan, but fell short in making a statement and didn't manage to make this song special. Interestingly, Mendy Peilin raised fears that Ohayon's Boi Kallah didn't give us a feel of how well he would do outside of the recording room. And he was spot on - Ohayon is a great vocalist, has a very smooth falsetto but is one of those singers who do well in records but less well in live concerts. That's not a critique; I still think he would do great in a debut album but the contest's format put him against the wall. And the judges were too complascent, and I was expecting a slight critique from A. Fried but it seems like he played the nice guy this time... where is Jewish Music's Simon?!

Next came Sadon and you all know I'm not a huge fan of him. But his high note in Ani Maamim awarded him a spot in the top-3 and the question was if he could take more risks in the concert. He took a classic - Machnisei - but he did take risks and did his best to make this song exciting, with great success. Special mention to the falsetto in the end of the song, it was really outstanding and a great shtick. Somehow, Sadon managed to put up a better performance than Sadon - unexpected.

Last came Binyamim Moshe and when the guy comes with his guitar on his back facing down you know he means business. Mendy Peilin thought it was an Uzi! Moshe quickly took over the stage and was really comfortable with the spotlight on him. And he was lucky to be the last, this caused his performance to have an even bigger impact. Moshe has what the other two lack: he is authentic. And that's a quality we rarely see in JM, where originality isn't the rule of the land. Moshe sang his own song, played the guitar along and did a fantastic stage work. I don't see a singer like him coming from the US these days, unfortunatedly. Binyamin Moshe is a product of Israeli JM, which is often more authentic and groovy than American JM. My only complaint is that his guitar was perhaps too loud, I think the sound system guy should've muted it just a bit.

COLlive's A Jewish Star has been a truly vanguard project and one of the most exciting things in JM in the past years. This will be huge next year and I can't wait for it!

Boys Choir: The Last Stand

In my Awards picks, I didn't choose any boys choirs. I noted that "my ears retired from listening to this kind of things long ago", and I wanted to write a little more on that.

Boys Choir have become one of JM's main niches, thanks to London Boys Choir and Tzil Vezemer's incredible breakthrough many decades ago. More specifically, Yigal Kalek managed to create a new craze around boys choir, creating a new niche of Jewish Music and that gave new life to the industry at the time - it was new, different and cute.

Miami Boys Choir stormed in and infused even more energy, with a new wave of high-profile concerts and CD's. MBC traveled around the world and provided us many timeless hits like Meheiro and Beseiata Dishmaya.

With time, the buzz around MBC started to fade away, specially in the last decade, and although they are still around, MBC became outdated. That's when the new Boys Choirs started mushrooming everywhere, hoping to bring new life to this niche. I guess people figured that with a more modern groove and look, the choir niche would be back in the spotlight and break new ground. They were partly successful - Boys Choirs are back in the spotlight but they don't break new ground. Let me explain.

As I mentioned before, the London Boys Choir was a shtick, a cool new idea that catched everyone's attention. And Yerachmiel Begun succeeded in making this shtick even more cool with amazing concerts and musical indulgence. But as of today the shtick is just way too overdone. You can't let children sing just for letting children sing; it was a cool shtick but without the "newness" of London Boys Choir and without the glitz of Miami Experience this niche has become soulless. You have choirs and more choirs, but all essentially doing the same thing and the same shticks.

Why can't we come up with other new shticks? For instance, why not have a really solid Men's Choir album, with top production, compositions and real music (not Acapella) supporting them? That's just one example, but there's a lot of room for innovation and I just don't understand why so many artists decide to venture in the the Boys Choirs genre creating yet another boys choir. Enough Boys Choirs!