Girls in Trouble Alicia Jo Rabins Ben Sidran Dudu Tassa and the

29
March-April 2014
1414 Walnut Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-848-0237
www.jewishmusicfestival.org
Photo by
Jason Falchook
Tickets: www.jewishmusicfestival.org
Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis
The Afro-Semitic Experience
Alicia Jo Rabins
Girls in Trouble
Anthony Mordechai-Tzvi Russell
Ben Sidran
29
A fiscally sponsored project
of the JCC East Bay
Brochure design and production by Rhatura Bowden
©2014
Anonymous (2), Berkeley Civic Arts Commission, Rita and Irwin Blitt, David Saul Birnbaum Foundation, Consulate General of
Israel, Gaia Fund, The Guzik Foundation, Victor and Lorraine Honig Fund of the Common Counsel Foundation, Israel Center of San
Francisco, Jewish Community Federation/Foundation of the Greater East Bay, Frederick J. Isaac Philanthropic Fund, Shirley and
Michael Issel, Jewish Community Endowment Fund-Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation, The Kurz Family Foundation,
The Milton and Sophie Meyer Fund, Tony Phillips, Maxim Schrogin, Seeley Family Foundation, Claire Sherman and Ed Anisman,
Tides Foundation on the recommendation of Vincent Worms, and Ilene Weinreb and Sam Mesnick.
March 20-April 1, 2014 Info: 510-848-0237 | www.jewishmusicfestival.org
The Afro-Semitic Experience
Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis
with special guest Yair Dalal
Thursday, March 20, 8:00 p.m.
Yoshi’s San Francisco, 1330 Fillmore St.
$30 Advance | $32 Door
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
This concert has been made possible
by the generous support of the Israel
Center and the Consulate General of
Israel in San Francisco.
Dudu Tassa is a bona fide Israeli rock star: one
of the nation’s most beloved singer/songwriters
and most-called guitarists-on-demand. He has
released eight albums, produced numerous
others, and composed for television and
cinema. In this performance, he and his band
sing the songs of Tassa’s Iraqi grandfather
and great-uncle, Saleh and Daud. Performing
as the Al-Kuwaiti brothers, they were two of
the greatest composer-musicians in Baghdad
during the first half of the 20th century and
acclaimed innovators of modern Iraqi music.
They remain highly esteemed in the Arab world.
Tassa saluted them in his 2011 album “Dudu
Tassa and the Al-Kuwaitis,” singing their songs
in Arabic and Hebrew, and integrating them with
Iraqi, Middle Eastern, and Israeli rock music.
The album, a top seller in Israel, also features
archival materials from the Al-Kuwaitis and
singer Faiza Rushdie as well as contributions
by contemporary oud master Yair Dalal. Dalal
will join Tassa and his band – featuring qanun
(Middle Eastern zither), violin, cello, keyboards,
guitars, bass and drums – as a special guest.
With its highly accessible ethnic world music
mix and ability to get an audience on its feet,
the Afro-Semitic Experience is redefining the
jazz concert. This seven-piece band is beyond
category. Whether playing gospel, klezmer,
nigunim, spirituals or swing, the Afro-Semitic
Experience rocks the room with its intricate,
infectious melodies and solid grooves. It’s
multi-cultural soul. Afro-Semitic Experience
concerts are celebrations: the band plays great
music, tells stories and offers a positive and
meaningful message of unity in the community.
Co-founded by African-American jazz pianist
Warren Byrd and Jewish-American jazz bassist
David Chevan in 1998, the ASE has shared its
music at concerts, workshops and worship
services across the United States, Canada and
Europe. The band has worked with outstanding
artists from the jazz and klezmer worlds,
including Frank London and Matt Darriau of the
Klezmatics, as well as Cantors Alberto Mizrahi
and Jack Mendelson.
Anthony Mordechai-Tzvi
Russell’s “Convergence”
with Veretski Pass
Sunday, March 23, 7:00 p.m.
JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
$22 Member, Senior, Student | $25 General
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
Additional Events
“Lilith the Night Demon”:
A presentation with musical
examples by Joshua
Horowitz and Veretski Pass
Thursday, February 20, 7:00 p.m.
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis St., San Francisco
FREE
Photo by Clara Rice
Saturday, March 22, 8:00 p.m.
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
2020 Addison St., Berkeley
$30 Advance | $32 Door
Get tickets: www.thefrieght.org
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
sensitivity and beautifully sung melodies. This
solo performance is the California premiere, and
features full-length projected animation.
The world premiere of operatic bass Anthony
Mordechai-Tzvi Russell’s multi-media show
combines diverse strains of traditional Jewish
and African-American music at points of
spiritual, melodic and textual convergence. In
collaboration with acclaimed Bay Area klezmer
trio Veretski Pass, Russell creates a new repertoire
of works exploring exile, spirituality, hope and
redemption. The performance is enhanced by
the animation work of San Francisco-based artist
Meredith Leich.
Russell has worked primarily in the field of
opera in San Francisco and New York for the
past 15 years. Recently he has devoted himself
to the recital repertoire of Sidor Belarsky (18981975), one of the 20th century’s most prolific
performers of cantorial music, Chasidic nigunim
and Yiddish art song.
Veretski Pass takes its name from the
mountain pass through which Magyar tribes
crossed into the land that became the AustroHungarian Empire. The trio – Cookie Segelstein
on fiddle, Joshua Horowitz on button accordion
and tsimbolon, and Stuart Brotman on cello
and percussion – plays old country music with
origins in the Ottoman Empire.
Alicia Jo Rabins’
“A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff”
Thursday, March 27, 8:00 p.m.
JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
$22 Member, Senior, Student | $25 General
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
A biblical scholar, poet, singer/songwriter and
violinist, Alicia Jo Rabins has created a chamberrock operatic song cycle exploring the intersection
of spirituality, finance and responsibility. “A
Kaddish for Bernie Madoff” tackles personal
and societal issues with thoughtfulness, wit,
Illustration by Zak Margolis
Alicia Jo Rabins and
Girls in Trouble
Friday, March 28, 7:00 p.m.
Temple Beth Sholom
642 Dolores Ave., San Leandro
FREE
Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m.
JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
$22 Member, Senior, Student | $25 General
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
This concert is sponsored as a tribute to
the powerful influence of organizations
like G-dcast and the Jewish Women’s
Archive in bringing women’s voices to
the forefront of Jewish life.
Alicia Jo Rabins fronts this dynamic indie rock
band from Portland, Ore., by way of Brooklyn,
with her husband, Aaron Hartman, on bass.
Girls in Trouble has performed across the U.S.,
Canada and Europe, and released two CDs
on the JDub Records label, “Girls in Trouble”
(2009) and “Half You, Half Me” (2011). The band
is working on its third album in a song cycle
about the complicated lives of biblical women,
the original “girls in trouble.”
Ben Sidran’s “Jews and the
Great American Songbook”
Sunday, March 30, 7:00 p.m.
St. John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Ave., Berkeley
$22 Member, Senior, Student | $25 General
29th JMF Festival Pass applies
A jazz pianist and singer, record producer,
National Public Radio host and scholar, Ben
Sidran presents a concert program based on his
critically acclaimed book There Was a Fire: Jews,
Music and the American Dream. The show
demonstrates the many important ways that
Jewish immigrants drove American popular
music output and tastes.
Sidran has recorded more than 30 solo albums,
including the Grammy-nominated “Concert for
Garcia Lorca,” and produced recordings for
such noted artists as Van Morrison, Diana
Ross, Rickie Lee Jones, Mose Allison and
Steve Miller (with whom he co-wrote the hit
song “Space Cowboy”). He is the composer
of the soundtrack for the acclaimed film
“Hoop Dreams,” and scored the documentary
“Vietnam: Long Time Coming.”
Sidran has authored two books on the subject
of jazz, Black Talk, a cultural history of the music,
and Talking Jazz, a series of conversations
with inspirational musicians. He holds a PhD.
in American Studies from Sussex University,
Brighton, England, but has studiously avoided
the academic life, preferring to spend his time
performing, producing and writing.
Ben Sidran
Performance / Lecture on
“Jews and the Great
American Songbook”
Tuesday, April 1, 6:00 p.m.
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St., San Francisco
FREE
See March 30
Joshua Horowitz and his colleagues in the
klezmer trio Veretski Pass give a behindthe-scenes presentation of their new work,
based on the Jewish mythological alternate
story of creation. Co-presented by the
29th Jewish Music Festival, KlezCalifornia,
and Lehrhaus Judaica. This dramatic
composition will be presented in May (see
below).
“Di Megileh of Itzik Manger,”
A Yiddish Purim musical with
English supertitles
Thursday, March 6, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 8, 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 9, 3:00 p.m.
$22 Member, Senior, Student | $25 General
Monday, March 10, 1:00pm
$12 Member, Senior, Student | $15 General
JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
“Di Megileh” is a witty, romantic musical
Purim shpiel with book and lyrics by
one of the 20th century’s finest Yiddish
poets, and music by one of Israel’s most
important composers. This staged concert
production will be the West Coast premiere
of the musical, long beloved by Israeli and
New York audiences for its catchy songs,
sparkling humor, palace intrigue, political
satire and story of star-crossed lovers.
Itzik Manger’s magical words and Dov Seltzer’s
majestic music spring to life in the Yiddish
Theater Collective’s production, staged and
choreographed by Bruce Bierman, with
musical direction by Achi Ben Shalom. The
cast features Bay Area theater and Jewish
music stars Berel Alexander, Linda Hirschhorn,
Heather Klein, Eliana Kissner, Joan Mankin,
Naomi Newman and Gerry Tenney. All of the
spoken and sung Yiddish will be supertitled
in English. The production is fiscally
sponsored by KlezCalifornia.
premiere of “Mame Loshn,” an art song
cycle in Yiddish by composer Miriam Miller,
with text by her grandmother, Sarah Traister
Moskovitz. The program also presents Yiddish
songs written by other living composers,
including David Botwinik and Steven
Greenman. Heather Klein is a classically
trained Bay Area soprano who specializes in
Yiddish song.
Shir Hashirim
Song of Songs Minyan
Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
FREE
Uniting the musical liturgies of the
Sephardic, Mizrachi and Ashkenazic
traditions, these monthly spiritual gatherings
are led by Rabbi Michael Ziegler and
Hazzan Richard Kaplan, with musical
accompaniment by John Erlich, oud; Lila
Sklar, violin; Jano Bogg, percussion; and
vocalist Eliana Kissner. This spring’s Jewish
Music Festival edition will feature members
of the remarkable Qadim ensemble: Rachel
Valfer, vocals and oud; Eliyahu Sills, vocals
and ney; and Faisal Zedan, percussion.
Heather Klein's
Inextinguishable Trio
and Veretski Pass
“Yiddish Songs by
Living Composers”
Thursday, April 24, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 27, 2:00 p.m.
with pre-concert talk, 1:30 p.m.
Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission St., San Francisco
Get Tickets: www.cjm.org
Heather Klein presents the Bay Area
Illustration by Phil Blank
“Lilith, the Night Demon,
in One Lewd Act"
Veretski Pass and
San Francisco Choral Artists
Saturday, May 3, 8:00 p.m.
JCC East Bay
1414 Walnut St., Berkeley
$25 Member, Senior, Student
$28 General
Hear a world premiere of a composition
by Joshua Horowitz of the Bay Area
ensemble Veretski Pass. The work is a
choral mystery drama based on Jewish
superstitions that makes use of multilingual
texts and ancient sources, and combines
homemade instruments with poly-choral
avant-garde gestures to create a fantastic,
hysterical, bizarre and often moving
musical extravaganza, complete with the
trio’s improvisations. Joining the trio is
San Francisco Choral Artists, a 24-voice
chamber ensemble specializing in innovative
programming and performance excellence.