Voices From The East at The Henry Ward Hall
Klezmer Music, Yiddish Song and their cultural neighbours. Performed by Merlin Shepherd, Polina Shepherd, Sasha Lurje, Craig Judelman.
Hear the songs and instrumental music of eastern Europe, mingled with modern music traditions. Four of the world’s leading exponents in Yiddish instrumental and vocal music come together for an afternoon of songs, stories and culture. Hailing from the UK, Latvia, USA and Tatarstan, this motley band of Yiddishists bring, voices, violin, clarinets and piano to make a varied and exciting collaborative programme. Yiddish songs of lament, yearning, love and spirituality. Instrumental tunes comprising of dances, sacred tunes, and ritual music.
Poet and frontman Oli Spleen shares his thoughts on the upcoming show at Henry Ward Hall.
[preview] There were echoes of klezmer in a lot of the music I grew up with and loved, from some of the songs of Jim Henson’s TV series Fraggle Rock – the ones that that lifted the tempo to dizzying heights – to Jane’s Addiction’s “Of Course”, a song that defined my teenage years. The klezmer influence could also be heard in many of Tom Waits’ later experiments such as “The Black Rider”, in some of the compositions of Brecht and Weil, in Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” and The Rolling Stone’s “Paint It Black”, it can be heard in the opening clarinet refrain of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and in musicals from “Fiddler on the Roof” to “Cabaret”. Even the music from the widely popular Nintendo game Tetris was a version of “Korobeiniki” a nineteenth- century Russian folk song with a decidedly klezmer feel. But it was only when I happened across a BBC documentary “Timeshift” in 2012 that I could finally put a name to this music that I found so emotionally charged.
Then in 2019 when I was working of an album of cover songs, I decided I must have some of that fantastic clarinet sound for the song “Funeral Dirge” which was a rewrite of Fraggle Rock’s “Dixie Wailin”. It was during the run-up to the elections that year – when certain factions were trying to portray Jeremy Corbyn as antisemitic due to his support for Palestine – that I happened upon a band of Jewish musicians playing traditional Yiddish music under the moniker “Klez for Jez”. When I messaged their facebook page asking if I could record with their clarinetist I was told they were too busy campaigning for Corbyn and that I should look elsewhere. I thanked them and signed off with “it’s not exactly easy to find a klezmer clarinetist in Brighton” to which they replied – “what are you taking about?! Merlin Shepherd lives in Brighton, he’s the best klezmer clarinetist in the world!”. With that I looked up the name I had been given and within a couple of days Merlin Shepherd was in the studio with me laying down some of the most magnificent sounds my ears had heard. Overwhelmed between takes I found myself parroting at him the information I had gleaned from the BBC documentary I so loved; how klezmer had derived from Eastern European Jewish wedding music, how the violin and clarinet emulates the human voice and how there was always a lilt of joy in the sorrowful compositions and a lilt of sorrow in the joyful ones. Merlin enthusiastically reinforced and expanded on this knowledge. It was only later when I rewatched that BBC documentary that I realised that it was Merlin himself being interviewed and embarrassingly I had been regurgitating his own words back at him.
The next year we were all hit by covid but I promised Merlin that he and I would collaborate on some original compositions together. He told me that his wife Polina was a singer and when the first lockdown was finally relaxed I agreed to meet the two of them in their Brighton garden to discuss plans. At the time the news was awash with stories of drowned refugees who had died in the English channel in their efforts to get here. The lack of empathy from the media was sickening so I decided to work on a song to address this terrible situation. Polina explained that the plight of refugees was close to her heart as she had been born in Siberia and her father carried painful memories of the antisemitic pogroms where her people were under the threat of massacre and had to flee in the night leaving all their belongings behind. Polina and Merlin agreed to perform on my song Refugee, we worked the arrangement out in their house with pianist Tristram Arnold. When Polina hit the high note in the middle of the track I felt as if I had to be scraped off the ceiling, it was so otherworldly and devastating. We recorded the song in Brighton later that year using a piano that producer Mishkin Fitzgerald’s Jewish grandmother had owned that had survived a ransacking of her house by the Nazis.
When I launched my album “Still Life” in the spring of 2022, Merlin and Polina opened the night and later accompanied me on stage for a great many of our collaborations. I have to say it was one of the highlights of my entire life. Polina’s opening number was a Ukrainian drinking song as a tribute to the people of Ukraine who were being invaded by Russia. There were Ukrainians in the crowd who hugged and thanked us for this moving tribute. Later I was dismayed to hear that Polina’s “Russian Choir for Peace” was being shut down on facebook due to the anti Russian backlash, clearly people had chosen to ignore the “peace” message which is so vital a part of Polina and Merlin’s fantastic work and activism.
So now I’m excited to say that the duo will be performing in my hometown of Hastings for a showcase entitled “Voices From The East” with Sasha Lurje and Craig Judelman, at the Henry Ward Hall, 45 Robertson Street on Sunday June 9th. Tickets are available online. It’s sure to be an event not to be missed!
Performer bios
“Sasha Lurje (Latvia/Germany – vocals, poyk) is a Berlin based singer who has performed and taught Yiddish singing throughout Europe and The Americas. Her knowledge of traditional song, diverse vocal techniques and genres inform her performances. Her work includes projects ranging from Yiddish progressive rock, cabaret, traditional Yiddish music and historic recreations. Sasha is a co-founder of Shtetl Berlin and Seattle Yiddish Fest.
Craig Judelman (USA/Germany – violin) is a fiddler, composer and educator on both sides of the Atlantic. His background in classical music and composition, combined with decades of immersion in American ‘Old Time’ music cultivated a unique perspective on Klezmer fiddling. Since moving to Berlin in 2017 he has developed a singular voice in the klezmer scene. He has taught or performed at many of the major klezmer festivals.
Merlin Shepherd (UK – clarinets) has been a fixture of the international Yiddish/Klezmer scene as a player, educator and composer for over three decades. One of the first to play on period clarinets, Merlin has broken new ground in stylistically and historically informed playing. Merlin has also worked as Music Director with several of the UK’s leading theatre companies including The RSC, National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and most recently at The Menier Chocolate Factory.
Polina Shepherd (Tatarstan/UK – vocals, piano) is a composer, performer and educator originally from Russia, now living in Brighton. She performs solo, collaborates with ensembles, soloists and choirs internationally. Her composition is focused on East European styles influenced by classical and folk music. She’s written over 120 compositions; music for theatre, choirs, settings for Yiddish poems, several vocal cycles, many of which have been commissioned and performed all over the world.”
https://youtu.be/Yc0ehU62gX0?list=PLFvWT71znY0fgk26KnZwabCSaLOBNRk9G
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