Music

With a Song returns to forum

Left to right are Joan Beckow, Claire Klein Osipov, Wendy Bross Stuart and Jessica Stuart, in 2010. (photo by Ron Stuart)

Canceled more than two years ago because of COVID, With a Song in My Heart, a special concert for Jewish Senior Alliance’s spring forum, is back. And it’s even more special.

The May 15, 2 p.m., performance at the Peretz Centre, led by Wendy Bross Stuart, is dedicated to Claire Klein Osipov and Joan Beckow.

“We were originally scheduled to present this program in March 2020. We were well-prepared. Even Claire came over to rehearsal on March 16, 2020 – so she could shep naches from her daughter Lisa’s singing, and she gave us some ‘notes’ to include. Lisa [Osipov Milton] and I were using the very musical arrangements I had created for Claire. Then, COVID happened and the program was ‘postponed.’ In August 2020, Claire passed away.

“Fast-forward to 2022. Two of the singers [David Urist and Osipov Milton] were unavailable. Erin Aberle-Palm was available, and I was thrilled to have her on board. Kat Palmer and Chris Adams had been involved in the recording sessions for the Joan Beckow Legacy Project, completed in February. Chris agreed to join us for a Beckow duet – with Kat.”

Beckow passed away in January 2021.

“About 18 months before,” said Bross Stuart, “my daughter Jessica had come with me to the Louis Brier Home to visit Joan. She asked Joan for her blessing for us (mother and daughter) to record and orchestrate many of Joan’s songs. Joan was visibly touched. She gave us her blessing to proceed. And proceed we did. The Joan Beckow Legacy Project, funded generously by the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council, has included the recording and orchestration of 22 of Joan’s pieces, by 30 musicians, in Toronto and Vancouver. Plus a documentary on Joan’s life (directed by my husband, Ron Stuart) and much more. Assistance and support also came from Joan’s son, David.”

Most of the project has taken place during COVID. About the pandemic’s effects, Bross Stuart said, “To make an effort to be positive, I would say, having more time has allowed Jessica and I to create the Joan Beckow Legacy Project and collaborate in every way. The music and the mutual respect have been well beyond my expectations and – as [fellow community member] Sharon Kates added – a mitzvah for everyone. Especially for people who do not yet know the breadth of Joan’s musical output, it will be a stunning discovery.”

With the developments of the past two years, the musical program for the JSA forum has changed from what it was in 2020.

“It includes Yiddish songs – for example, ‘Tum Balalaika,’ ‘Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen’ – in Claire’s memory, and many Joan Beckow songs, recently recorded in studio, including ‘On the Other Side of Nowhere’ and ‘Tov L’Hodot,’” said Bross Stuart, noting that every composer of every song in the program is Jewish.

The Yiddish songs are from the repertoire that Klein Osipov and Bross Stuart presented over the many years they worked together.

“We have a piece of music which says, ‘Because I knew you, I have been changed … for good,’” said Bross Stuart, referring to the song “For Good,” written by Stephen Schwartz. She added, “David Beckow chose his mother’s own lyrics to inscribe on her gravestone: ‘When this life is over, we will meet somehow, on the other side of nowhere, on the far side of now.’ Kat will sing it.”

The Stuarts and Beckows are longtime friends.

“We met Joan about 50 years ago, when her husband, Jack, was Ron’s anthropology student at UBC. Joan’s music was absolutely magic. When she asked me to assist her with the music direction of a show she was working on, I said yes as soon as I saw/heard one of the lead singers – Claire Klein Osipov!

“Joan and I worked together on choral pieces, on musical theatre pieces, on Jewish liturgical pieces and on classical pieces. I organized the publication of a number of her works, and public performances as well. Her music and her friendship enhanced our lives – and inspired my daughter, Jessica, to become a composer and musician. Joan was a mentor.”

Bross Stuart explained her interest in Yiddish music.

“Growing up in a New York City suburb (Yonkers),” she said, “my grandmother lived with us while I was growing up. Although her most comfortable language was Yiddish (Galitzianer variety), she spoke accented English to me. Yiddish was not what my parents wanted me to speak. This, of course, made Yiddish so much more interesting to me. Years later, in Vancouver, working with Claire and creating musical arrangements for all those songs – four CDs’ worth – required a detailed understanding of the Yiddish. The German I had studied in high school and at McGill was helpful, but working with Claire was even more helpful. We did a lot of concert work together, and I would say that our daughter Fiona grew to love Yiddish as a result. Another mentor for us!”

With a Song in My Heart is JSA’s first hybrid event, taking place live at the Peretz Centre, with streaming links available for YouTube, Vimeo or Zoom. Registration is required in both instances. If attending in-person, proof of vaccination is also required. Visit jsalliance.org, email [email protected] or call 604-732-1555.

Mixing global music, dance

Dancers Alvin Erasga Tolentino, left, and Gabriel Dharmoo in Passages of Rhythms, in which Jonathan Bernard (below) is a percussionist. (photo by Yasuhiro Okada)

“Passages of Rhythms is inspired by a shared fascination with interculturalism, interdisciplinary activity, flamenco and collaborations between cultures,” percussionist Jonathan Bernard told the Independent about the Co.ERASGA production, which is being remounted May 19 and 20 at PAL Studio Theatre, in recognition of Asian Heritage Month. May is also Jewish Heritage Month.

“Canada is becoming well-known as an international centre of intercultural arts,” said Bernard, a member of the Jewish community. “I very much look forward to the remount and a bright future for the show on Canadian and international stages.”

In Passages of Rhythms, Co.ERASGA’s Alvin Erasga Tolentino highlights flamenco, Bharatanatyam and voices for the body, in a collaboration with local Chinese-Canadian flamenco artist Kasandra “La China,” Indo-Canadian Bharatanatyam dancer Sujit Vaidya and Montreal voice artist Gabriel Dharmoo. Ronald Stelting joins Bernard on the percussion music, and Jonathan Kim provides the lighting.

Bernard was in the original production, which took place at the Firehall Theatre as part of the Dancing on the Edge festival in 2018.

“The creation process of Passages was very smooth, full of joy and dedication, and the result brought a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience,” he said. “Alvin is a director with a warm heart, an open mind, and is a passionate artist, so I’m overjoyed to be part of the remount.

“This is a dream gig for me,” he continued, “as I caught the flamenco bug back around 2005, I’ve traveled to the birthplace of flamenco in southern Spain to study and I’ve happily spent countless hours collaborating with flamenco dancers at local flamenco venues and on the concert stage. Kasandra was my first flamenco teacher, and we have had an artistic relationship going back to the mid-2000s. One of our groups, Orchid Ensemble, collaborated with Kasandra’s and Oscar Nieto’s Al Mozaico Flamenco Theatre to create a show named after the famous Café de Chinitas in Malaga, where Frederico Garcia Lorca penned some of his most famous works.”

photo - Passages of Rhythms is percussionist Jonathan Bernard’s “dream gig” — Passages of Rhythms is percussionist Jonathan Bernard’s “dream gig.” *(photo from Jonathan Bernard)*

Another reason this is a dream gig for Bernard, he said, “is that I have the pleasure of surrounding myself with many of my favourite instruments, collected from 25 years of travel and study around the world, scouring through ancient temple and traditional markets for the best sounding instruments. For example, you will see/hear temple bells and opera cymbals from Beijing and Sichuan province; tuned gongs found in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos; the riqq (Arabic frame drum), handmade in Cairo’s old city; bells from India; and, of course, the cajon, a box drum adapted into the flamenco tradition in the 1960s.

“My compositional ideas that form the soundscape for Passages are not only inspired by the dancers’ movement,” he said, “but by the instruments themselves and the ancient styles traditions they represent. Further, as most often I am busy interpreting the work of composers, Passages gave me a chance to compose my own original music.”

Since the mid-1990s, Bernard and his wife and artistic partner Lan Tung have been creating intercultural ensembles, mixing instruments and instrumentalists from traditions ranging from Chinese, South Asian, Persian, Arabic, North African and Western traditions, creating original Canadian music, and touring internationally. “We looked to ancient centres of interculturalism such as the Silk Road and El Andalus for inspiration, and as reflections of our own unique cultural environment,” he said. “Andalusia was a golden age of interculturalism, where Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in relative peace and shared knowledge and cultural traditions, from architecture to music to the culinary arts.

“Since the birthplace of flamenco – approximately one hour by train to the ancient Mediterranean port city of Cadiz – was located in the heart of Andalusia, I believe flamenco was certainly shaped by the liberal sharing and mixing of traditions,” he said. “For example, the 12-beat time cycles that are of central importance to West and North African traditions are also deeply embedded in flamenco forms; the castanets and palmas (interlocking handclaps) can be found in the carcabas and rhythms of the Gnawa and Berber people of Africa; the Ashkenazi cantorial traditions must have influenced the passionate flamenco vocal style. It might be said that flamenco borrowed rhythmic elements from North Africa, melodic elements from the pre-inquisition Ashkenazi Ladino song, and with simple harmonic structures and the guitar from Europe.”

Passages of Rhythms’ May 19 and 20 performances start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30 ($20 for students and seniors) and can be purchased at eventbrite.ca.

Orcas inspire creative music

The creation of Songs for a Lost Pod helped singer/songwriter Leah Abramson explore her family’s Holocaust history. (photo by Angela Fama)

The world première of Leah Abramson’s Songs for a Lost Pod was supposed to be part of this year’s PuSh Festival three months ago. Delayed because of COVID restrictions at the time, it now will debut May 28-29, 7:30 p.m., at Studio T, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

Songs for a Lost Pod is a “nine-song cycle [that] makes spectacular use of orca vocalizations, transforming them into rhythmic beats in a musical exploration of historical trauma, environmental crisis and communication between species.” The theatrical production is the most recent development in a process that includes an album by the same name, released in 2017.

“It was just an outward spiral, really. The project started with dreams I had about whales, which turned into researching whales for fun, which then turned into a master of fine arts thesis, an album, a comic book, and now a stage show!” said Abramson when the Independent interviewed her in anticipation of the PuSh festival. “When I made the album, I knew there was so much research and information behind the lyrics and music of each song, and I felt like I wanted people to understand that context, so I made the comic book to highlight some of the research and stories. Then, as I was arranging the music to be performed live, I realized that I wanted people to have that context, too, so I’ve turned the research and background into a script. Then we decided that adding visuals would really help immerse the audience in the material. The project has just been expanding from the beginning.”

Abramson, who grew up in Burnaby, said she has been interested in music from a young age. “My grandma sang in her synagogue’s choir and my dad played the piano, so they tell me it runs in the family,” she said. “But I was also told that music was only for fun, and not a real career, unless you were a concert pianist or something like that. So, I tried to do other things, but I was miserable unless I was making music.

“Over the years, I’ve done lots of touring and playing in bands and teaching, but writing and composing has always been what I love the most. I have pretty varied interests – I’m fascinated by marine biology and I love learning about the environment, as well as human history. The great thing about writing songs is that you can research anything and put it into your work. Right now, I’m really excited about writing music for the stage, as well as choral music.”

Along with her MFA in creative writing (with a focus on lyrics) from the University of British Columbia, Abramson studied classical music at Capilano University, and also has studied traditional Appalachian balladry.

In addition to the song-cycle, Songs for a Lost Pod features the narrative script that Abramson mentioned, which “juxtaposes the whale histories with Leah’s own family and their experience surviving the Holocaust and its aftermath,” according to the program description. “Mind of a Snail’s handmade projections create an impressionistic and largely non-representational visual world to support the songs and narration, guiding the audience into a space of contemplation.”

“When I first started looking into whale histories, the parallels presented themselves pretty quickly,” Abramson told the Independent. “It was not my intention to delve into my family’s past, but, while learning about captures and commercial whaling practices, it was hard not to look at the bigger picture of human behaviour throughout history – aspects of cruelty and destruction that manifest in heartbreaking ways. But also, whales are similar to humans – whale intelligence is extremely high, and whale families are extremely tight knit.”

It was difficult for Abramson to explore her family’s Holocaust history – “the loss and pain are pretty overwhelming,” she said, “and it’s not always easy to find a way forward when that intensity is present. Whale families became a mirror for me, a way to understand and experience intergenerational trauma at a greater distance. The project allowed me to deal with my feelings in a more manageable way, through empathy for another species. And it provided a space for my grief, but also helped me find a way through it. Trauma is so common in families of all different backgrounds. Our ancestors may have lived through wars or other calamities and there are so many people living through these things right now. I think learning others’ stories can help people start to process their own family’s pain, even if the details are different. I felt like whale stories did that for me.”

Credit for Songs of a Lost Pod’s music and lyrics go to Abramson in collaboration with Antoine Bédard, J.J. Ipsen, Andrew Lee (Holy Hum), Aidan O’Rourke (Lau), Sandro Perri, Arliss Renwick and Marten Timan. The program notes that credit also could be given to the A5 whale pod, as the musicians “were given selected A5 pod orca vocalizations, along with Abramson’s other field recordings, to turn into beats and tracks, which formed the backbone of Abramson’s songwriting process, and the rhythms behind much of the music.”

Fellow Jewish community member Barbara Adler also has contributed to the project, and is the show’s narrator.

“Barbara and I have known each other for so long that we can’t remember when or how we officially met,” said Abramson. “It’s like that with people in creative community sometimes – you grow up making art alongside each other. We have shared some special experiences and projects over the years, and continue to work together and in parallel. We have some shared Czech-Jewish roots, which makes Barbara a really good fit for this project in particular. She’s working on a lot of interesting projects of her own, and I’m also happy to be one of her composer-collaborators for Mermaid Spring, which is a musical she’s making with Kyla Gardiner (who also happens to be our lighting designer).

“Barbara has been sending me song lyrics over the last few years, which I have been setting to music. I love working with the characters she has created, and it has truly been a joy to work on those songs. I also really admire Barbara’s artistic process. When she writes, she really digs into all the nuances of a situation or character. She welcomes complexity and the messy underside of creation. I think Barbara balances my impulsivity, and helps me step out from the shadows in my shyest moments. She’s also a great performer!”

Co-presented by Music on Main and SFU School for the Contemporary Arts, tickets for Songs for a Lost Pod ($15) can be purchased from musiconmain.ca/event/songs-for-a-lost-pod.

Beckow’s music will live on

Joan Beckow, left, Wendy Bross Stuart, centre, and Jessica Stuart, during a visit a few years ago. (photo from Jessica Stuart)

Acknowledging that the music world is “a fickle one in which skill, talent and ingenuity do not necessarily result in widespread acknowledgement or musical reach,” Jessica Stuart said Joan Beckow’s “music deserves to be heard. It deserves to be performed and played for many generations to come, and it is more than good enough to stand next to the work of Leonard Bernstein or Stephen Sondheim.”

Stuart and her mother, Wendy Bross Stuart – accomplished musicians in their own right – are co-directors of the Joan Beckow Project. Stuart is also project manager and producer of the project. Arts administrator Rosie Callaghan handles many of the behind-the-scenes details.

Beckow passed away on Jan. 13, 2021, at age 88. She was a close family friend of the Stuarts, and she and Bross Stuart collaborated professionally for more than 40 years. Jessica Stuart grew up surrounded by Beckow’s music, both because her mother and Beckow had worked together and because Stuart has performed a large body of Beckow’s work. The seeds of the Joan Beckow Project were planted in 2015, when Stuart discovered that none of Beckow’s music was available online and almost none of her choral or musical theatre music had ever been professionally recorded or transcribed. Beckow gave Stuart her blessing for the project.

Beckow started her career with a music degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. At UCLA, she composed six original musicals for the theatre department, where she collaborated with her friend, Carol Burnett. Beckow was resident composer and music director for the Stumptown Players, out of San Francisco, and, when she graduated, she started composing for Holiday Theatre L.A.

Eventually, Beckow found her way to Vancouver, where she worked with many theatres as a composer and music director, including the Playhouse, Carousel and Belfry theatres, as well as with the Shaw Festival. With Bross Stuart, she composed several musicals and, in 2002, It’s All in the Song, a summary of Beckow’s work, premièred at the Chutzpah! Festival.

photo - Joan Beckow, right, with Carol Burnett, in 1958 — Joan Beckow, right, with Carol Burnett, in 1958. *(photo from Jessica Stuart)*

Beckow’s resumé also includes a degree in music therapy from Capilano College, where she was faculty for 10 years. And, over a 25-year period, she wrote original material for the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! theatre program for youth.

“Part of the reason I think it’s so important to record Joan’s work for the first time, is that, although her pieces have a natural beauty and intuitive sound, on paper (literally, the musical scores), her pieces look very complicated,” Stuart told the Independent. “Many of her songs cycle through multiple musical keys and several time signatures in one piece and I strongly believe that, if we want choral directors, vocalists and instrumentalists to choose this music to perform, they need the chance to listen and fall in love with it first.”

Beckow wrote hundreds of compositions, and Stuart and her mother started talking about song selection long before the project officially started.

“How does one sum up a composer’s career in one album? Well, we decided that we couldn’t, so we made it a double disc,” said Stuart. “One disc will focus on Joan’s musical theatre material, and the other will focus on her classical and sacred music, including many pieces set to text from the Jewish liturgy. There will be 22 pieces in total.”

Also part of the project is a 25-minute documentary, directed by Stuart’s father, Ron Stuart, in collaboration with editor Carlos Coronado.

“We applied to the Canada Council for the Arts, to the Concept to Realization program, in which we were able to define the scope of our project activities to include more than just an album recording,” said Jessica Stuart. “We wanted to tell the story of Joan’s life, culminating in the present-day recording of her debut album, albeit posthumous.”

In addition to the Canada Council support, the project has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and from Beckow’s son, David Beckow. But such undertakings are expensive. This one involves 30 musicians, and recording sessions in both Vancouver, where Bross Stuart lives, and Toronto, where Stuart is based.

“Even with the arts councils’ generous contributions, this massive undertaking still requires more financial support and, with some of this music having waited 70 years to be recorded for the first time, cutting corners is not an option we’re willing to consider,” writes Stuart on the Indiegogo fundraiser page.

As part of the project, Beckow’s songs have been “lush[ed] out.”

“Joan wrote most of her pieces for piano and voices, and the piano accompaniment always felt very orchestral, so adding strings, woodwinds and percussion felt completely natural and somehow brought even more emotional levity to the pieces,” explained Stuart. “The arrangements were done by Wendy and I, separately, but then requiring approval from each other before signing off. We agreed that these arrangements needed to keep a focus on Joan’s actual writing, instead of letting our imaginations run too wild, and we stuck to that. The results are quite wonderful!”

photo - Joan Beckow, in the late 1950s — Joan Beckow, in the late 1950s. (photo from Jessica Stuart)

As for the vocal contributors to the project, Stuart said, “The main consideration here was about getting the right voices for the right pieces. Wendy hired the personnel involved in the musical theatre portion of the album, which took place in Vancouver at Bryan Adam’s recording studio, the Warehouse.

“When I first conceived of this project,” she said, “I recognized that Joan’s classical and sacred music somehow had a kinship with jazz in terms of harmony, so I was eager to get the material into the hands of some of my favourite jazz musicians and improvisers based in Toronto. When choosing the personnel in Toronto, I went for both classical and jazz musicians, and even arranged a few pieces with sections earmarked for improvised solos. As suspected, not only did the music lend itself exceptionally well to improvisation, but Joan’s music had the Toronto jazz scene completely enamoured, and kind of in a tizzy, which was a real pleasure to watch.”

One of Stuart’s longtime favourite Beckow pieces is “Dwelling Places.”

“Joan once told me that she never wanted a harmony to simply exist as an ornament to a melody – that a harmony should be able to stand alone even if the melody were removed,” explained Stuart. “That, to me, is a profound idea, and I’ve always admired the myriad moving lines Joan was able to work into one piece concurrently within the accompaniment and vocal parts of her work. These lines lead you emotionally from one place to another, seamlessly, and all of sudden you have goosebumps and don’t even know why.

“Also, whether Joan was setting her own lyrics, or else poetry by Dorothy Parker, or else Jewish liturgical text, like ‘Dwelling Places,’ to music, she had an incredible gift for being able to mirror spoken cadence and intonation within her melodies.”

Stuart continued, “A new favourite of mine, though, discovered through the process of working on the Joan Beckow Legacy Project, is what I refer to as her ‘instant Christmas classic,’ called ‘A Christmas Wish.’ This is a song that stands up next to ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire (The Christmas Song),’ and you can’t help but to imagine Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra’s voice all over it. And I’m sure we’re all aware of the long-standing tradition of Jewish songwriters creating the best Christmas music, so it’s time we added a female composer’s take to the mix!”

For anyone wanting to know more about the Joan Beckow Legacy Project, there are regular posts on Facebook and Instagram. To contribute to the project via Indiegogo and watch a short video about it, visit igg.me/at/joanbeckowlegacy. There is a six-level range of incentives for donors, from a personal social media shoutout for a $25 gift, to a personal thank you in the liner notes of the album – and all the goodies of the prior levels – for a $1,000 contribution.

Shira Choir focus of lecture

Reverend Hazan Daniel Benlolo (photo from Kolot Mayim)

“To repair the often-shattered world, I cannot think of a better way than to give a voice to those less heard,” said Reverend Hazan Daniel Benlolo, leader of the Montreal Shira Choir, a vocal ensemble comprised exclusively of people with physical and intellectual challenges.

Benlolo was speaking at a Feb. 13 lecture co-hosted by Montreal’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and Victoria’s Kolot Mayim Reform Temple during Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, or JDAIM.

Born in Morocco, Benlolo settled with his family in Canada in the 1970s and became the cantor of Montreal’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue at the age of 17. He is also a rabbi and an artist who, among other things, designs ketubot (Jewish marriage contracts). Despite his many hats, Benlolo’s true passion, as evidenced throughout his talk, is to provide a stage for those who have seldom been listened to, accepted or appreciated in the community.

While working in Ottawa in 2002, he helped lead the Tamir Neshama Choir, which toured throughout Canada, the United States and Israel.

“It really inspired me and opened my eyes to a new life that I never explored before. To be able to spend time with people of special abilities made my life that much better in so many different ways,” Benlolo said of his Ottawa experience, for which he received a Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award in 2013.

The move back to Montreal came a few years ago. There, Benlolo and his wife Muriel Suissa founded the Shira Choir in 2019, with the assistance of Federation CJA and the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. The choir, made up of singers from many cultural backgrounds, performs a wide range of music, from liturgical to Broadway and pop.

Not long after the choir’s formation, the pandemic struck in early 2020. Nevertheless, Benlolo has managed to keep the music playing through Zoom rehearsals and socially distanced visits with choir members.

Benlolo stressed that, too often, people with special needs come in and out of our lives, without our taking the time to engage with them. His simple request to the Zoom audience was “to take the time,” as “it could make a world of difference.”

“They teach me more than I could ever teach them,” is the view Benlolo expresses regularly, saying there is no way to place a value on these relationships.

He emphasized the importance of not patronizing anyone in the choir. That is, audiences should give them a standing ovation only because members of the choir deserved one for the quality of their singing, not for the act of performing itself.

“They have hopes and aspirations. Some are going to fulfil them, some are not,” asserted Benlolo.

The future for the choir, he declared, is to continue to spread love, positivity, inclusion and the sense of community, but not tolerance, a word to which he has a particular aversion. “I don’t want to tolerate you, I want to love you. I want to count you in the community as a full member,” he said.

“We want to continue building from here,” he added. “It can only come to fruition if everyone puts in some effort. Just a little bit of an effort, the results will be so satisfactory, both for the individual and the community, [and] we will learn some new things, we will learn a way of life, that for so long has been hidden.”

Benlolo’s talk covered the recently premièred documentary Just As I Am, which can be viewed on CBC Gem (gem.cbc.ca/media/absolutely-canadian/s21e26). The film, a profile of the adults with special needs in the choir, explores the universal language of music and its ability to transform lives.

Benlolo also presented two short videos, both available on YouTube, showing members of the Shira Choir singing Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

In his concluding remarks, Benlolo urged the audience to not look upon those who are differently abled as “different” in a pejorative sense. “Different is great,” he said. “Different is beautiful. There is so much untapped talent out there that I am always in search of these people who are hidden gems.”

The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal is the oldest in Canada, tracing its history back to 1760, when the first Jewish settlers arrived in Quebec, making it as old as the province itself.

Now in its 14th year, JDAIM is a unified effort among Jewish organizations and communities throughout the world to build awareness and foster inclusion of people with disabilities and those who love them.

Benlolo’s presentation was the fifth in Kolot Mayim’s six-part series on the theme of Building Bridges: Celebrating Diversity in Jewish Life. The final session in the series features Indigenous artist Patricia June Vickers and Rabbi Adam Cutler of Adath Israel Congregation in Toronto, which is co-sponsoring the event. The topic on March 20, 11 a.m., is An Indigenous and Jewish Dialogue on Truth and Reconciliation. To register, visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Inspiring songs and stories

Inspired by Story and Song – this was the topic of the JSA Snider Foundation Virtual Empowerment Series session held on Dec. 2, in partnership with the Louis Brier Home and Hospital.

Jewish Seniors Alliance co-president Gyda Chud welcomed the 45 Zoom participants, as well as the 35 Louis Brier residents, who joined to hear Shanie Levin’s stories and Myrna Rabinowitz’s singing.

Rabinowitz opened with a Chanukah song in Yiddish, “Drei Zich Dreidele” (“Spin Yourself Dreidel”), which was followed by Levin reading Sholem Aleichem’s Hanukkah Gelt (Hanukkah Money). In this story, Motl and his brother take part in the beloved customs of a favourite holiday: the lighting of the chanukiyah, eating potato latkes, playing dreidel, and the gift of gelt.

In the course of the program, Rabinowitz sang songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish. She sang “Oh Hanukkah,” a song in Judeo-Spanish about the holiday’s eight candles, as well as more personal songs, including one she wrote on the occasion of her grandson’s birth and one she wrote for her father. She offered the audience a treat by singing the classic and sentimental Yiddish song by the Barry sisters from the 1950s, “Wie Nemt Men a Bissele Mazel?” (“Where Can You Get a Little Luck?”).

Levin chose the story by Abraham Karpinowitz titled Jewish Money, from the book Vilna My Vilna, which is a volume of his work that was translated into English by local storyteller Helen Mintz. Karpinowitz was known for his detailed and vivid descriptions of the city of Vilna and the odd characters who lived there.

The Spice Box is an anthology of Canadian Jewish writers and Levin read an illuminating story written in 1968 by Larry Zolf, who was a CBC personality and writer for the program This Hour Has Seven Days. The story, Boil Me No Melting Pot, Dream Me No Dreams, deals with the difference between the American and Canadian immigrant experiences.

Preposterous Papa, the final story read by Levin, was an excerpt from a book by Lewis Meyer. Meyer’s father grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, which had very few Jewish families. Unable to commute to the synagogue in the larger city, his father bought a house and converted it into a chapel, offering a place for the few Jewish families in nearby towns to socialize and pray on High Holidays.

Rabinowitz ended the program with an upbeat song in Yiddish, the title of which translates as “We Are All Brothers and Sisters.”

Nathalie Jacobs of the Louis Brier thanked the performers and expressed her wish to partner again with JSA in the future.

Tamara Frankel is a member of the board of Jewish Seniors Alliance and of the editorial committee of Senior Line magazine. She is also a board member of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

A lifelong love of performing

Left to right, the Hot Mammas are Mary Ella Young, Julie Brown, Georgina Arntzen. (photo by Dee Lippingwell)

The Hot Mammas are busy this holiday season – and year round. With three albums to their credit, they perform at venues ranging from jazz clubs to shopping malls. Readers can next see them at Robson Square Skating Rink on Dec. 15, and then at Water Street Café Dec. 18.

One of the holiday songs the group performs is “Mamma Julie’s Hanukkah Song,” so dubbed by Georgina Arntzen and Mary Ella Young because the third member of the Hot Mammas, Julie Brown, wrote it, and “too many songs are called ‘The Hanukkah Song’ or ‘Festival of Lights.’” (A video of it can be found via facebook.com/thehotmammas.)

Brown’s Jewish heritage is Ashkenazi. “My maternal grandfather, who I’m named after (Julius Cohen), was a rabbi,” she told the Independent. “My father always followed our traditions. My mother was a phenomenal cook and it’s because of her I’m able to make latkes, matzo balls, knishes, chicken soup, etc. When she didn’t want me to understand something she and her sisters were talking about over the phone, she’d suddenly switch from English to Yiddish. That’s where and how I picked up some fun expressions, which I use to this day.”

Born and raised in Montreal, Brown said she has been performing music since she could walk.

“My older, late, great brother Martin Overland was the founding member of the Canadian folk group the Raftsmen,” she said. “Your readers may recall the song ‘Something to Sing About,’ which was one of their hits. Martin had perfect pitch and the voice of an angel. He was also a terrific guitarist and accordionist. Eleven years my senior, we would sing together in harmony when I was a very young child. I still recall performing ‘Buttons and Bows’ in front of a roomful of relatives and friends.

“When the opportunity arose as a 10-year-old to actually sing on camera, I jumped at the chance. The Montreal kids show was called Small Fry Frolics and there I was with my cousin Shirley singing the Everly Brothers’ ‘Bye Bye Love’! At 15, I joined a rock band, while singing lead as Carmen in high school.

“The singing/performing didn’t stop at teacher’s college either,” she added. “McGill’s Macdonald College offered a two-year teaching diploma program at the time and, much to my delight, also had yearly talent shows.”

During her teaching days, Brown brought her ukulele to class. “The kids were as crazy about the Beatles as I was and we sang our buttinsky’s off to start the day,” she said.

While at university, Brown performed in stage plays and film. She recalled working on a movie directed by John Huston, which featured Sophia Loren – “and I was fortunate enough to garner a wee speaking role when Ms. Loren walked over to a table of background performers of which I was one, and asked me a question. I wasn’t supposed to answer her as a silent on-camera person but spontaneously blurted out a comment because I didn’t want to be rude. (Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed John Huston smacking his forehead.) And that was how I got my first ACTRA permit! Even after moving out to Vancouver and doing radio full time, I still continued to audition for film, TV and did a lot of voice work. In fact, I was the Telus voice for nearly 15 years – ‘We’re sorry, the number you have dialed is not in order. Please hang up and try your call again. Thank you, from Telus.’ That was me and one of 40 or so prompts I did for them.”

Brown left Montreal after the Front de libération du Québec “raised its ugly head in Quebec” and the Parti Québécois was in power.

“My child came home in tears from school with a notice that all English-speaking children had to be educated in French the following year,” she explained. “French didn’t come easy to my son but it was more than that. We lived in Canada, or so I thought. Stop signs had Nazi slogans scrawled across them. Shop windows in the English and Jewish communities were smashed and vandalized. An elderly Jewish woman who couldn’t speak French and wanted to order flowers for a friend was disgustingly treated over the phone because she was trying to place her order in English. The clerk hung up on her.

“As a teaching friend once said to me, if you say, ‘ich bin a Yid,’ you get it from both sides. I still don’t think the rest of Canada realized just how dangerous and revolting that regime was. Well, I did…. We came out to Vancouver for a visit and, with tears in his eyes, my son asked if we could move. And we did just that in 1978.”

Within a week, Brown got a job as a news broadcaster at CFMI, the sister station to CKNW.

“Not long after that, the program director allowed me to develop an interview show as well. I had been doing interviews at the Montreal radio station, along with news, so this was a huge relief to me. I love people and am a naturally curious person, so interviewing was, and still is, a good fit. My radio career blossomed here in Vancouver. Eventually, I co-wrote, co-produced and co-hosted Vancouver at Noon on KISS-FM for 11 years.”

In her more than two decades as a broadcaster, Brown interviewed hundreds of people, including Bob Hope, Paul Newman, Shirley MacLaine, Johnny Depp, Leonard Cohen, Eartha Kitt, Sarah McLachlan, Neil Diamond, Buffy Sainte-Marie, François Truffaut, Jackie Collins, Jim Byrnes, Rick Hansen and Dee Lippingwell.

For Brown, singing in choirs has always fed her soul, and it was in one of those choirs she met Arntzen and in another that they met Young. The Hot Mammas have been together now for 11 years.

“They are both family to me – my sisters,” said Brown. “All three of us love performing because we give to our audiences and they give back. Something magical and marvelous happens, no matter where we are or how many or how few people are in that audience. Synergy. Energy. Love. Music heals. It is the ‘universal language.’

“We sing songs we love. That’s how we choose our repertoire. Jazz, pop, rock ’n’ roll, folk, show tunes, you name it. We don’t just cover groups. We also write originals. In fact, one of our tunes is called ‘The Hot Mammas’ Song,’ and it’s quite amusing – all about being mothers who love their kids but have ‘traded in their aprons for a microphone.’”

For more, visit thehotmammas.com.

London’s Ghetto Songs

Frank London recently released a new album, Ghetto Songs (Venice and Beyond). (photo by Chuck Fishman)

Trumpeter and composer Frank London, an unwavering presence in numerous musical genres for more than four decades, released a new album, Ghetto Songs (Venice and Beyond), on Felmay Records earlier this year. The project incorporates music from around the world and delves into the history of “ghetto music.”

Coming out this past April – to coincide with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 – the concept for Ghetto Songs began in 2016, when the Grammy Award-winning London found himself in Venice on a residency with Beit Venezia, a foundation that aims to promote Jewish thought and culture, and serve as a bridge between people of all cultures and religions.

“It all started with my being invited by Dr. Shaul Bassi and Beit Venezia to go to Venice and conceive a special way to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the opening of the Venice Ghetto, the first segregated urban area to be called a ghetto,” London told the Independent. “The particularity of the Venice Ghetto and the universality of ghettos themselves inspired Ghetto Songs.”

The Jewish ghetto in Venice was situated in the polluted grounds of an ancient copper foundry, or geto. By the early 20th century, the term ghetto came to signify the crowded urban quarters of any minority group.

As London sees it, ghettos are historically complex phenomena. They offer both freedom and restriction, protection and imperilment. By isolating specific groups from the outside world, they become cultural “petri dishes” in which the ghettoized group’s culture can thrive.

Ghetto Songs celebrates the music and poetry that emerges from and about the world’s many ghettos. The playlist for the new release includes 17th-century music and poetry from the Venice ghetto (works from Salomone Rossi, Benedetto Marcello and Sara Copia Sullam); a piyyut (Jewish liturgical poem) from a mellah, a Moroccan Jewish quarter; kwela, street music from South Africa’s townships; and works by Cantor Gershon Sirota, who lived and died in the Warsaw Ghetto. There is also version the 1972 hit by the band War, “The World is a Ghetto.”

When it came to selecting what pieces would be the best fit for an album covering ghetto music encompassing five centuries and numerous locations, London recounted, “This is my favourite part of the process! I do the deep dive: tons of research into music from the world’s ghettos throughout history, across time and place. I pick out songs that I love, but that also tell a story, that inform each other, that complement each other, and that work together as a unified whole despite their incredible differences.”

London has assembled an array of talent for the release. Among the vocalists are tenor Karim Sulayman, Cantor Svetlana “Sveta” Kundish, Yaakov “Yanky” Lemmer (considered one of the best in the new generation of chazzans) and singer/guitarist Brandon Ross. They are joined by drummers Kenny Wollesen and Zeno De Rossi, cellists Francesca Ter-Berg and Marika Hughes, bassists Greg Cohen and Gregg August, and multi-instrumentalist Ilya Shneyveys.

“What might have been seen as challenging – getting the right musicians who can play such a diverse, variegated set of musics, styles, genres, etc., was really no problem. I am blessed to know and work with some of the world’s finest musicians and, with them, there were really no big challenges,” said London. “I have worked with each of these fantastic musicians in different projects and situations – mine, theirs, and as side musicians for others – over my 40-year career.”

To summarize London’s career in the space of an article, let alone a paragraph of two, is not an easy task. Among the artists he has worked with are Itzhak Perlman, Allen Ginsberg, LL Cool J, Mel Tormé, Iggy Pop, John Cale and Jane Siberry. He is a member of the Klezmatics and Hasidic New Wave, as well as leader of the Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All Stars and the Glass House Orchestra, a band that plays Austro-Hungarian Jewish music. London has made 30 solo recordings, is featured on more than 400 CDs and is the recipient of the Hungarian Order of Merit.

The veteran musician is working on several projects at present. These include Ich Bin Eine Hexe, a dance/theatre spectacle about pioneering performance artist Valeska Gert; “Rube G (Music for Brass Trio and Percussion,” a dance score for choreographer and filmmaker Jody Oberfelder; ESN: Songs from the Kitchen, a cooking and music video with Lorin Sklamberg and Sarah Gordon; Salomé: Woman of Valor, a CD with poet Adeena Karasick (jewishindependent.ca/salome-cd-launched); and Transliminal Rites, a CD of improvised music with Eyal Maoz and Guy Barash, who, together with London, make up the EFG Trio.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Remembrance Day Revue

The Hot Mammas – left to right, Mary Ella Young, Julie Brown and Georgina Arntzen – with Tom Arntzen. (photo by Dee Lippingwell)

The Hot Mammas – Mary Ella Young, Julie Brown and Georgina Arntzen – with Tom Arntzen perform a Remembrance Day Revue on Nov. 10 and 11 at the Corner Stone Bistro in North Vancouver. With careers spanning decades, they have done it all, from folk to jazz, radio to musical theatre, Vancouver to New York; these women know how to work a room. Long-time friends Arntzen, Brown (who is a member of the Jewish community) and Young formed the Hot Mammas in 2004 and they entertain audiences with the kinds of stories and harmonies that can only come from such a friendship. For reservations, call 604-990-3602 or visit thehotmammas.com.

New song for the holidays

Haley K. Turner has made a parody of her own Chanukah song, in an effort to get Adam Sandler’s attention.

On Nov. 3, local singer-songwriter Haley K. Turner is releasing what might be the only original Chanukah song set for release this year, and one of only a few in the last 25 years. Inspired by a recent plea from Adam Sandler for “someone out there” to write a new Chanukah song, Turner did just that.

In the tradition of nostalgic, sentimental classics such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Intangible Things (A Hanukkah Song)” features a string orchestra with lyrics that were completed early this year, on the very last snow day of last winter.

Since Sandler asked for the song, Turner decided he should know about it. In an attempt to garner his support, she wrestled an alligator in a Happy Gilmore parody video, which can be seen on YouTube; created a tutorial on “How to Get in Touch with Adam Sandler”; and recorded a parody of her own new song, “Intangible Things.”

The videos showcase Turner’s spirited side, one that may not have been recognizable from the vulnerable storytelling displayed on her debut LP in from the dark, which was released early 2020. (See jewishindependent.ca/find-comfort-in-music.) It was recorded at Monarch Studios with Juno-nominated producer and musician Tom Dobrzanski (Said the Whale, the Zolas). Her 2011 EP, Ready or Not, was produced by Ben Kaplan (Mother Mother, Five Alarm Funk).

It may take a miracle to get Sandler’s attention but, as Chanukah shows us, miracles do happen.

To hear “Intangible Things” once it’s released, as well as its parody and the Happy Gilmore video, visit facebook.com/haleykmusic.

– Courtesy Haley K. Turner