{"id":33254,"date":"2019-09-20T03:56:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T10:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=33254"},"modified":"2019-09-17T16:01:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T23:01:40","slug":"much-going-on-for-songwriter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/09\/20\/much-going-on-for-songwriter\/","title":{"rendered":"Much going on for songwriter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harriet Frost performs at Jacob\u2019s Ladder Festival in Israel last May. (photo from Harriet Frost)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How best to describe Harriet Frost\u2019s music? \u201cImpressionistic poetry, witty wordplay, music that is intimate and universal,\u201d is what CBC Radio had to say. \u201cFolk rock with a jazz funk twist,\u201d read another recent write-up ahead of a performance at the renowned Jacob\u2019s Ladder Festival in Israel this May.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy music explores personal, topical, political and spiritual landscapes. They can be humorous, joyful, painful, ironic, beautiful and not so beautiful. It\u2019s poetry, folk, jazz, rock, spoken word, ancient and postmodern,\u201d she says in her own words.<\/p>\n

What is not open to interpretation is that the Vancouver singer, songwriter and musician has had a busy spring and summer. In addition to her Israeli performance, she has been organizing local house concerts in town and working on a new album.<\/p>\n

Music is an integral part of what she does outside of being on stage or in a studio, as well. Her work at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital has shown the therapeutic effects music has on people regardless of their age. \u201cYou can reach people, even those in deep states of dementia, through music,\u201d she said. Frost also teaches Judaic studies, trains youth and adults to chant from Torah, and has been exploring cantorial music.<\/p>\n

The Israel connection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s Ladder is more than a music festival to Frost \u2013 it is the title of a song she wrote and dedicated to her father, who escaped Nazi Germany for Palestine in 1939. He witnessed the birth of the Israeli state in his decade living there. The song is featured in the Lucy McCauly documentary film Facing the Nazi Era<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Canada ultimately became home for the Frost family, yet the connection with Israel remained. When it was time for university, Harriet chose four years at Hebrew University in Jerusalem \u2013 a student by day and a musician playing in the caf\u00e9s at night. She was the musical director of the groundbreaking theatre troupe, the Gypsies, made up of Palestinian, Israeli and North American artists who performed peace-themed musicals for Israeli and Palestinian youth. Her personal musical biography is so resonant with Israeli content that when a friend told her last year about Jacob\u2019s Ladder and urged her to look into it, she couldn\u2019t resist. The invitation from its organizers came a few months later.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1976, Jacob\u2019s Ladder is the longest and most established music festival in Israel, featuring a wide selection of folk genres and international music presented each spring and fall. Located in the north, on the Sea of Galilee, Frost said her first feeling upon arrival was like being at the Vancouver Folk Festival at Jericho Beach Park, due to the proximity to the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 45 degrees,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI had no idea what to expect. When I was first introduced as a Vancouverite and the only Canadian performing at the festival this year, people started cheering. It was so welcoming and fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She played in an air-conditioned 250-seat hall filled to capacity with an audience comprised of Americans, Israelis, Europeans, Canadians and fellow musicians \u201cof all ages,\u201d she said, \u201cteenagers, families with kids, millennials, a full arc of generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Ginosar Kibbutz and Hotel, which hosts the famous event, she met numerous performers who had come to the festival and were playing music in the hotel lobby between their own sets. It was an extraordinary opportunity to connect with some of the country\u2019s most notable folk musicians, she said.<\/p>\n

Concerts and album<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through November and beyond, along with other venues, Frost is organizing a series of house concerts, given the positive response to one she held in April in advance of her Jacob\u2019s Ladder appearance. As the name suggests these are concerts hosted in someone\u2019s home, where, according to Frost, \u201cmusicians have an opportunity to present their original material in a concert situation, unlike in a caf\u00e9 or club where folks may be eating, drinking and socializing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an intimate concert vibe that is created in the home. You have the freedom to play a full night\u2019s worth of material and really connect with a small audience (between 30 and 50). People attend specifically to listen to new music.\u201d Currently, Frost has been collaborating at these concerts with Vancouver multi-instrumentalist Martin Gotfrit.<\/p>\n

And a new album is in the works. Working title: Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For more information about the album and upcoming concerts, visit harrietfrost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/strong> has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harriet Frost performs at Jacob\u2019s Ladder Festival in Israel last May. (photo from Harriet Frost) How best to describe Harriet Frost\u2019s music? \u201cImpressionistic poetry, witty wordplay, music that is intimate and universal,\u201d is what CBC Radio had to say. \u201cFolk rock with a jazz funk twist,\u201d read another recent write-up ahead of a performance at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[788],"tags":[3164,4330,3510],"class_list":["post-33254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-harriet-frost","tag-israel","tag-jacobs-ladder"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}