world music

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.

Khazzoom has new EP

The cover of Iraqis in Pajamas’ new album, Pijamama, features Loolwa Khazzooom’s grandfather, Abraham Khazzoom.

The multifaceted, multicultural and impossible-to-pigeonhole Loolwa Khazzoom is back, along with her band, Iraqis in Pajamas, with a studio-produced album, Pijamama, that was released on July 16.

The new album by the Seattle-based musician honours her mother, E.J., who passed away on July 16, 2019, and who encouraged Khazzoom to pursue her music. Khazzoom credits E.J. with demonstrating that we all have “the ability to radically transform ourselves and our relationships – and to stop the crushing boulder of intergenerational trauma – when are willing to face and go through the darkness together.”

A photo of Khazzoom’s grandfather, Abraham Khazzoom, who she describes as “the original Iraqi in pajamas,” graces the album’s cover. The band’s name, she explained, derives from an uncomplimentary reputation Iraqi expatriates had in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan for putting on their pajamas when they had arrived home and the work of the day was completed.

The EP features Khazzoom on vocals and bass, Robbie Morsehead on drums, Cali Hackmann on keyboard and backup vocals, and Alden Hackmann on guitar. The melodies and lyrics were written by Khazzoom. Pijamama showcases three songs.

“Mahalnu” explores the Jewish practice of asking forgiveness ahead of Yom Kippur. It then raises the question of what happens when someone asks for forgiveness, without changing their behaviour, especially in the case of violence. “What is the difference between forgiveness of you and erasure of me?” Khazzoom asks.

“The Fixer,” a declarative prayer, advocates the rejection of compensating for another person’s not doing necessary work in a relationship. The chorus, “ashir shir hadash” (“I will sing a new song”), comes from “Ezer Musarai,” an Iraqi Jewish song for Purim, which inspired Khazzoom as a child.

“Fireball” looks at being a caregiver in spite of emotional violence. The lyrics proclaim: “You can be downright vicious / Throwing a fireball / At the one who cares most about you / The one who is always there for you….”

photo - Loolwa Khazzoom — Loolwa Khazzoom *(photo from Iraqis in Pajamas)*

Khazzoom has had a varied career. Among other things, she has been an educator, writer and health coach, all of which share, she says, the central principle of individual and collective healing. Ultimately, Khazzoom says she “ditched her power suit and Powerpoint in favour of combat boots and cat glasses to offer bold songwriting as the catalyst for deep and heart-centred conversation.”

The connections between her diverse activities have been subjects she has long contemplated.

“I have been keenly aware of interconnectedness since I was very young, partly because I was highly sensitive and thinking about things deeply, and partly because my identities were a crisscross of those considered at odds or even at war with each other – making it obvious to me that many social constructs and divisions were false,” Khazzoom explained.

“My songs reflect this awareness – explicitly or implicitly connecting dots between things that most people don’t initially recognize as being related to each other, and inviting listeners to rethink their notions and paradigms.”

Khazzoom said she likes to play with this crisscross of identities. For example, people may react one way if she tells them she is Iraqi, and another way if she tells them she is Jewish.

“People generally like shortcuts or scripts in determining what to think about someone, instead of doing the work of getting to know someone, with all the complexity and nuance involved…. I am the same person, yet an entirely different set of assumptions are projected on to me. Standing at the intersection of identities and experiences, I can poke fun at the absurdity of it all,” she said.

Khazzoom refers to her music as “conscious rock,” a way of exploring all our emotions, especially those that allow us to be loud in a healthy way.

“As a collective, we fear intense emotions like rage and grief, and we suppress those feelings in ourselves and others, leading to astronomical levels of addiction and a host of other social and personal ills,” she said. “I believe that all of our emotions are a gift, a GPS system of sorts, pointing us in the direction of that which is true and good, and I find it tremendously liberating, healing and transformative, to express the spectrum of emotions in healthy and constructive ways.”

Khazzoom’s songs are written in English, Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew, and blend Iraqi Jewish prayers, alternative rock and personal storytelling about subjects ranging from cancer, racism and mental illness to national exile.

For more information, visit iraqisinpajamas.com. To participate in the evolution of Loolwa’s work, from poem to spoken word performance to song, go to patreon.com/khazzoom?fan_landing=true.

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

Music from around the world

Local group MNGWA helps open the World Music Festival on April 26. (photo from Vancouver World Music Festival)

The Vancouver World Music Festival celebrates cultural diversity through music, and world-class musicians from Mexico, Brazil, Africa, Spain, the United States and Canada are participating in this year’s festival, which runs April 26-29. Among them is local group MNGWA (pronounced Ming-Wah).

The festival was founded in 2014 by Tom Landa and Robin Layne, both friends and members of the band Locarno. Their belief is that music can help heal, educate and transform society, leading to better cultural understanding.

Rooted in Afro-Latin and cumbia rhythms, MNGWA mixes elements of psych rock, surf, salsa, reggae and hip-hop into one polyrhythmic pot.

“We started the band about five years ago,” band member Anton Ayzikovsky told the Independent. “Today, we have eight core members: five from the former USSR, two originally from Mexico, and one born Canadian. At first, we were nameless. Then we chose the name MNGWA. It is not an acronym. Mngwa is a mythical African cat from Tanzanian legends. Nobody ever saw it, but everyone was afraid of it.”

Descriptions on the internet compare a mngwa to a leopard, although the former is apparently much larger, the size of a donkey, with brindled grey fur and a ferocious temperament.

“Our music has African, as well as Latin rhythms, so we wanted to find a name that would emphasize that connection,” fellow band member Boris Mandlis explained. “One of our players, our music director Nick Lagasse, is a radio host on CJSF radio. Once a week, he goes on air with his program, Wandering Rhythms, selects a country and plays the native bands from that country. He suggested the name MNGWA, and we all loved it.”

The ensemble draws inspiration for their music from many and varied folk traditions. They are well known on the local festival circuit.

“We play at festivals and venues all around British Columbia,” said Ayzikovsky. “Usually, it is only during spring, summer and fall. We could have played more often, every week, if we wanted to, but, for all of us, the band and the music is a hobby, not a profession. We do it for fun. We like to see people dancing to our music.”

Professionally, Ayzikovsky is an engineer, while Mandlis is a web designer. Besides their university educations and high-tech jobs, there are other similarities between the two musicians. Both of them immigrated to Canada from Russia via Israel: Mandlis, 10 years ago; Ayzikovsky, 15. Both play percussion instruments.

“I play congas, a Latin American percussion,” Mandlis said. “I started learning it about 10 years ago, when I still lived in Israel. I played drums as a kid in Russia. As an adult, I liked listening to Latin music, especially when congas played. Finally I thought, why not learn to play it?”

Ayzikovsky started playing drums as a child in Russia. “My mom is a piano teacher, but I never wanted to play piano,” he said. “I fell in love with percussions at school and have been playing drums as an amateur with many bands over the years.”

Ayzikovsky and Mandlis met through their individual music, and the beginning of MNGWA was sparked by a strange coincidence.

“We had played together only once before that time,” Mandlis recalled. “On that day, we played for awhile, then took a break. There were seven of us and, for some reason, we decided to play this children’s game, Rock-Paper-Scissors. And we all threw scissors simultaneously. All seven of us. I’d say that showed some kindred spirits.”

The group has been together ever since, and most of their projects – new music and lyrics – are collaborations.

“Someone comes up with an idea or a tune,” Ayzikovsky explained. “Often it is Nick Lagasse. Then we jam together. Nick also writes lyrics, he or Blanca [Escobar] or some of the others.”

One of their songs on YouTube, “La Rumba de Kingsway,” is a wonderful and funny tribute to the historic Vancouver thoroughfare. It is also indicative of the group’s style, a blend of cultural influences from all over the world. “We call it cumbia, Vancouver-style,” said Mandlis.

Their unique and eclectic blend is well suited to the ideals of the World Music Festival.

“This year will be the first time we’ll participate in this festival,” said Mandlis, “but we know all the bands playing in it. We listened to them before and liked what they’re doing.”

Ayzikovsky and Mandlis also said the group believes, as do the festival organizers, that music has the power, in a small way, to bring about peaceful, needed change.

The World Music Festival takes place at different venues around Vancouver. MNGWA helps launch the event on April 26, 7 p.m., at Guilt & Co. For the full schedule and tickets, visit worldmusicfest.ca. MNGWA’s website is mngwa.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

World musicians play

Itamar Erez will perform together with Liron Man and François Houle on Sept. 11 at VCC Music Auditorium. (photo from CWR)

On Sept. 11, Itamar Erez takes to the stage with two of his “favorite musicians on earth”: Liron Man and François Houle.

Presented by Caravan World Rhythms, World Trio will take place at Vancouver Community College Music Auditorium. Just last month, Erez returned from Germany and Tunisia; he leaves for Colombia about a week and a half after the VCC concert.

“It has been busy and not always easy touring,” Erez admitted to the Independent, “but the thing is that I really enjoy sharing my music with new audiences around the world and it gives me more energy and enthusiasm to continue in my way and to create and perform.

“This year, I have played in Germany, Austria, Cyprus, India, the U.S.A., Canada, Tunisia, to name a few places. Tunisia was definitely a highlight. I played with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, the great sufi musician, in front of 6,000 people, got to visit the old city of Carthage and Sousse, and enjoyed the good Tunisian food and their warm hospitality. This summer, I also performed (with my percussionist, Yshai Afterman) at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, which was great. And, a few days later in Freiburg, we collaborated with Iranian musicians from Isfahan in a program called Face to Face – Music from Iran and Israel. It was really an amazing experience.”

Last year was also a remarkable one for Israel-born Erez, and not just for his many performances. Adding to the honors he has received over the years for his work, he garnered the 2014 ACUM and Landau prizes for special achievement in jazz.

Erez has two CDs with the Adama Ensemble – Desert Song (2006) and Hommage (2010) – and one with Afterman, New Dawn (2013). About his work with Afterman, a fellow Israeli, he said, “This duet has been working since 2011 and is touring extensively in Europe and Asia. We are very proud of this CD – in a duet setting, there is a lot of freedom to each musician, but at the same time you cannot hide behind other musicians. There is a lot more responsibility to each of us, so it is very challenging.

“Antonio Serrano, master of the harmonica, who collaborated for a long time with Paco De Lucía, until his [De Lucía’s] recent death, is a special guest on this album and can be heard in two tracks,” added Erez, who is currently working on new material for an upcoming CD.

Erez (piano and guitar) will be joined by Man (handpan and percussion) and Houle (clarinet) at VCC.

“I have known François for a long time,” said Erez. “He premièred some of my music when I lived in Vancouver at the end of the ’90s. I was always impressed by his creativity and musical skills but we never got to collaborate together until now. François is a musician who can play anything, in any style, and always keep his own unique voice.

“Liron is a good friend and a brilliant musician,” he continued. “We started together the Lavo Ensemble in Israel about two years ago and toured there. Liron is one of the best handpan (known also as Pantam or Hang) player in the world, and a great flamenco guitarist. His energy for making music is really contagious.”

Since this past July, Erez once again calls Vancouver home. When he returns from Colombia, where he will play with the Lavo Ensemble, he will have a solo guitar set at West Coast Guitar Night on Oct. 17 at the Cultch. “I will also be teaching at the VSO School of Music starting this fall,” he noted.

Now that he has moved back, there will hopefully be many more opportunities to hear him play.

VCC Music Auditorium is at 1155 East Broadway St. Tickets for the Sept. 11, 8 p.m., concert are $20/$30 in advance from caravanbc.com or 1-800-838-3006, and $25/$35 at the door (students receive a $5 discount).

Constant musical evolution

Babe Gurr’s Butchart Gardens Summer Festival concert on July 24 is the first of several in July/August. (photo from Babe Gurr)

Musician Babe Gurr has a busy summer ahead with concerts at Butchart Gardens Summer Festival, Islands Folk Festival, Harmony Arts Festival and as part of the PNE’s Mosaic Concert Series.

The multiple-award-winning singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer is well-known to many in the Jewish community, having performed at Rothstein Theatre and in the Chutzpah! Festival a number of times, including opening for Idan Raichel last year. Her most recent CD is Hearts Up to the Sun, which has earned deserved praise. On her website, Capilano University’s Gary Cristall – who, among many other career milestones, was a co-founder of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival – describes Hearts: “Musically, it is as hot as Louisiana hot sauce and the horn arrangements sound like they might well have come from there. Babe’s voice is sounding as good or better than ever. The band is great. But the songs … wow! The songs mark a step forward. They are even better than the ones she won awards for with her last release, SideDish.”

The Jewish Independent recently interviewed Gurr about her work and its beginnings.’

JI: I understand that it wasn’t until you were in your 20s that you joined a band and set off on a musical path. How did you end up joining a band, and what type of band was it? What were you doing (or planning on doing) as a job/career at the time?

BG: I joined my first band when I was 25 and it was a jazz/pop band, which was very stupid and daring of me as I knew nothing of jazz music other than what I heard of my parents’ album collection. I was living in Victoria at the time and working as a dental assistant, which never really fit as a job for me, but when I graduated high school, my parents didn’t think music could or would ever be an option and so steered me toward something respectable like working with teeth. Nothing against teeth – we all have and need them but, ugh, not for me. I really wanted to be involved with music and so I auditioned for this jazz/pop band and, amazingly, they took me under their wing and taught me the ropes of being in a band and, on the side, the lead guitar player, Dave English, would give me lessons on how to play the jazz chords on the guitar. Later on, I also started to sing and joined various bands over the years, playing rock, jazz, folk and top 40, before I started to write my own music.

JI: What was it about music that made you so passionate about it that you wanted to create it and try to make a living at it?

BG: That is a hard thing to put a finger on. I knew from a very young age I liked music and would lay on the floor with my head near my parents’ stereo speakers listening intently to the music. But I guess the pivotal point was seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show when I was a little girl – I just was completely wowed!

JI: You released Hearts Up to the Sun earlier this year, your fifth CD, I believe. How would you say your music/style has changed/evolved since your first recording?

BG: My music is a mash up of so many genres these days, pop, roots, blues, rock, world and a hint of jazz. I guess that is the result of the freedom one has when you are an independent artist and you have been around awhile, you just stop worrying about fitting in and create what you like, and then hope that you still have an audience for it.

JI: Do you have a specific creative process? If so, could you share how, in general, an idea becomes a song?

BG: I am fascinated by how a song will come to me – not that they are brilliant or complex but, still, it is a strange process, creativity. The music comes as a result of noodling on my guitar until I find something I like and the lyrics can be inspired by so many sources, some personal and others influenced by all that is happening around me.

JI: Could you tell me a bit about your band, how you guys got together, how long you’ve been playing together?

BG: I love the guys I play with, whether it is my three-piece or eight-piece band, they are all such talented players and so fun to work with. I have been playing with Nick Apivor, percussion/piano, for many years – I think we started to play in a duo in the late 1800s; actually, we met in our 20s. Then, I guess, violinist Tom Neville has been with me for about 10 or 12 years. The newer additions to the band are sax player Steve Hilliam, Malcolm Aiken on trumpet, Liam MacDonald on drums, Adam Popowitz on lead guitar and Darren Parris on bass.

JI: Are there any projects on which you’re currently working that you’d like to share with readers?

BG: There is a really interesting project that I will be involved with and we will be starting to workshop this summer, that puts together various dancers with a variety of musicians, but I am not able to talk about it yet – mum’s the word, for now.

JI: If there is anything else you’d like to add, please do.

BG: Another hat I like to wear is that of a record producer and I have been lucky enough to have produced a number of talented singers’ CDs along with my own. It probably is my favorite thing to do in the music business. I compare it to a painter who sits with a blank canvas with an idea and then takes that idea and expands and enhances it with colors and strokes or, in the musical sense, arrangements and various instruments and sounds. It is so exciting to hear a song come to life in the studio.

For information on Babe Gurr’s upcoming shows, visit babegurr.com.