As Rosh Hashanah begins Wednesday night, The Afro-Semitic Experience brings a twist to traditional music associated with the holiday. The band's latest album, Further Definitions of the Days of Awe, fuses Jewish liturgical music with jazz and Afro-centric rhythms. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with founder, composer and bassist David Chevan, as well as drummer Alvin Carter Junior.
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JACKI LYDEN, host: Tonight marks the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The holiday is celebrated with many traditions, including eating apples and honey for a sweet year to come, the blowing of a ram's horn as a kind of spiritual awakening. And there are the sacred melodies Jews use on High Holy Day.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ASHREI")
JACK MENDELSON: (Singing in foreign language)
LYDEN: Jews call the days leading up to and just after the New Year the Days of Awe, a time of renewal and refreshment.
This is music from the new album called "Further Definitions of the Days of Awe" from the group known as the Afro-Semitic Experience. The band is made up of Jewish and African-American members and features Jewish liturgical music infused with jazz and the Afro-beat.
And joining us to talk about this is the band's founder, composer and bassist, David Chevan, and the group's drummer, Alvin Carter Junior. Welcome to the program, both of you.
ALVIN CARTER JUNIOR: Thank you.
DAVID CHEVAN: Thank you.
LYDEN: This is a fusion that I would not have suspected. David, tell us a little bit about what we're hearing. What is this album?
CHEVAN: Well, this is a collaboration between the band and four Jewish cantors and it comes out of the fact that we spent quite a bit of time at the synagogue of Cantor Jack Mendelson in White Plains, New York, playing with him for the S'lihot service, for the midnight service that comes just before Rosh Hashanah.
LYDEN: So this is who we hear singing is Cantor Jack Mendelson?
CHEVAN: That's right. That's Jack on the vocals on that piece, "Ashrei."
LYDEN: And Alvin, where is the African rhythm in here?
JUNIOR: Well, it's more the African influence. You hear the funk background between the bass and the drums.
LYDEN: So tell me a little bit, both of you. How did you guys all decide to come together? I understand you gave several concerts in different cities. How did that develop?
CHEVAN: Well, that was...
JUNIOR: How much time we got?
CHEVAN: Yeah, really.
LYDEN: We got a little.
CHEVAN: This particular project really was a chance for us to give three concerts of this particular High Holy Day material with the cantors. It was almost a warm-up for them to get ready for the services at their synagogues and it also gave us a chance to essentially get three opportunities to do takes of each of the pieces because we recorded all three concerts and just picked the best performances from each of the three concerts.
LYDEN: You're not Jewish, Alvin, but you're enthusiastic about this work. What made you decide to be a part of the collaboration?
JUNIOR: Well, the collaboration began because of a performance we had at a casino in Connecticut. The cofounder, Mr. Warren Byrd, and David and I as a jazz trio actually had a gig at a casino and David happened to be a few minutes late this particular time. And as kind of a tongue in cheek, we played a song called "Soon and Very Soon," which is a contemporary gospel song, and we had just basically said, you know, we should add some of our liturgical music to our jazz repertoire.
And, because I'm not the type to only play one type of music, when David presented me some examples of some klezmer and some nigunim and, you know, just other types of Eastern European-influenced music, I jumped at the opportunity to infuse what it is I already knew with what it was I wanted to learn.
LYDEN: Let's listen to another clip of music from the album. This is called "Sh'ma Koleinu," which I understand means, hear our voices.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SH'MA KOLEINU")
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in foreign language)
LYDEN: David, tell us what this prayer is about.
CHEVAN: The cantor is just begging God to listen to our voices as we atone for our sins and reflect on the year that has been and it's a real plaintive cry and so much of what's going on in the singing that you hear there has that mixture of hope and mournfulness in it.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140876465/jewish-new-year-brings-new-music?ft=1&f=1016
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