Celebrate Passover to a reggae beat, mon, with new CD

SALVATORE CAPUTO
Special to Jewish News

Can there be an affinity between one of the oldest Jewish observances and the music popularized by dreadlocked Jamaicans, often associated with Rastafarianism - a mystical religion that venerates the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie as an incarnation of God on earth?

Alan Eder believes his album - subtitled "Music of the Jewish and African Diasporas for the Jewish Holiday of Passover" - answers the question with an emphatic "yes."

Although reggae is not solely Rastafarian music, Bob Marley, the music's biggest star and exponent, was. His lyrics often echoed the religion's belief in the eventual redemption of the black diaspora from oppression and the return of blacks to their African home - themes that clearly have a parallel in the story of Exodus.

When Eder organized his own first seder, Marley's lyrics resonated with him. He made a tape of music to play in the background, and it was dominated by reggae music. He titled it "Reggae Passover," but that was just the first inkling of the way he would eventually "customize" his seders.

On his "Reggae Passover," Eder collects traditional holiday songs presented in reggae and West African arrangements that evolved in his celebrations over a decade. He also includes "Go Down Moses" and a number of original tunes written in English.

"Passover is observed in the home," Eder says, "so everyone gives it a personal touch. It's not like the high holidays that are observed by 2,000 people in a temple.

"Passover is a much-more personalized holiday. Some families have customized haggadahs. Others customize the celebration with foods or procedures, according to their interests and tastes, so it's not so unusual that I've customized my observance with renditions that come from my own musical interest."

Eder is a Fulbright Scholar in African music, and the seeds of his project were planted more than a decade ago, after he returned from a trip to West Africa on the scholarship.

"I've been involved in traditional West African drumming and reggae for 20 years," Eder said in a telephone interview from his home in Valencia, Calif. "When I returned from a trip to West Africa in 1984, I was attending a family seder, and when someone would sing a traditional (Passover) song, I would be hearing this Rastafarian drum beat.

"So I said, 'Hmm. Next year, I'll bring a hand drum to the seder.' "

As he became more deeply involved in his family seders and in reggae and African music, the blend he began to hear in his head included bass lines and eventually full-blown arrangements.

"I had no thought of making a record," he says, adding that he only wanted to enhance his seders. Others who attended, though, eventually asked him to make a tape of some of his arrangements.

As demand for the tapes grew, Eder says, "I realized I didn't know where these were going, but there was obviously some trickle of interest from the Jewish community at large."

A friend of a friend knew someone at media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. and asked Eder for a demo tape of his reggae-rap version of "Daiyenu." There was quite a bit of interest, but since Eder didn't want to compromise the Jewish content of the album, there was no deal. The market was too small for a big-time effort.

But not so for an independent effort that recognizes this is not a record that will sell in huge numbers, but one that will build sales from word-of-mouth steadily each holiday season.

"Passover has been around for 3,300 years, and it's likely it's going to be around for another 3,300 years," Eder says, so he's not worried about selling all his copies this year.

He emphasizes that before the Time Warner overture, he had no thought of making a record, but the near-miss spurred him to make the record on his own. He assembled a group that included Jewish cantors, reggae performers, and Ghanaian and Nigerian percussionists, and then let the spirit carry them.

"I wasn't looking to develop a personality cult," Eder says, "but I would love to get recognition in the reggae and African-music communities and academia."

This he has.

Besides Jewish distribution by Sounds Write Productions (1-800-976-8639) and Tara Publications (1-800-827-2400), "RAS Records, a major reggae distributor, is distributing the record as an example of the broadening of the field of reggae," Eder says. In addition, the album has drawn the attention of such world-music publications as "The Beat."

Eder, with his African music mentor Kobla Ladzepko, also has been invited to present a paper titled "Reggae Passover: Members of the Jewish Diaspora Share the Bread of Affliction and the Celebration of Exodus in Song With Members of the African Diaspora" to an African-music conference at the University of Michigan in April.

But Eder emphasizes that although crossing over to other audiences is appealing and potentially profitable, that's not his central goal.

"My mission is to enhance the observance of Passover at the seder table," he says firmly.