Local artists draw on their ethnic roots
SALVATORE CAPUTO
Special to Jewish News
In "The Jazz Singer," a young Jewish man chooses to sing secular music and earns the scorn of his cantor father. The 1927 movie, loosely based on the life story of its star, Al Jolson, dealt directly with the question of how to be a Jew in a non-Jewish culture. It was a big hit with Jews and non-Jews alike.
Tin Pan Alley (New York's songwriting district) produced "tons and tons of stuff" that was similar to "The Jazz Singer," says Jack Kugelmass, director of Jewish studies at Arizona State University, so those who assert their Jewish identities in the modern pop-music arena aren't doing much that's new.
However, Kugelmass does believe that mainstream acceptance of Jewish culture and entertainment is different today than it was 70 years ago.
"There is something in the air called 'multiculturalism.' It's a response to black liberation, women's liberation, and gay liberation movements." Thus, non-Jews have an appetite for klezmer and the ethnic disco of Ofra Haza as part of an increasingly diverse menu of music from around the globe.
"People are much more accepting today," says Steve Strauss, a percussionist with the Azz Izz Band, a popular Valley group that plays a polyglot of sounds derived from Caribbean and world music. "I, myself, like every kind of music, as long as it's done well... One of my favorite bands is the Klezmer All-Stars."
Strauss, whose father was a jazz singer who worked as a cantor on the side, says his band's approach is instinctive, so some of his ethnic musical background definitely works its way into the music.
"If I had a gospel background, then there'd be more of a gospel influence," he says.
His ethnicity comes to bear most heavily when Azz Izz works a Jewish wedding, which always requires some "Jewish soul music."
Drummer Jay Busch, who heads up Viva Jazz and a number of other bands around town, has had similar experiences.
Busch, who playfully describes himself as a Jewish Buddhist Humanist hedonist, says, "If we get called for a bar mitzvah or a Jewish event, people ask you when they call you, 'Do you do any Jewish?,' which means, 'Do you do any klezmer?,' and specifically, 'Do you do any of the classic horas?' And, yes, of course, we do all that stuff.
"But am I using Jewish themes in music myself? No. Other than bringing my Jewish soul to bear on the grooves, which is akin to my very Humanist, Buddhist, hedonist soul."
Yet Jewish musical references aren't the only way a musician can display a Jewish soul. Vocalist Laura Fial of the Rockin' Docs, a group of Valley doctors who play music on the side, says that because the Rockin' Docs play benefits for a good number of charities, the United Jewish Appeal sent her a letter describing the band's work as a mitzvah (good deed).
Half of the eight-member-band is Jewish. They play mostly rock-and-roll oldies.
"I was raised this way - you give to unfortunate people," Fial says. "I had a little boy call me to ask if he could help us by putting up posters, stuffing envelopes or anything else we wanted.
"He wanted to make it his mitzvah project for his bar mitzvah."
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