Saturday Source of Good Vibes

[jazzy_dave]

Right, you loving people, some cool grooves for ya earlobes -

Maurice Ravel - Deux mélodies hébraïques, M. A22 - 1. Kaddisch

Ravel: Deux mélodies hébraïques, M. A22 - 1. Kaddisch (Transcr. For Cello And Orchestra By Richard Tognetti) · Camille Thomas · Brussels Philharmonic · Mathieu Herzog
Ravel: Deux mélodies hébraïques, M. A22: 1. Kaddisch (Transcr. For Cello And Orchestra By Richard Tognetti)
2020 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin

Towering Inferno - The Rose (featuring Marta Sebestyen)

Towering Inferno's Kaddish has slowly gathered acclaim as one of the most interesting rock-influenced experimental recordings of the mid-'90s; Brian Eno, for instance, has referred to it as the most frightening record he's ever heard. Towering Inferno are the British duo of Richard Wolfson and Andy Saunders, who are principally responsible for the composition of Kaddish (with some additional material from other sources), and also for much of the programming, keyboards, and guitars. British prog-rock vets Elton Dean and John Marshall (ex-Soft Machine) and Chris Cutler, as well as Hungarian folk singer Marta Sebestyen, also add important contributions to this 75-minute concept album of sorts, inspired by the horrors of the Holocaust. Rabbinical chants, hard rock/heavy metal guitar, ambient synthesizer, and Eastern European folk singing are all elements of an ambitious palette which gets its disturbing message across without sounding pedantic. Wolfson and Saunders have presented Kaddish as a mixed-media performance as well; originally released in 1994, it was picked up by Island for larger distribution, and issued in the U.S. in 1996. Wolfson and Saunders have something quite different in mind for their next project, which they described in the British magazine Record Collector as "a light-hearted, fun, post-rave kind of B-movie affair.

The ostensible subject matter of "Kaddish" -- the Holocaust -- is in fact just the building material with which this collage was constructed. It is not so much ABOUT the Holocaust as it is an auditory artwork which stands alone. It helps of course to appreciate the gravity of some of the source material, but I don't agree with Amazon's contention that a libretto would be advantageous. Quite the opposite, I think it would limit the listeners' interpretations.

Wolfson (R.I.P.) and Saunders utilize several styles of music (rock, jazz, liturgical, folk, deep space electronics) as well as recordings of Nazi and Jewish speakers, crowd noises and various other sounds. The term "collage" isn't really appropriate I guess, because "Kaddish" is arranged into a series of musical vignettes, many with no sound effects over the top at all. It is this wide-ranging, unclassifiable character which makes "Kaddish" so difficult to pigeonhole, or summarize, or remember clearly. It is also what makes it endlessly fascinating.

East-German composer Georg Katzer made a collage in 1983 entitled "Aide Memoire" which contrasted Hitler's speeches and Reichstag rhetoric with Jewish folk music and popular music of the 1930s.




This Mortal Coil - Song to the Siren

Erykah Badu - Bag Lady

Kamasi Washington - Clair de Lune

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PEACE AND LOVE

Jazzy D