May 20, 2019
(JNS.org) — Most Americans, unless they’re Jewish or into Israeli geopolitics, probably don’t know or care that the Eurovision just took place in Tel Aviv. For those who don’t cross American cultural borders, Eurovision could best be explained as “European Idol,” the “Super Bowl” of song contests in which European and honorary European countries send their pseudo-best to represent their country. The winner is chosen by a point system combining...
March 07, 2019
By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN
NEW YORK (JTA) — Neshama Carlebach says she is figuring out how “to both love and not love” her father.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, a spiritual leader and musician whose soulful melodies penetrated the hearts of people across the religious spectrum, is the man who made her into who she is today. A singer and composer in her own right, Neshama, 44, first shared a stage with him at...
March 01, 2019
André Previn, the jazz and classical artist and conductor and award-winning film composer, died at his home in Manhattan on Thursday, February 28. He was 89.
Previn, whose Jewish parents fled the Nazis from his birthplace of Berlin, first lived in Paris for a year in 1938 before emigrating to the United States. His great uncle was the music director of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, where the family settled.
...
February 17, 2019
By STEPHEN SILVER
(JTA) — Since the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, there have been quite a few rock stars with Jewish heritage. To name a few: Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Gene Simmons, Lenny Kravitz, Geddy Lee and — depending on the decade — Bob Dylan.
But how many have openly gushed about their synagogue, their sons’ bar mitzvahs and their favorite rabbis?
In 2013, Jeff Tweedy — the longtime...
January 20, 2019
Noted musicolgist and lecturer George Dansker will be presenting his annual lecture on Jewish composers next Friday evening, January 25, at Touro Synaogogue and this year it’s on Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, the composer-lyricist team responsible for Broadway box office winners “Brigadoon,” “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.”
Titled “The Night They Invented Champagne,” a song written for the film “Gigi” (later reworked as a Broadway musical), Dansker will...
December 26, 2018
Musician, singer and composer Gary Negbaur, who hails from New York, but has found affinity with New Orleans rhythm and blues, jazz and blues, returns to New Orleans over the course of the next week with a series of solo gigs.
The Columns Hotel, 3811 St. Charles Avenue, is the setting for his first two nights of performances, beginning on Thursday and Friday, December 27-28, from 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.
He...
December 02, 2018
(JTA) — William Shatner recently released a star-studded holiday album titled “Shatner Claus,” on which he croons classic Christmas tunes as “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Silent Night.”
But there are no Chanukah songs on it, and the Jewish icon is having regrets about that.
“I was going to do ‘Dreidel, Dreidel,’ then I thought better of it … I mean, I should have, maybe,” Shatner said in the upcoming PBS...
October 04, 2018
(JTA) — Marty Balin, the co-founder of the iconic 1960s psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, has died in Tampa, Florida, of unspecified causes. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was 76.
Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald to Jewish parents in Cincinnati in 1942, Balin was one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane and a member of its successor band, Jefferson Starship, which played such famous hits as “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”...
September 13, 2018
By DEAN M. SHAPIRO, Special to the CCJN
Perfectly timed to coincide with the Jewish High Holy Days, the nine-member, New Orleans-based chamber music ensemble, Musaica, is presenting two evening programs highlighting selected works of Jewish and Jewish-influenced composers.
On Monday, September 17, Musaica will open its 2018-19 season with a program titled “Creation du Monde,” taking its name from a Darius Milhaud composition they will be performing that evening...
September 09, 2018
(JTA) — Rapper Mac Miller was found dead of an apparent drug overdose on Friday, TMZ reported.
The 26-year-old struggled with substance abuse for years, including during a high-profile relationship with pop star Ariana Grande.
According to TMZ, Miller was found by police at his home in California’s San Fernando Valley, and pronounced dead at the scene. He was about to start a concert tour next month.
Miller was born...
