Debbie
Friedman
Contemporary Jewish Music
$22/advance,
$25/door, Under 17/$15
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Havurah Shir Hadash, 185 N. Mountain, Ashland
Thursday, March 25, 2010 • 8PM
Partial Benefit for Havurah
Shir Hadash
For more than 3 decades, Debbie Friedman has given the world
music that is transformative; offering joy and comfort, hope
and faith, healing and inspiration.
Debbie is one of the best-selling artists of contemporary Jewish
music, having recorded 20 albums, which have sold well over 200,000
copies. Her tapes and CDs for children, which teach Hebrew concepts
and the holidays, are known by youngsters nationwide; Barney,
the purple dinosaur, has performed her "Alef Bet" song
on TV. In 1998, the Forward named her as one of the hundred most
influential American Jews.
Debbie's pleasing folk-style settings of the V'ahavta (a prayer
that is part of the Shema), the Mi Sheberach (a prayer for the
ill), and many other prayers are singer-friendly, allowing for
more interactive worship. "My objective is to involve people
in the experience," she says. "I try to make prayer
user friendly. Because the music is in a familiar genre, people
are able to make the connection between the music and the text.
The real power is in the poetry of the liturgy, how moving and
stirring it can be, connecting us to our deepest and most precious
ideas, hopes, and fears."
The music comes from many sources, ranging from Judy Collins
to the late Qwaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Anything her
ear processes could turn into a melodic idea for a song. "What
I do is respond to text," Debbie says. "A rabbi friend
of mine calls my music musical midrash." [A midrash is a
creative analysis of text, often through storytelling or parable.] "It's
an interesting way to look at what I do."
In 1995, Debbie achieved a career watershed, selling out Carnegie
Hall in celebration of her 25th year as a performer and releasing
a two-record set of the event. In 1998, she recorded a pop album
titled It's You, produced for Sounds Write Productions by the
music director of The Manhattan Transfer. In 1999, Hallmark released
a line of greeting cards, the "Tree of Life" collection,
based on her lyrics, with five cards for Rosh Hashanah, five
for Hanukkah, and two for Passover. Debbie Friedman's work is
a testament to her passion for "bringing people together" and
the power of community united in song.
On her new album, As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit — The
Morning Prayers, Friedman sings the sequence of prayers that
form the Shacharit service, a “horizontal” link between
Jewish worshipers in a communal setting, and a “vertical” connection “with
those who stood in silence, whispering, singing, sobbing, hoping
with these very words for the past 2,000 years, and with Jews
who will stand, whispering and singing for the rest of time,” Friedman
and accompanist Joe Septimus explain in the liner notes.
For more information, visit www.debbiefriedman.com. |
