Puttyovat ileavi - on a !Mee

f opt Swe e test Day

Let There. Be 'Light'

Forget those Christmas albums from Neil Diamond.
The first-ever pop-oriented Chanukah album is here.

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imply put, it's about time.
Every fall, dozens of new
Christmas albums flood the
record stores. Everyone from
the Chipmunks to the Flintstones
to cast members of "Star Trek"
weigh in on "Jingle Bells" or
"Frosty the Snowman" or "Silent
Night."

60

with the

EBRATION CONNE0
DIRECTORY
in our Classified Section

And the most successful Christ-
mas albums? They've been record-
ed by Jews — Neil Diamond,
Barry Manilow, Kenny G.
`They're some of the most beau-
tiful songs of all time," Diamond
once said, explaining why he
recorded not one but two Christ-
mas albums. So why not a
Chanukah album? "Those songs
aren't as musical, I think," Dia-
mond says. "They're just not as
melodic, maybe, as universal or
accessible."
Now there's a new album that
says — in essence — "Bunk."
Festival of Lights, the first pop-
oriented Chanukah album, is the
brainchild of Robert Duskis and
Pat Berry, two former executives
from the New Age music label
Windham Hill who left to form
their own company, Six Degrees.
The pair wanted a distinctive,first
release, and their experience with
holiday albums at Windham Hill
gave them an idea.
"We wanted to do something
that no one had really done before,
somewhat of a modem take on the
Chanukah holiday," Duskis ex-
plains. "It kind of blew our minds
that no one had done it, but we
dug into the marketplace a little
bit and found there was a gaping
void.
"Most of the Chanukah projects
that are out are very marginal-
ized, ghettoized. They're either
very traditional or very hokey."
Duskis and Berry envisioned

Gary Graff is the editor of the new
book MusicHound Rock: The
Essential Album Guide (Visible
Ink Press, $24.95).

something more contemporary with fellow singer-songwriter
and cutting edge, and that's what Shawn Colvin. Raised in subur-
they've achieved. The music on ban New York, Leventhal was the
Festival of Light is sophisticated son of a Catholic mother and a
and modem, often leaning toward Jewish father who grew up in a
the ethereal. "It has a lot of Jew- Yiddish speaking home but nev-
ishness about it, in a worldly way," er passed his religious traditions
says singer-songwriter David on to Leventhal and his sister.
"I had a definite sense of my
Broza, who contributed his first-
ever duet with good friend Peter secular Jewish identity thanks to
Himmelman, "Lighting Up the my dad," Leventhal says. "We
were brought up neither Catholic
World."
Also on the album are a per- nor Jewish, but we celebrated
sonalized arrangement of "Rock Christmas. There was a Christ-
of Ages — Ma'oz Tzur" by Marc mas tree, never a menorah.
'In my father's later years, I re-
Cohn and performances by the
Klezmatics, singer-songwriter- ally sensed a feeling of loss and re-
producer John Leventhal and The gret he hadn't involved us more
Covenant, a group that mixes tra- in the traditions."
So Leventhal composed the
ditional cantonal music with mod-
em rhythms.
The album also in-
cludes contributions
by non-Jewish per-
formers, including
Canadian songstress
Jane Siberry singing
"Shir Amami," jazz
star Don Byron play-
ing "Oi Tata" and
John McCutcheon in-
terpreting "Erev Shel
Shoshanim."
'We purposely went Peter Himmelman,
for this diversity, this above, teams up
eclecticism," explains with his good friend
David Broza, right,
Duskis, 36.
in their first-ever
"The really impor- duet,
"Lighting Up
tant issue with this the World," on Six
record from the very Degrees' new
beginning was 'Don't Chanukah release,
ghettoize this record.
Festival of Light
This is a record for
everybody.' That's why
we went out of our way to make a song "1902" — named for the year
record that didn't have Dreidel, his father came to the United
States — "for all those missed
Dreidel' or 'Oh, Chanukah."
Broza — who performs a con- Chanukahs, and for the ones he
cert of Chanukah and Jewish mu- had on the Lower East Side."
Duskis also hopes to have an-
sic each Christmas Eve at the
Town Hall in Manhattan — says other Chanukah album in the fu-
that in writing "Lighting Up the ture. This time, Duskis explains,
World," he and Himmelman also he and co-producer Bob Appel
sought to create a song that shied away from some of the big-
"wasn't for Jewish ears only. This ger Jewish rock names — such as
definitely is a Chanukah album, Bob Dylan or Paul Simon —
but I think these are nondenom- whose involvement would require
inational songs. The idea of light- the approval of their labels, a
time-consuming process.
ing things up fits everything."
"Hopefully, they'll hear this and
The album did have a galva-
nizing effect on some of the musi- want to be on the next one,"
cians who contributed songs. Duskis says. ❑
Duskis says Cohn was in the
Festival of Light was released
midst of reconnecting with his
on Oct. 8. Check your local book
Jewishness. "He said to me, 'I
or record store, or to order by
don't think it's an accident you
mail, call Tara Publications,
called me at this time,' " Duskis
(800) TARA 400. CDs are
remembers.
$17.98 and cassettes are $10.98,
Ditto for John Leventhal, who's
plus shipping and handling.
best known for his collaborations