eIN Entertainment
Generation To Generati on
Nearly 40 years ago at Temple Israel, Karl Haas planted the musical seed in his son Jeff. Today, Jeff Haas'
Jewish roots have inspired many of the songs on his new album, L'Dor Va Dor.
GARY GRAFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Pianist Jeff Haas will
perform with his group at the
Community Singles Shabbat
at Temple Shir Shalom, 8
p.m. Friday, Dec. 20.
Karl Haas, who fled Nazi Germany in 1936, was the Temple Israel
organist for 25 years. Since 1959, he's been the host of the
syndicated educational music radio program "Adventures in Good
Music," which is heard on more than 200 stations worldwide.
eff Haas' new al-
bum, L'Dor Va
L-
II JC-VVI ` J17
IV VV
Dor: Generation to
Generation, was
released nationwide by
Ann Arbor's Schoolkids'
Records just a few
months ago.
But the album, which
blends classical, jazz and
Judaic music traditions,
has its origin in a time
nearly four decades ago.
Its roots are in the organ
loft at the old Temple Israel building in Detroit's Palmer
Park area.
"I spent a lot of time up there," remembers Jeff, a clas-
sically trained pianist. "There was a screen in front of
the organ loft, so I felt quite privileged; I could sit be-
hind the screen and observe the sanctuary and con-
gregation without anyone seeing me.
"When I was old enough, my dad would point to the
first note of each service and let me play it. It was a very
powerful feeling for a youngster. The sanctuary held
1,200 people, so you can well imagine the power of the
organ in that kind of place.
"Without knowing it at the time, I developed a pas-
sion for-this music," adds Jeff, who now spends much
of his time developing programs for the Dennos Mu-
seum Center at Northwestern Michigan College in Tra-
verse City.
That interest was unavoidable. Jeff Haas' father is
Karl Haas, who fled Nazi Germany in 1936. He made
his name in the metro Detroit area as Temple Israel's
music director for 25 years and, since 1959, as host of
the syndicated educational music radio program "Ad-
ventures in Good Music," heard on more than 200 sta-
tions around the world, though not currently in Detroit.
Karl Haas was a musical prodigy, inspired literally
at the feet of his piano-playing mother in Speyer on the
Rhine in Germany. By age 12, he was playing organ in
the town's synagogue.
"I don't know how good it was," Karl says now, "but
people seemed to like it." And as a late teen, he had com-
posed melodies for entire Shabbat morning and evening
services.
When the Nazis took power, Karl assessed the dete-
riorating situation for Jews in Germany and jumped at
the chance- to move to the United States, sponsored by
a hometown friend, a doctor who had already moved to
the Detroit area.
Karl, who was 25 at the time, cleaned syringes
while working to bring his wife, Trudi, his sister
and brother-in-law, and his parents into the coun-
try. Karl then moved on to other work in a gar-
ment warehouse and in a men's clothing store, all
the while teaching music lessons on the side.
`Then my class grew and I was able to say 'good-
bye' to all of these jobs and devote myself entire-
ly to music — as I wanted to all my life," Karl says.
The elder Haas became a strong presence in the
Detroit classical music scene, performing recitals,
guesting with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
at the same time certainly didn't endear him to my dad."
and co-founding the Detroit Chamber Music Society,
Back in Detroit, the younger Haas soon discovered
which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
another musical influence.
"All we heard in the house was classical music," re-
"I got a summer job at the Michigan State Fair," he
members Jeff Haas.
says,
"and ended up taking tickets to the Motown Re-
But that changed during the early '60s when the fam-
vue
and
falling in love with Motown music. I remem-
ily was living in West Berlin. Karl was there on a Ford
ber
going
home after hearing that and asking my dad,
Foundation grant to assist in the reculturalization of
Where
have
we been? You didn't tell me about this mu-
the city. It was there that Jeff's older sister Alyce (now sic.'
an attorney in Birmingham) brought home a copy of
"It really got under my skin ... and that was in ad-
Live at the Five Spot by jazz greats John Coltrane and
dition to my love of jazz and classical music of Judaic
Thelonious Monk.
origin."
"I immediately fell in love with that and started ex-
But it took time before they all came together for
ploring jazz more and more on my own," Jeff says.
Jeff
Haas. He first immersed himself in studies of clas-
And Karl?
sical
theory and composition. He moved to Traverse
"My dad's a very serious and accomplished classi-
City
in
1971, leaving for a time to attend graduate
cal musician," Jeff says. "Although he sees the merit
school at Michigan State University.
and validity of other musical art forms, his focus is def-
Karl moved to New York in 1974, met and married
initely classical music."
his second wife, Maria, and continued his show "Ad-
Not that the father didn't try to embrace his son's ventures
in Good Music."
new passion. Jeff convinced Karl to take him to see
And throughout the years, the various strains of mu-
Rashaan Roland Kirk play at the Blue Note in Berlin.
"He lasted about 10 minutes," Jeff remembers with sical influences churned inside Jeff Haas' head, looking
for a way to come together in a unified expression. O
a laugh. "The fact that [Kirk] was blowing three horns