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From Harlem
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LISA SAMIN

Special to The Jewish News

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A

t age 43, Steve Peskoff has
experienced a spiritual and
musical journey which has
led him to an observant
lifestyle inJerusalein and recognition
as an accomplished player in Israel's
emerging jazz scene.
Born in Brooklyn in the late '50s,
Mr. Peskoff spent his teen-age years
influenced by the '60s " C
- ultural revo-
lution" and the dichotomy of coming
from a non-religious family while
going to an Orthodox Hebrew school.
Growing up in Queens, Mr. Peskoff
taught himself to play the guitar and
during his college years spent more
time playing in Greenwich Village
nightclubs than in attending classes.
His spiritual quest ran the gamut of
eastern religions and meditation. Until
his best friend got married.
"I was at this very religious wed-
ding," says Mr. Peskoff, "and all of a
sudden this respected rabbi was danc-
ing in the middle of a circle with a
guy in a chicken suit. The enormity of
going from such solemnity to pure
enjoyment really appealed to me."
As a result, while playing his gigs in
New York, Mr. Peskoff attended a
yeshiva on the Lower East Side.
However, finding a balance between
observing Shabbat and supporting
himself with his music was near
impossible. "For a while I thought of
myself as observant, just without fully
keeping Shabbat."
With his pale skin, lean frame and
gold-rimmed glasses, Mr. Peskoff start-
ed making a name for himself in jazz.
Accepted by Harlem's Cooky Little, he
played in his Godson of Soul Band,
wearing a yarmulke on his head.
"Everyone thought it was just another
fashion style. They cared more about
my soul playing than my religion."
Playing in Harlem influenced Steve
Peskoff's jazz style and made him
aware of the importance of the indi-
vidual in jazz music. "The history of
jazz was always about the history of
the individual."
During his 20s, Mr. Peskoff
played off Broadway with Meryl
Streep and performed a number of
concerts in the United States and
Western and Eastern Europe. One of
his most memorable concerts was in
Leipzig when it was till under
Communist rule.
However, it wasn't until Mr. Peskoff

Lisa Samin writes for World Zionist

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met his future wife, Andrea Litt, that
)
Israel became a reality in his life. "I
was poor, romantic and absorbed by
my music," recalls Mr. Peskoff nostal-
gically. But when he met Andrea, an `--\
aspiring actress (who had already
made aliyah to Jerusalem), while she
was - on a visit to New York, they fell
in love. After doing a major
European tour, he made a detour to
visit her in Israel.
"Two days later I asked her to
marry me," Mr. Peskoff says. As a
wedding present, he told her he
would try living in Jerusalem. "For
2,000 years my people yearned for
Jerusalem. I thought there must be
something to it," says Mr. Peskoff
with a glint of humor in his eyes.
Ten years and three children later,
Steve Peskoff is still there, calling
himself an Israeli and whipped into
religious indignation when he
remembers the Gulf War and Saddam lj \
Hussein's threat to Israel's existence.
Chuckling, he says, "Then, I felt like
a Zionist.

"

Leading an Israeli
jazz scene.

When he first arrived, Mr. Peskoff
recalls jazz was a foreign import.
There were very few jazz musicians
and even fewer new immigrants
involved in it. "Israeli musicians are
very conservative," notes Mr. Peskoff.
"They are idiomatic, not personal."
Jazz, according to Mr. Peskoff, has a
different aesthetic orientation. It is
music from the soul.
Steve Peskoff has seen the emer-
gence of jazz in Israel, which is
reflected in his career. He now teach-
es jazz at Jerusalem's prestigious
Rubin Academy of Music and at the
Ramon School of Music in Ramat
HaSharon, which is linked with the
esteemed Berkeley School of Music in
Boston. He has participated in the
internationally recognized Eilat Jazz
Festival, which attracts world-famous
jazz musicians, the Israel Festival, the
Cinematheque's Jazz Festival and a
myriad of other festivals in Israel and
Europe.
Mr. Peskoff sees the biggest changes'
in his students. Whereas once Israelis
were less secure about their cultural
individuality and did a lot of imitat-
ing, today's students, who are very tal-
ented, are more secure to experiment
and find their own style.

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