David Klein Gallery

pese„

Brad
Durham

New Paintings

harsh. But Diamond insists that because
the The Jazz Singer was made for fans,
not critics, he felt his screen debut was
secondary to passing the story's relevance
on to a new generation.
"We worked very hard to retell this
classic ... and to retell a little bit of the
Jewish experience," Diamond told the
Chicago Tribune. "The world is not
Jewish and does not understand Yiddish
or mezuzahs or yarmulkes or saying
Kaddish or any of that stuff, but I loved
the idea of getting some positive mes-
sages into the film."
The Jazz Singer soundtrack album
included the top-10 hits "Love on the
Rocks," "Hello Again" and "America," as
well as Diamond's silver-screen perform-
ance of "Kol Nidre." To date, it still
remains his all-time best-selling album,
with estimated sales of more than 5 mil-
lion copies.
Neither has Diamond been shy about
sharing his ethnicity on other recordings.
One need only check out the audio doc-
umentation of his 1991-93 "In the
Round Tour" on the double-CD Neil
Diamond: Live in America to get a feel
for the intensity of his live performances.
The set contains a rousing rendition of
"Hava Nagila," which ascends a pinnacle
of Jewish ferver.
Yet, "Leave a Little Room for God," a
new song on Three Chord Opera, unex-
pectedly confronted the Columbia
Records artist with mild opposition.
"The tide came from a sign over the
entrance of a friend's recording studio,
and I thought it had more applications,"
he says in the CD's press release. "The
song kind of made people look at me a
little weird, especially at the record label.
Whether it was commercial, or not, was
irrelevant to me. It was truthful and that
was the most important thing.
"To create something beautiful is what
I try to do with every album," Diamond
adds about Three Chord Opera, "and to
create something beautiful is as simple as
it gets." ❑

Neil Diamond performs 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, Oct. 5-6, at
the Palace of Auburn Hills.
$37.50-$67.50. (248) 645-6666

October 6 through October 27, 2001

Preview the exhibition at elkgallery.com

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9/28

2001

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