Arts & Entertainment RISTORANTE ITALIANO Spiritual Sounds The Klezmatics' Frank London brings a Chanukah concert to the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park. t ime 11.11" ad se * 00 Off DON COHEN Special to the Jewish News w h1 two (All lunches come with a cup of soup) T Monday-Thursday Not Lod with any other offer. Expires 12/31/02;.. 7 a week 1110 11 Private rooms available for your next special event. Up to 80 - people capacity. 146 CENTRE STREET Main Centre Building Downtown Northville 30005 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD South of 14 Mile Rd. Farmington Hills 248.735.0101 248.932.9999 Fo= r7, 1rillfft`. 'cis Tile Season! MiciAigans 0 lidays arket Antiques Fabulous International Antiques Accessories, Furnishings, November 22, 23 & 24, 2002 Jewelry, Art and More! Southfield, Michigan dr iis4"P*' Southfield Pavilion di P Friday 2 until 9 Saturday 12 until 8 • Sunday 12 until 5 • Fantastic! . . . Santa Held at the Southfield Municipal Complex On Evergreen Road at Civic Center Drive S5Q0vetals ad • Over 85 Merchants! • 35 to 1400 guests • Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Corporate events . o ftworeto oniam • Seven banquet rooms • Weddings & Showers • Holiday gatherings Modified Kosher Available Lunch served M-F, 10:30am - 2:00pm Call for package rates! 586-759-6500 11/22 2002 74 60 I 5 E.Ten Mile Rd.Warren MI (exit Mound Road South from 1-696) www.decarlosbanquets.com - $5.75 raditional and modern. Spiritual and cultural. Jewish and universal. Serious and celebratory. Classic and innovative. Just as Chanukah takes many forms in America, so does the music of Frank London. London, a trumpeter/keyboardist, composer and producer who has been recording jazz and modern Jewish music since the mid-1980s, is bringing one of his latest projects to the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park on Sunday, Dec. 1. The 2 p.m. free concert, "Zmiros and Nigunim: A Chanukah Treat of Jewish Mystical Song," is sponsored by Wayne State University's Cohn- Haddow Center for Judaic Studies and co-sponsored by the JCC, with sup- port from the Frances and Charles Driker Yiddish Cultural Fund and the DeRoy Testamentary Foundation. London and vocalist-accordionist Lorin Sklamberg, a fellow co-founder of the popular klezmer group The Klezmatics, will be joined for the con- cert by keyboardist Robert Schwimmer. The program will feature music from two London/Sklamberg recordings: Nigunim (Tzadik Records) and The Zmiros Project (Traditional Crossroads). Nigunim and zmiros (or zmirot in Modern Hebrew) are songs of devo- tion and praise designed to induce a state of piety and ecstasy in both per- former and listener. The trio will focus on the spiritual music of the Chasidim, specifically on the prayers, melodies and celebrations of the Belzer, Gerer, Lubavitcher and Skulaner movements. These religious factions, which gained prominence in Eastern Europe during the 18th century, emphasized the primacy of Torah study and favored ecstatic, physical manifesta- tions of religious devotion as opposed to intellectual connections. One of those manifestations is in nigunim, wordless chants that might be part of worship, but as London _ points out, "are spiritual but not litur- gical." Zmirot, on the other hand, "are songs you sing on Shabbos at home at the table with family and friends. They can be very spirited," he says. Reached at his home in Manhattan, London, married with two children, is very open and down-to-earth. At the same time, he clearly has some ideas, goals and music that could easily be considered "other-worldly." Performing music intended to uplift and inspire the individual doing it, while giving a concert for an audience, can be a challenge, says London. "We have to mediate between being real to the thing and giving a perform- ance. It is:a joy to share. We've learned to do it, but it can be difficult." "It's nice when we have an audience familiar with the genre so we can go to the same place together. We like to get the audience singing and participating and share a group experience." - Spiritual Seeker The melding of the individual with the group experience is one of the things London really enjoys and strives to achieve. And from the individual experiences and memories comes com- munity. "Part of what I consider one of the many goals of these concerts is to share the melodies. I get my repertoire from all over the place and it is a joy to share the songs. Often, after the concerts, the audience ends up talking about the songs they grew up with," he says. London jokingly calls his current level of religious practice "egalitarian Chasidism," but as he explains, it doesn't seem like a joke. He was raised in what he calls a "very, very observant Reform Jewish household" on Long Island that was typical of suburban America in the 1950s and 1960s. "We were very - Jewish, very positive and very un-hyp- ocritical," he says, though at the same time "our Jewish-centric life was filled with these gaping holes we didn't even know existed. "I've been through a lot of changes, but I'm definitely just another seeker," he says. "I tend to daven (pray) Orthodox, and the community of peo- ple I share Shabbat and holidays with