Arts is Entertainment
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Sunday-Thursday Only
Freedom's Songs
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Two Dinner Entrees
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Upcoming public television series and just-released
CDs highlight America's quest for liberty.
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Two Lunch Entrees
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Expires 12/31/02
No sharing • One coupon per table
Not good with any other offer
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
Secac f add Net. Pot.
Jcut 3-tidatp Clurnate!
wide range of Jewish talent
will be featured in an
upcoming TV series and in
just-released CDs based on
that series — all in the interest of
chronicling the quest for freedom in
America.
The series, Freedom: A History of
US, will be presented starting at 7
p.m. Sunday, Jan.- 5, on Detroit
Public Television (WTVS-Channel
56). A three-CD boxed set, Freedom:
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• Beer S Wine Available •
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Mon. - Sat. 11 - 10 • Sunday 11 - 9
47690 Grand River Ave. • Novi
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Danny Raskin,
The Jewish News
FARMINGTON
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DINE IN OR TAKE OUT
Monday - Saturday 11-9:30 • Sunday 12-75.4:.
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coming to America and many other
groups entering our nation."
Songs From the Heart of America
($49.98), and a single CD, Freedom:
A History of US ($18.98), arrived in
stores last week, issued by Columbia
Records/Legacy Recordings.
Steve Berkowitz, one of the CD
producers, learned a lot about the
meaning of freedom from his family,
whose Jewish roots reach to Lithuania
and Belarus. Although he helped
choose the songs that express the
events and feelings associated with
United States history and the immi-
grants involved Nvith that history, eth-
nicity did not factor into the choices.
It just so happens that Aaron
Copland's "Simple Gifts," performed
by Leonard Bernstein and the New
York Philharmonic, brought out one
expanse of time, while Irving Berlin's
"The Freedom Train," presented with
Benny Goodman on clarinet,
addressed another. Bob Dylan's "The
Times They Are A Changin'," sung
by the composer, takes the saga into a
later age as the folk hit joins nearly
70 songs that help chronicle the quest
for liberty across the country.
"There's certainly a great tradition
of Jewish American composers, musi-
cians and people in the music busi-
ness, but I can't say that we thought
along those lines when we helped
select the music," says Berkowitz, 50,
whose production team included
Michael Brooks, Nedra Olds-Neal
and Al Quaglieri.
"The pursuit of freedom in
America for Jewish people, though
singular and unique, parallels so
many other people in the same time
frames. There are similarities to the
Irish coming to America, Italians
White House Premiere
The television program., featuring
Today show personality Katie Couric
as narrator, touches upon every impor-
Celebrating freedom
Cant event in the country's past and
stars a number of performers with
Jewish heritage — such as Paul
Newman and Michael Douglas --
portraying American notables.
The 16-episode series will have a
gala premiere at the White House and
also will be supplemented by the
"Freedom Exhibition," a touring dis-
play of historical documents and pho-
tographs enhanced by the recorded
music. The final sites of the tour are
still to be decided.
The overall project is based on his-
torical text written by Joy Hakim, and
there is a companion book, Freedom: A
History of US (Oxford University
Press; $40), that accompanies the
series and is now available in book-
stores.
With an ultimately positive message,
the TV series begins with the
Jeffersonian vision of an all-inclusive
American dream, moves through
exclusions from that vision and
actions taken as a result of the
exclusions, and concludes with
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
explained as both tragic assault
and a spur to American resolve
for the values of freedom in the
future.
"I always loved history and
still do,- and I was aware of Joy
Hakim's books," Berkowitz says.
"I found them delightful both
for kids and myself because
they're a quick and easy way
to refer to United States his-
tory.
"When the recording project was
brought to us, it seemed like a great
idea because it would be a one-of-a-
kind collection. There are many great
collections of American music —
songs about America, • hymns from
America's Music
p
atriotism and protest. Unity
and diversity. They're all
- American and all here in the
three-CD boxed set Freedom: Songs
- FroM the Heart of Ai nerica
(Columbia/Legacy; $49.98).
While some boxed sets- trace the
career of a musician or genre of
music, this set endeavors to trace the
themes of freedom and American
identity over more than two cen-
turies.
The 67 songs selected showcase
American history, musical diversity
and the significance of American
contributions to music — from rag-
time, country, folk and blues to jazz,
pop, soul, rock and hip-hop.
But the collection aims to do
more than chronicle different styles
of "American music." Instead, it
chronicles the convoluted path
Americans have followed in search
of liberty.
As the companion to the upcom-
ing PBS series Freedom: A History of
US, it had to include songs that
would represent the full range of sig-
nificant events that make up the
story of our nation.
So, there's music from the
Revolutionary War to the Industrial
Revolution, the Civil War to civil
rights, the Great Depression to the
rise of labor unions.
The other important component
of the collection, of course, is the
artists. Many of the songs are
American classics performed by
those who made them famous; oth-