AROUND TOWN

•
down
Hoe

u sicFest.

Jewish-flavored bluegrass draws curtain on

BILL HANsEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

T

several Shabbat psalms and prayers using
he soft green grass around the Jewish
Southern-based bluegrass melodies and har-
Community Center in West Bloomfield
monies. The result is something he hopes will
provided the perfect setting for a concert
catch on in Jewish communities around
devoted to bluegrass. About 75 people, sit-
the country.
ting in lawn chairs, enjoyed the twangy
"I think it's interesting and exciting that
country style music performed by Jerry
Jews
are able to participate in art forms that
ArT.'
Wicentowski and the Lucky Break Band
are not native to us, but we can adapt them to
The bluegrass hoedown came with a
reflect our traditional values," Wicentowski
Jewish twist — traditional songs like
said.
Shalom Aleichem set to a rockabilly
ROBIN SCHWARTZ
People in the crowd at the JCC concert
beat.
COLUMNIST
clapped their hands, tapped their feet and
The event was the last in a series of
could
barely
sit still. "You felt the beat and you
six concerts that made up the Jewish Community
wanted
to
clap
your hands and somehow keep up,"
Center of Metropolitan Detroit's weeklong
said Freedman.
NIusicFest 2005.
Other band members are Marc Edelstein on bass
"It's not a genre of music you typically think of
and
Tom Boyd on banjo and the Dobro guitar.
as Jewish," said MusicFest director Joan Freedman
Mindy
Soble and Martin Hollander, both of West
of West Bloomfield. "It's knee slapping — lots of
Bloomfield, were this year's MusicFest co-
guitar and banjo," she said. "The music is very
chairs.
Spotted in the crowd at the June 26th
upbeat."
hoedown
were: Marian Sandweiss of Oak
Jerry Wicentowski, an Orthodox Jew from
Park,
Doreen
Sabin of Bloomfield Hills,
Wisconsin, started playing bluegrass music as a
A
Steve Greenfield of Farmington
teenager. "I loved the sound," he said,
Hills and Rabbi Alon Tolwin of
"and the lyrics are common to all
Southfield.
humanity"
In all, about 1,000 people attended
Over time, he developed
and adapted music for the various NIusicFest events. ❑

From top:
Band members are Drew Carson, Marc
Edelstein, Jerry Wicentowski and Tom

Boyd.

Rabbi Alan Tolwin of Southfield-based
Aish HaTorah applauds the musicians.

Ezra Mendelson, 7, of West Bloomfield

enjoys the concert.

JNPLATINUM •

Al G[ST 2.005

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