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1.1• Y'ou
The restaurant of your dreams is now
on 13 Mile at Orchard Lake Road!
The CD contains 12 Passover-related
hip-hop tracks.
needs to use contemporary idiom to
have it make sense to you. To make it
resonate with you. You can make it an
anarchist seder, right?" he said, clearly
on a roll.
"The seder is an amazing frame-
work, an incredible order. It's like a
canvas. Its very structure is very open.
It deals with very important human
issues like freedom and justice!'
A McGill University graduate,
Dolgin released his first Passover
album, A_Hip-Hop Seder, three years
ago and sold it from the trunk of his
car. The new release features an addi-
tional six cuts.
Getting the most attention is "3rd
Cup: Yahu," featuring the Chasidic
reggae sensation Matisyahu singing a
pretty traditional-sounding "Eliyahu
HaNavi" — before it gets the beat-box
treatment.
Dolgin has spent five years becom-
ing a professional musician, study-
ing music, playing with a variety of
groups, honing his own sound and
adding to his music collection. He has
appeared on a dozen recordings as a
pianist, singer, accordionist, arranger,
rapper, writer and producer.
The musical artist has a creative
and personal tension with tradi-
tion, respecting and honoring it
while - looking to change it. Its sort
of like someone who tears down an
old building and uses the material
to build a new, more contemporary
structure, with the old building blocks
clearly identifiable.
"I'm not religious at all. I've never
been interested in religion," Dolgin
said, though he respects it nonethe-
less."Organized religion p
me
off. It is the cause of lots of strife. But
without religion, without restrictions
and groups, people don't develop
culture!'
This is where the Passover seder
comes in.
"I'm sort of critical of the religious
ceremony a bit:' Dolgin admitted.
"I'm not making fun of it, but trying
to make sense of it to myself and to
other assimilated and secular Jews."
While certainly no traditionalist, he
also is certain there is a lot of value in
tradition.
"There is an incredible history of
Yiddish music that has been lost:'
Dolgin lamented. "So much has
been boiled away in the melting pot.
Holocaust. Stalinism. Assimilation:'
He seeks to reclaim and reuse "much
of the tradition?'
Friend Of Yiddish
Dolgin explains his reverence for
Yiddish music by telling about his
friend, the Jewish actor and folksinger
Theodore Bikel, whom Dolgin met at
a Yiddish cultural festival a few years
back.
"When Bikel was asked why he
sings Jewish songs, he said not
because they are better than the songs
of his neighbors:' Dolgin explained,
"but because they're his. That's beau-
tiful. I definitely identify with it?'
,A big fan of funk, Dolgin hasn't left
behind influences like James Brown
and Sly and the Family Stone. But
he decided that instead of sampling
them, "maybe I should be sampling
my music. You've got to know where
you've been. So I walked around with
a mini-disc, recording things.
"I learned about music: cantorial,
klezmer, Yiddish, poetry and popular
folksongs. A new generation is redis-
covering this kind of music, and it's
blowing their minds!'
Dolgin's recent French tour was
to promote the European debut of
a brand-new album, Ghettoblasters,
slated for release in the United States
this fall.
"It's international and intergenera-
tional," said Dolgin, explaining that
the CD includes Bikel and Krakauer
among 40 artists recorded in 13
studios around the world, including
those in Budapest, Montreal, New
York and France.
"It's where I am now," he said,
explaining that the album includes a
wide variety of styles, including rap,
hip-hop, house, electronica, gospel,
country and Yiddish.
"I'm trying to bring together
these worlds:' Dolgin said. "It's not
just slapped together, not pastiche,
which drives me crazy. It's not self-
important, I hope. It's rockin' — not
preaching. Who the hell am I to be
preaching?" ❑
Open 7:30 a.m. Monday - Saturday
Pasta, Pizza, & More for Lunch
& Dinner. Dine In or Take Out!
Great Coffee & Cappuccino!
Featuring Breakfast Pastries from
Rick Halberg - Owner of Emily's Restaurant in Northville
29429 Orchard Lake Rd. • Farmington Hills (on 13 Mile Rd. at the comer of Orchard Lk. Rd.)
248.848.6000 • fax: 248.848.6002 • www.tuttobeneonline.com
HOURS:
Mon.-Thurs. 7:30 am - 9 pm • Fri. & Sat. 7:30 am - 10 pm
Open Sundays starting April 23rd
1102580
1 :6014-i
RISTORANTE
Natalie, Richard, Allan, Rachel & Danielle
AND THE DORMANS
Dr. Michael, Norma, Hillary, Todi, Hershel and Pearl
And Your Neighborhood
DETROIT BAGEL FACTORIES
Main Office 586-268-8009
PRIM
ANQUET FACILITIES FOR ALL OCCASIONS
'2
OFF
(g- ge
1092520}
SLAB OF RIBS FOR TWO
O R
-
BBQ CHICKEN FOR TWO
ALL DINNERS INCLUDE: SALAD OR COLESLAW,
POTATOES AND GARUC BREAD
Exp. 04/30106 n
„ •
rass rointeP%od
Ac"6,
24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377
April 6 • 2006
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