000 ttiuddahi Hello rada
The Allan Sherman m us Taill;

4,14K StINGS
FAR OUT 14.44 K

111CtirgAS

'4

FRES )KSTZ

On-AV- MD

k

' •
- es. • -

Rebooted after half a century

"I studied the American folk culture,
which I knew pretty well;' Katz says.
"I studied the African, which was very
close to me, and the Hebraic, which
I read a lot about through Gershom
Scholem, who was a great mentor of
mine without him knowing it."
Each of those traditions has a strong
improvisational element in it, he notes.
"Every ethnic culture has within
it the ability to improvise Katz says.
Although his father was a nonbeliever
and Katz has described himself as "a
recovering atheist:' the Jewish tradi-
tion was one with which he felt a
particular affinity: "I always loved the
folk tunes that struck my heart like an
arrow.
He was introduced to Chasidic nig-
gunim by a rabbi who was married
to one of his students. At a Shabbat
dinner at the couple's home, Katz
was shown "this book with beauti-
ful melodies of the Chasidic culture
he recalls. "I said, `Oh my God. These
are wonderful.' I kept it to this very
day, and every Saturday morning I go
through one of these melodies and am
transported?'
With the very first melody in the
book, a niggun of the Baal Shem Tov,
Katz knew that this was the music he
had to work into Folk Songs.
Remarkably, Warner Brothers gave
him carte blanche on the recording.
He admits that he was shocked by the
total freedom he enjoyed.
"This was a revolutionary idea in
terms of jazz and still is," he says.
"Taking three cultures like that and
making it into a jazz experience was
quite different."
Heard today, nearly a half-century
after its initial release, the album still
sounds fairly radical, with eccentric
but utterly effective instrumentation
and jagged, piercing rhythms and
colors. It isn't hard to figure out why it
disappeared for almost five decades.
Enter Josh Kun. An English profes-
sor who recently joined the faculty at

University of Southern California, Kun
has been writing about music and
popular culture for a dozen years and
explores the nature of his Jewish iden-
tity through those lenses.
"I've been trying to live with a sense
of Jewish identity that is my own, not
scripted by others:' he explains. "Music
is a big part of that. Music can be pub-
lic and mainstream but also contains
lots of underground secrets and codes
that don't get retold in public ways."
Kun began to collect unusual Jewish
recordings as he tried to construct
a fulfilling sense of who he was as a
Jewish American. That, quite unex-
pectedly, led him to an avocation and
a second career of sorts.
"I met a great group of guys who
said, `You're sitting on a goldmine, and
these are our own struggles, too. Why
don't we put out some of this music
that's been left to rot?"'
The result was Reboot Stereophonic,
a new record label that is part of a
larger nonprofit organization whose
other arms include the magazine Guilt
and Pleasure, a film division and a
research group.
Its first CD was a highly successful
reissue of Bagels and Bongos, a funky
fusion of Jewish and Latin music cre-
ated in 1959 by Irving Fields.
Kun says, "Bagels and Bongos was an
all-time favorite of mine. I just loved
everything about it. It was timely, the
music is interesting, and it's smart and
sexy in its own strange way. For all of
us, that was a no-brainer."
Since that initial success, Kun and
his colleagues at the label have allowed
themselves to be guided by only one
thing: their passion for a record.
"We don't want to be pigeonholed,"
he says. "We're trying to represent
the diversity of the musical ideas out
there?'
For Fred Katz, Reboot's decision
to make his musical orphan child
their newest project was a satisfying
denouement.
"The feeling of an immediate jolt
was there, but it peters out because I'm
working on something totally different
now:, he confesses. "But the fact that
it's being recognized — the Hebraic
thing in jazz — that's fine!"
He laughs, then adds, "I'd say I felt
reborn, but Jews don't get reborn?'
But you could say he's been reboot-
ed.[

e

- 01-3

A7 ti,zT' R

f

R ,

*

s

AP

A1) 17.: -1

0.11 1j-31

4\P1 )1 1J1N1

SPECIALTIE

Tenderloin Kebab
Beef or Chicken
Koobideh
(Kufta)

PERSIAN CUISINE

Specialty Stews
Ghormeh Sabzi
Bademjan

Mixed Specialty
Basmati Rice
Loobia Polo
Adas Polo

Persian Tea (Chai)

Beef Soltdni

CDs are available from
the label's Web site:
www.rebooters.net .

f

Featuring The hilarious song parodies of Allan Sherman, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh follows
the life of Barry Bockman and his beloved, Sarah Jackman. From • birth to summer camp
(Camp Granada, of cour se ) to suburbia and retirement in Florida.

All entrees Served
with Scup , UA' Salad
Full Bar
Carry-Out Available/
Catering
Private Parties

30005 Orchard Lake Rd. (N of 13 Mile Rd.)
(248) 851-8200 • www.parslrestaurant.com
Lunch Mon-Fri I Dinner Mon-Sun

August 30 * 2007

55