arts & entertainment Piano Accompaniment By... David Drazin lends his composing and playing talents to silent films. Suzanne Chessler Contributing Writer T he selection of a silent film, The Artist, for this year's top Academy Award probably pleased pianist David Drazin more than most movie fans. A huge part of Drazin's career involves providing live piano accompa- niment for showings of historic silent films that likely inspired production of the Oscar winner. The pianist, who is based in Chicago and has traveled numerous David Drazin: "Now that The Artist has won times to perform at the Detroit Film Best Picture, I think everyone should pay more Theatre, returns Saturday, March 17, attention to silent films." to enhance melodically The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, made in 1919 Germany from a screenplay by Jewish writers Hans attention to silent films than ever before Janowitz and Carl Meyer and directed by and see the real items:' says Drazin, 55, Robert Wiene, a Jew who left Berlin after explaining his outlook during a recent Hitler came to power, moving to Budapest, phone conversation from his home. then London and finally Paris, where he "For me, the photography is very inter- died in 1938. Janowitz, who died in 1954 esting as it goes back to people and places in New York, and Meyer, who died in 1944 aside from the stories. While actors are in London, both became pacifists after shown in the moment of portraying a their experiences during World War I. character, there's always the element of The horror movie follows a carnival their real world that's exciting. sleepwalker (Conrad Veidt) who mur- "With remarkable clarity, there are ders at the direction of the demented Dr. people who are far removed in time Caligari (Werner Krauss), and its unravel- and space [from the present day]. While ing explores the boundaries between san- watching movies from the 1890s or early ity and madness. 1900s, in which there are no telephones "Now that The Artist has won Best or cars, I can get the feeling of breathing Picture, I think everyone should pay more with the actors!' Drazin says he never gets tired of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an example of German Expressionist cinema as it represents internal psychological states. In it, writes film critic Roger Ebert, "The actors inhabit a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives. These radical distortions immediately set the film apart from all earlier ones, which were based on the camera's innate ten- dency to record reality" "It's like experiencing the arts movement of that time firsthand," says Drazin. "It can be a bit abstract!' As Drazin plays for each film, for the first or any subsequent time, he makes up the music on the spot. He doesn't believe that anybody knows what was played to enhance silent films during original screenings. "A lot of what I play involves work- ing improvs," explains Drazin, who has been composing music since elementary school. "It's never totally new because I'm always myself, but I actually can't play the same way twice. "Developing music on the spot is my favorite kind of work, and playing for the length of movies is what's different. A song tends to be three to five minutes, but a movie can be 90 minutes. "There needs to be a lot of variety. In a sense, I'm reading the picture and con- verting it into song!' One extended performance experience stands out for the pianist. It came after he accompanied a Charlie Chaplin program at a film festival in Italy, where Michael Chaplin, son of the legendary actor, was in the audience. "Michael Chaplin invited my wife, Carol, and me to the family home in Switzerland, and it was very exciting to hang out with Michael and his wife and play jazz on Charlie's 'Diane the film musician says. Drazin originally was introduced to a variety of music by his mother, a piano performer and teacher, and his father, a guitarist and trumpet player. His mom was his keyboard mentor until he turned 13 and began studying with a jazz musi- cian. While earning a bachelor's degree in music from Ohio State University, focus- ing on jazz, Drazin began playing for silent films shown at the Cinevent festival, a program to which he returns yearly. After moving to Chicago in 1982, the musician was hired as accompanist for silent pictures at what has become the Gene Siskel Film Center, which has show- cased a limited number of Russian Jewish silent films, such as Jewish Luck. "There are a few scattered Jewish films from the silent era, but Jewish characters turn up in all kinds of movies:' explains Drazin, who had his bar mitzvah service at a Conservative synagogue. in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. A recent joint effort in New York City, "Two Voices, One Vision," was a concert for the Abraham Fund, which promotes projects that nurture coexistence and equality among Israeli Jews and Arabs. It was a perfect showcase for their blend of various Middle-Eastern musical tra- ditions and smooth jazz. "Our concert consists of three sec- tions," says Noa. "We each do a solo part with our respective musicians and our own original repertoire, and then we come on together for a few joint pieces:' she wrote. "These songs were either written by Mira or [me] or by both of us together. We also choose to cover well-known songs, like "We Can Work It Out," our first duet. Our joint material invariably carries the strongest political/ humanistic message!' Inevitably, one must ask how much change a couple of singers can bring about Peace Through Music Musical collaboration hopes to inspire. George Robinson Special to the Jewish News R omain Rolland, a Nobel laureate for literature, famously said, "We must struggle with a pessimism of the intellect and an optimism of the will." The gifted Arab Israeli singer-actress Mira Awad puts it a little differently. "Like the title of Emil Habibi's play, I would say I am an `optimist' [a combina- tion of optimist and pessimist], meaning I do see that the reality is very complicated, and that for the time being we are light years away from a solution. But I have to keep some kind of a faith in some kind of a better tomorrow; otherwise life would really be unbearable," Awad wrote in an 52 March 15 . 2012 email interview. Her friend and frequent musical com- patriot, Achinoam Nini, better known to audiences as Noa, gives a similarly guarded answer. "On the long term? Yes. Short term? It looks like it will get worse before it gets better," the popular Jewish Israeli singer wrote. "But that's no reason not to work tirelessly" The women will appear together, billed as "Noa, with special guest Mira Awad," at the JCC's Stephen Gottlieb Music Festival on Saturday, March 17, at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield. Their musical partnership has born considerable fruit, including Israel's entry Israeli Arab singer Mira Awad and Israeli superstar Noa team up at JCC's Gottlieb Music Festival.