Arts & Culture | Music

Phil Ochs: No Direction Home

01/04/2011 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | music

It is undoubtedly simplistic to suggest that a single incident can shape the way a person lives his entire life. Even the survivor of a catastrophic accident is more than the accumulated scars and physical deficits thus incurred. But watching Kenneth Bowser’s new documentary, “Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune,” it is impossible not to register a story that the great singer-songwriter’s brother Michael recalls from their childhood in small-town Ohio.

The Year Of The Woman

12/28/2010 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Music

This was a year in which recorded Jewish music seems to have been dominated by women. Certainly the CDs that have stayed with me the longest in 2010 are the work of some tremendously talented female singers, songwriters, composers and instrumentalists. So here’s a list of some recordings that have haunted me and delighted me since the first time I heard them. Not exactly a top 10 list, but not a bad yardstick to go by.

Judith Berkson: “Oylam” (ECM)

The Music Of Change

12/21/2010 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Music

It hasn’t been what he expected. Which suits Rabbi Greg Wall just fine, thank you.

‘Joys And Angst Of The Holidays’

12/01/2010 | Ted Merwin | Special to the Jewish Week | music

Jews and Christians have very different rituals that mark the onset of winter, but they share the pleasures and stresses of the holiday season. In Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman’s revue, “That Time of the Year,” which opens this weekend at the White Plains Performing Arts Center, two dozen new songs illuminate various aspects of the winter festivals.

Project Runway, Sephardic Style

11/23/2010 | George Robinson | Special To The Jewish Week | Music

The phone is ringing. There is a new CD to promote. There are the usual last-minute changes in the Sephardic Music Festival to be arranged. A new music video has to be shot this week. A fresh pot of coffee needs to be brewed.

And the baby is crying.

Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’: Both Sides Now

11/09/2010 | Eric Herschthal | Staff Writer | Music

When the New York Philharmonic performs Felix Mendelssohn’s rarely heard “Elijah” (1846) oratorio this weekend, many will no doubt see it as proof that the composer always identified with his family’s Jewish faith.