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Chava
Alberstein Calling someone her country's greatest
singer would be a huge compliment to most performers. In the case of Chava
Alberstein, however, it only tells a small part of the story. Alberstein is
undoubtedly Israel's most accomplished singer, having released nearly 50
recordings since the late 1960's, many of them now gold or platinum.
Alberstein is Israel; her development as an artist mirrors Israel's
development as a country; her growing pains are Israel's growing pains.
Alberstein and Israel are even the same age - both turn 50 - and they both share
a tiny but powerful stature. But Chava Alberstein sees herself as much as a
singer of the world as just a singer of her beloved Israel. "Even though I
have lived in Israel nearly my entire life, I am constantly questioning my place
in the world," said Alberstein. "Maybe this searching comes from being
an artist, maybe it comes from being a Jew. I'm not really sure." This
bittersweet tension between the national and the universal is most evident in
all of her recordings. From tender love songs to defiant songs about peace and
oppression. There are prayerful songs celebrating the beauty of the human form
and more melancholy songs about loss, poverty, and solitude. Alberstein has lately released "The Well" , an album of
Yiddish poems she has transformed into folk songs, with the renowned klezmer
group the Klezmatics. "In Israel, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone
today composing and singing in Yiddish," said Klezmatics lead singer Lorin
Sklamberg. "Some people still see Yiddish as the language of soft Jews who
can't protect themselves. But Chava understands the joy and depth of the language."
Yiddish was the mother-tongue of Alberstein's family in the small town in
Szczecin, Poland, where Chava was born. Her family moved to Israel when
Alberstein was only 4-years-old, but Chava says she has never totally lost the
feeling of being a stranger. "No matter where I am, even if it's in my own
country, I feel like a bit of a guest," she said. "People can
appreciate this today, because they move around so much. Every country you go to
in the world is filled with so -called foreigners." Since the very first
time she ever sang in public - a four-song set, which included songs in French,
Spanish, Yiddish, and a gospel standard in English - Chava Alberstein has been a
performer of "World Music." Chava has released more than 40 albums in Hebrew, six of which have
been awarded the Kinor David prize, Israel's Grammy. She has also released six
albums in Yiddish, and an English album of standards ranging from Gershwin to
Lennon and McCartney. A dozen of the records have gone gold, six platinum, and
one triple platinum. Alberstein's early Hebrew recordings, with names like
"Songs of My Beloved Country," "Beaches," and "Like a
Wildflower," speak to Israel as a fledgling country. They are external,
almost frontier. "Israel was like a little child in those days," Chava
recalled. "Discovering all the parts of her body.." "If we
have a true folk singer, it is Chava Alberstein," Yediot Aharonot, Israel's
largest daily newspaper said about Alberstein, naming her the most important
female musician in Israel's history. With a half century of life and song under
her belt, Chava Alberstein, like Israel, has come to understand that good art,
like good state craft, is best achieved by looking inwards and outwards. She is
a is a singer who accomplishes that greatest, most precious rarity of all: she
speaks for a culture, a tradition. "Everything is good only in the proper
measure," Chava sings in one of her songs. It seems her career is yet to
see tremendous achievements. She has just signed a record deal with French label
Nave/Auvidis, and will record a new album produced by Ben Mink. Click On Back Cover
Above For Enlarged Song Listing Click On Back Cover
Above For Enlarged Song Listing Chava, the first lady of Israeli song, has been an international
star for thirty years. Carzy Flower, her US debut release, is a best of
collection of Chava's most popular songs drawn from the entire breadth of her
career, including many of her signature hits. She is one of those people whose
spirit has found full expression in song. Her passionate dramatic style and rich
voice have been part of Israeli life and culture. Considered one of the most
important folk singers in the world today, Chava epitomizes the poetry of the
Israeli Spirit, presenting an enchanting voyage into the human soul, the heart
of the Jewish people and the land of Israel.
Click On Back Cover Above For
Enlarged Song Listing
Click
On Back Cover Above For Enlarged Song Listing
Click On Back Cover Above For
Enlarged Song Listing
Click On Back Cover Above For
Enlarged Song Listing
Chava Alberstein is the premier voice, world class, poignant, some
would say world-weary, of Yiddish culture in Israel and the world. Her work in
keeping the tradition alive, in tracking down old songs and even setting Yiddish
poems to music for the first time, is therefore all the more important. It
provides a bridge to a vibrant culture that was. When it came to selecting the songs for this collection, Chava
sought to portray Yiddish life in as much complexity as the repertoire itself
conveys. The stories are very much around daily life, around family. They deal
with being old, children, love, in many ways they paint a picture of Jewish
daily life in a little village or a small street of Poland. You have the hungry
thief, the old man, the children. One song, ‘Oifn Veg Sh’tait a Boim’ is a
classical song about a young man who wants to leave the village. He wants to get
away, change his life, but his mother loves him so much that she puts on him too
many clothes and he cannot move because it is all too heavy. And you have the
man with three daughters who wants so much to marry them off, but when they get
married, the house is empty, and he is again very sad. Other songs deal with contemporary
history. ‘Zog Nit Kein’mol’ is the anthem of the partisans in Poland
during the rebellion of the Warsaw ghetto. ‘Friling’ concerns the Holocaust.
Much of the material comes from Poland, though there are Romanian songs as well.
Overall, Yiddish Songs is an album of pictures from a Jewish life in Poland, in
Romania before and until the war. “Dana Dana” is the only song that was
written in America, all the others were written in Romania, Poland and Russia.
Here is a varied, complex portrait of a world that no longer exists sung in a
language soon to disappear forever.
There is only one Chava Alberstein! In this wonderful music video
she presents a beautiful mixture of her songs. She sings songs of love, songs of
yearning, a lullaby and even an homage to Edith Piaf. Chava is joined by
pantomimists, clowns and actors on a variety of colorful sets. A must for
Israeli music lovers. songs. She sings songs of love, songs of yearning, a
lullaby and even an homage to Edith Piaf. Chava is joined by pantomimists,
clowns and actors on a variety of colorful sets. A must for Israeli music
lovers. |
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Song
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