Description
Product Description
A remarkable collection of vocal performances of Jewish sacred music from the Middle East, Andalusia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia – songs of exultation, longing, love, and Divine immanence – accompanied by an ensemble of masterful musicians.
Instruments include: oud, ney, kanun, Egyptian accordian, violin, mandolin, dumbek, doira, riqq, Yemenite can, tar, saz, clarinet, mey (Turkish duduk), tilinca (Rumanian shepherd’s flute), piano, string bass, balaban (Klezmer drum set), cimbalom, and a chorus of voices.
Among many special songs, the CD features an ‘eco-lament’ (ecological lament) based on lament melodies for the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. It is called “Lament on the Destruction of the Garden of Eden” (Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden), and updates the use of these tunes to mourn the wounding of our larger temple, Gaia – Mother Earth.
LIFE OF THE WORLDS contains 18 songs, 77 minutes of music, and contains a 32-page booklet which includes informative song descriptions; all texts are provided in transliteration, English translation, and in Hebrew or Yiddish.
This CD was three years in the making, and presents the first recordings in North America of several songs from the treasure-chest of Jewish sacred music.
Amazon.com
The modern-day traditional Jewish music revival is filled with artists exploring klezmer’s Eastern-European roots, but you’ll hear no clarinet and little violin on cantor/educator Richard Kaplan’s Life Of The Worlds. Although these are traditional songs, there is a broad range of the Diaspora represented on his second album, including Afghani, Spanish, Moroccan, and Algerian traditions. Kaplan dives into the sacred and the secular, the prophetic and the exultant, finding commonalities amongst different tribes and fusing them together. Musical accompaniment comes in the form of an occasional flute, piano, and violin as well as Moroccan clay drums, oud, dumbek, and other pre-modern-era instruments, but the instrument at the center of each song is Kaplan’s voice–his high baritone majestically soars, quavers with sensitivity, and rings out with joy. To hear him sing solo versions of traditional Niggiun is to hear a world-class master savor the multifaceted nuance of each note and transcend the concept of song, turning it into religion and high art. –Tad Hendrickson
Review
Richard Kaplan fills the songs with such sparks that they awaken a spiritual feeling in the listener. Definitely recommended! –Aaron Howard, Jewish Herald Voice, December 4, 2003
About the Artist
Richard Kaplan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been successful as an R&B singer, college professor, jazz pianist, early music practitioner, and narrowly escaped superstardom as a member of Michael Janusz’s “Morning of the World” group. In 1997, following years of intensive study, Mr. Kaplan was named cantor of Temple Beth Abraham, a Conservative synagogue in Oakland, California, a position he still holds. Mr. Kaplan’s first CD, “Tuning The Soul,” (1999) received rapturous print reviews and major radio airplay, selling thousands of copies despite a lack of formal distribution. An erudite yet rollicking raconteur, he is currently giving workshops and concerts, and making bookstore appearances nationally and internationally.
For more information or for booking, please visit kaplanmusic.com
