Overview: HASC released a recording of its 25 Year "Time for Celebration" Tribute Concert. The concert featured many past performers and a lot of tribute-y, gimmicky, cutesy-ness, as opposed to theatrical newness--in the tradition of Moshe Yess with Miami Boys Choir--or musical wowness in the tradition of Who Am I, Candles, Keep the Flame Burning.
So, what do we think? Shmuel starts us off... some context has been added in brackets. Some editing happened.
SHMUEL:
1.Overture - Ehh. Way too drum heavy. [Yisroel Lamm and Neginah riffing on classic Time for Music theme]
2. Opening Medley - 5 stars. (Loved the oldies, even if Lipa cracked) [Fried, Lipa and Gertner]
3. Who Am I - Well Done. Classic Abie. Could he be getting better with age?
4. Carlbach Tribute - Shlomo Carlebach is "Often imitated, never duplicated". Listenable but missing SOUL.
5. Jo Amar Tribute - Loved the horn intro. Well done. Stuck to Jo Amar style. Didn't try to make it his own. Important when paying tribute. [Ohad sings Barcelona]
6. Moshe Yess Tribute - Lets just say, that a country western twang ain't Avram Fried's strongest point. The musical accompaniment is great. [Fried sing My Zeidy]
7. Mazal Tov - Huh? Uncle Moshe?
8. Mi Shemamin - A lot closer to Eyal Golan then Benny Friedman but still lo ze....slow. Not nearly enough Chayos.
9. Shalsheles Medley - Next.
10. Candlelight - When's the intermission? Don't love them. They do better with classics. [maccabeats sing Candlelight]
11. Moshe V'Aaharon - Like. even though he still runs his own program. Loved the segue to Mizmor L'Dovid. [helfgott]
12. 25 Years - Anything from Lipa is good! Great Litzonis. Loved the finish. [long speaking/singing tribute by Lipa]
13. It's Time to Say Good Shabbos - 5 stars (loved the back story) [Abie and journeys]
14. Yalili - The Marcus' don't have great voices for live performances. Their stage presence needs a lot of work. Still a fun song.
15. Gedolim - Semi-decent vocal. The intro was cheeeeesy. 2 stars [Yisroel Williger, Shloime Dachs, Mendy Wald sing Acheinu in mourning for the Gedolim lost over the past year]
16. Shmeichel - Dedi is good, people. Never was into Shlomie Gertner, am now even less.
17. Vekoivei - Ehh. Way to cheesy at the end
18. Bitchu - Dont know Boruch Levine. Listenable i guess.
19. Shema Yisroel - [undercomplimentary of Yerachmiel Begun and the Miami Boys Choir]
20 . Closing Remarks - No comment [Yigal Calek speaks on the mandate of the Jewish Performer]
21. Finale - Candles - A la "We are the world" Not bad
In conclusion: If the entire album would continue with the vocals, class and all around chein of the first 5 tracks, this would be a 5 star album. It didn't. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. (Most of it anyway). 5 Stars for the orchestra.5 stars for the opening medley. 3 1/2 stars for the performers. (4 for Lipa, 4.5 for Abie) Minus 1 star for having Yerachmiel Begun and MBC. Minus 1/2 star for Shalsheles Sr. and Jr.
3.5 Stars total. Go out and buy a copy.
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AVI:
1) Overture - I applaud the efforts to constantly re-interpret the original HASC theme and whatnot, but it's a good theme that can really only get worse with tweaking. I say, Respect it or Retire it.
2) Opening Medley - Cute, nostalgic more than anything.
3) Who am I - Agree with Shmuel. Abie
4) Carlebach Tribute - It's true that Carlebach is mimickable but not duplicable. But here I think they did a good job of choosing singers who actually sang with Shlomo. They in turn emulated the pure "Simcha Chevreh!" instead of mimicking the voice or nuance. It is not Shlomo singing, but I enjoyed hearing his message. Like.
5) Jo Amar - Nailed it, Shmuel. Right voice, right song, right performance. And so impressive that he stuck to the script and did not try to outshine the sun. Well did.
6) Moshe Yess - This is a tough one for me. It is the exact opposite of Ohad/Jo Amar. Fried takes the entire song, leaving only the basic lyrics to their composer. (He changed some of those too, kidarko.) Now, from a purely musical tribute to Moshe Yess it killed every cell in me. As a tribute to the "speak to the Neshomo", I applaud Fried for trying to make it his own--or his Rebbe's--or what have you. It doesn't really work too well, but, ya know, I think I can understand him thinking "I'm not Moshe Yess, but maybe I can give his message through my voice."
7) Mazel Tov - Uncle Moishy?
8) Mi Shemaamin - Agree with Shmuel
9) Shalsheles - No real opinion.
10) Candlelight - Worked better with post-production
11) Moshe V'aharon - Um. Definitely not the classic Moshe V'aharon. Interesting take. Pleasant. No real power or wow.
12) 25 Years - Okay. This whole piece made me cry. Lipa is undoubtedly a talented Yiddish lyricist, composer and performer. He has expressed in song some extremely nuanced emotions and has successfully brought some uncomfortable realities to the fore, with his action and reaction to The Big Event, etc. But this mediocre shmaryonki of a track is juvenile in content, lyric, knowledge, performance and flow.
The premise of the show seems to be "What if MBD came out singing Matisyahu; or Jo Amar singing Nisht Gedeiget?" It's not a bad nugget of an idea, but there is no set-up and there is no resemblance to ANY of the singers he imitates (except for Piamenta, which is actually pretty good). He sounds tired of the game, disrespectful of his peers, illiterate in 3 languages and woefully bitter toward his upbringing in...New Square.
Lipa! Call me. We love you.
13) It's Time to Say Good Shabbos - Agreed
14) Yalili - Agreed
15) Gedolim - Here the three performers declare a super-holy (read: hollow) message about how much we miss our Gedolim, our "Links to passed generations." It sounds incredibly facetious after the wounded and irreverent Lipa performance. It has no context of who, what or why, and noticeably uses the three "Yeshivish" "stars" of the 90s to deliver this non-message. The song, though is nice.
16) Shmeichel - I quite like Shloimy Gertner and found it cute to have him paired with Dedi.
17) Vekoivei - We've heard before, we'll hear it again.
18) Bitchu - This is a pleasant song with a sensible English/Hebrew message. Not crazy about Rabbi Baruch Levine's voice, but not militant against it either. Yet.
19) Shema Yisroel - I've always been very impressed with the ingenuity and originality of Yerachmiel Begun. Singing Yiddish lyrics--and, like, almost Berditchiver--lyrics with very awkward-sounding Ramaz kids. It's funny to the point of fun.
20) Closing Remarks - This is remarkable. It really sounds as if Yigal Calek sat through the concert crying, then stormed the stage to beg Lipa on the one hand to not suck every bit of reverence from the Jewish music artform, and Williger, on the other, to not suck every bit of joy. Amen, brother!
21) Finale
Conclusion:
Overall, this hit me as a trainwreck on many counts. There is no direction here at all from a musical or thematic standpoint. It sounds like someone backstage had cue-cards with song names and handed them out to random performers blindfolded. There are many redeeming factors, though. Among them, that HASC, the camp, is simply incredible.
Good night.
