Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

My Brit friend living in Japan, Michael Furmanovsky, who first introduced me to Alison Krauss (and African music) sent me an mp3 from her new collaboration with Robert Plant, Raising Sand (album website). I listened to it and thought: “Well, that’s very nice.” But to tell you the truth it didn’t send me [...]

I was listening to a music program of Middle Eastern music on KEXP the other day when this incredibly jaunty, joyful song aired. You don’t hear Hebrew too much on the public airwaves so I was immediately struck by this lovely Israeli song. After calling the DJ, I discovered that it was Mosh [...]

Marcel Khalife made a triumphant return to Seattle tonight to open the U.S. leg of his North American tour. 800 people gathered to hear him at Town Hall. The audience was mostly members of the local Arab American community though there were many world and Arab music lovers like myself as well.
It appears [...]

UPDATED: My reader, Amir, just provided new background and information about the song and I’ve updated this post.

One of my readers, Shamai Leibowitz, e-mailed me about a great song which he’s uploaded to YouTube called Heveinu Shalom Aleinu-Ma Ana Ajmal Min Salam. This is in no way to be confused with Heveinu Shalom Aleichem, [...]

Marcel Khalife cancelled by Salvation Army
I’ve been writing for a few days about the cancellation of the Marcel Khalife concert at the Joan Kroc Theater in San Diego. Right about now I feel like the Jack in the Box’s wagging head after it jumps out of the box. At first, I was outraged [...]

Eldridge Street front facade
First, a confession. When my wife and I married in 1998 in New York we had a musical problem. We’ve both been musicians and music, including Jewish music, were important to us. I especially love Jewish music. So we couldn’t have just any music at our wedding. [...]

Someone really has to give the Salvation Army a few basic lessons in artisitic expression and freedom of speech. I’m sorry to use such a term to describe Christian believers, but the people who made this decision deserve it: these jackasses committed to a performance by Marcel Khalife at the Joan Kroc Theater, built [...]

If you love world music and live in or near Seattle, you simply must hear Marcel Khalife perform at Town Hall on Sunday, October 7th. He is one of the world’s great oud players and one of Lebanon’s greatest contributions to international music. Khalife is perhaps best known for his long, fruitful musical [...]

I hear some of the most wonderful music on my local radio station, KBCS. One afternoon, I heard a cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ while listening to the car radio. It’s a song I’ve always been partial to. But this cover was something else. It was gorgeous with smooth, shimmering [...]

Well, not so fast with the cheering. The only reason I’m a JIB finalist is that I was nominated for Best Jewish Music Post and there weren’t enough nominees to have a first round vote. So I get to call myself a bona fide finalist. The post nominated is the one I [...]