Concert Review
THE AFRO-SEMITIC EXPERIENCE IN CONCERT
at Congregation B'nai Keshet in Montclair, New Jersey, January 8, 2005
Reviewed by Carlos Ramos
(reprinted from The Rainbow Reporter, February 2005)
Imagine Charles Mingus sitting in with a Klezmer band, playing Gospel music set to the polyrhythmic pace of the congas and bongos. Such seemed the case on January 8th when the Afro-Semitic Experience transformed Bnai Keshet into a whoopin', hollerin', testifyin' celebration of multicultural soul music.
Not only does the Connecticut-based band combine a multitude of musical forms: Jazz, Gospel, Klezmer, Swing, Blues, and even Funk, it also takes most of its compositional inspiration from traditional Jewish-American and African-American sacred music. The concert included modern, stylized renditions of "Eliyahu Ha Navi" and "Let Us Break Bread Together". Indeed, the founders David Chevan (bass) and Warren Byrd (piano), who met in the mid-90's at a gig at the Foxwoods Casino Resort, created this musical project to draw on the rich spiritual heritage of the Jewish nigunim (melodies) and the black church spirituals of their respective childhoods. The two discovered that the music they grew up with and formed who they are today, could be combined through the common language of Jazz to form a new powerful expression of the human experience—the Afro-Semitic Experience. The result is an elegant musical repertoire that reflects the universal struggles and hopes of peoples with similar histories of slavery, oppression, redemption, and plenty of humor.
The concert opened with "Sha Shtil", a funked-up version of a traditional Yiddish song arranged by Chevan and delivered with Arabic overtones (think Ellington's Far East Suite). This groove set the tone for a night of cultural fusion, improvisation in the finest tradition of Jazz performances, and frequent playful dueling between band members - the "call-and-response" that harkens back through hip-hop, to Jazz, to traditional African musical storytelling. At times contemplative and at times rollicking, the band gave reverence to melodies from worship services stretching back generations, yet equally appealed to modern secular sensibilities. The band was also not above the occasional banter that poked fun at different members.
Those other members of the Afro-Semitic Experience included Alvin Carter, Jr. on drums and percussion, Baba David Coleman on percussion - an Orisha priest and the "spiritual center of the band", Grammy award winning Stacy Phillips on violin, dobro (a lap steel guitar), and Will Bartlett on saxophone and clarinet.
If you peeked into the sanctuary you could see that the seventh member of the band was actually the BK audience itself, which collectively sighed and gasped, foot-stomped and cheered as it was taken on a ride through the musically familiar and unfamiliar.
The band's very existence is not only a statement against Racism and Anti-Semitism, but also confronts head on the tension and distrust that sometimes occurs between Blacks and Jews. Decades after the Civil Rights Movement saw an alliance between the two communities to fight issues of injustice on a national scale (we immediately think of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, whose murderers may finally face trial this year), the Afro-Semitic Experience continues that alliance based on mutual respect and love.
There is still much work to be done on the non-musical front, but it's comforting to know that even in an age marked by violent crises at home and around the world, when ancient cultures clash over what seems irreconcilable differences, that there exist collaborators like Chevan and Byrd who in their way bring together the best of their separate traditions, find commonality, and put forth a vision of hope and transcendence. We all need to continue on that ride as the seventh member.
As Dizzy Gillespie would say "into the realm of the metaphysical."
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