'Chava Alberstein' History:
Bio Chava AlbersteinCertainly the most accomplished, most successful singer in Israeli history, Chava Alberstein has released nearly 50 recordings since the 1960s, a dozen of which have gone gold, three platinum and one triple platinum. No less than six of her albums have been awarded Israel's Grammy, the Kinor David Prize. "If we have a true folk singer it is Chava Alberstein. An ever updating survivor of a long gone tradition, who mixes chanson with Jewish soul music. A quality singer, a gifted story-teller, a fascinating interpreter, a non-stop developer," according to Yediot Aharonot, Israel's largest daily newspaper. Unlike her l998 release, The Well, a project she did with the New York based band The Klezmatics, where she set new music to the best of 20th Century Yiddish poetry, Yiddish Songs is a collage of previously recorded classics. The collection celebrates one of the most fascinating aspects of Chava's phenomenal success; her ability to embrace and reinvigorate the Yiddish language and culture against all the odds. As Chava explains, "in the beginning of the State of Israel, people like Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister, were fighting against Yiddish, because to create something new you have to destroy something old. I don't approve, but I understand this. It was to create a new national identity. But we lost a great cultural treasure, because Yiddish is literature, poetry." These songs provide a bridge from the fast-fading, neglected Yiddish culture, set in decline since the second world war, to a new audience, firmly ensconced in the new Israeli culture and a reinvented Hebrew language. But this collection doesn't just reinvigorate Yiddish for the benefit of the prevailing Israeli culture. It promises to bring memorable Yiddish music to the huge audience worldwide that is already smitten by Chava's voice and style. Chava has shared a passion for Yiddish culture from the outset of her career. "You have to do your own thing and mine, in the beginning, was Yiddish," says Chava, who confidently showcased herself at the tender age of 17, with a record in Yiddish against the fashionable Hebrew tide. In time she has also won worldwide acclaim for her Hebrew albums, but throughout her career she has always returned to Yiddish repertoire. Now she is reanimating the Yiddish tradition and proudly rediscovering its vibrancy. Chava describes this selection of songs as 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. They 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. There are also songs concerning contemporary Yiddish history, including the rebellion of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust. All songs are accompanied by a commentary in the sleeve notes by Chava herself. The songs are all chosen by Chava, and present a rich, complex and compassionate portrait of Yiddish life gone by, in a language that the artist is passionate to preserve. "It is part of my daily life, I know it is dying but I don't want to think about it as a dying language. It is living for me. And maybe that's why people are reacting to it. I refuse to think it's dying. Language is a lot things, it is a great treasure, it is also a music in itself, even if you don't understand it." source: http://www.bluenote.com/artistpage.asp?ArtistID=3656&tab=1 |
Chava Alberstein Discography:
| the early years-disc 6-loo ye'hee | |
| yiddish songs |
