A RAMBLES CD REVIEW
by Valerie Frankel
August 9, 2003
Rahel Jaskow sings haunting melodies, all dedicated to the Jewish Sabbath, on her new CD, Day of Rest. The singer selects her very favorite songs, performing them in beautiful harmonies, with a soft background of electric guitar and other instruments. These songs are all classics, ancient folk melodies that Jaskow resurrects in new and original ways.
The songs are very peaceful, suitable for any time of the week. Some of these songs are very popular selections, such as “Tsur Mishelo” and “Adon Olam.” Still, she picks some of the rarer tunes as she brings these old songs to new life. Other songs, such as “Le-Hai Olamim” and “Yah Ribon,” are more difficult to find in popular folk songs or prayers. The CD ends with “Lullaby in C,” an original piece that blends well with the collection. This is the only song with some English as well as Hebrew.
All of the songs appear in Hebrew, without a sheet of the words in any language. Still, these songs are very popular and widely distributed; many people already know the meanings. The tunes remain soft and peaceful. It’s a perfect collection for preparing for Shabbat, or for any other time.
SINGING IN THREE VOICES
from the weekend magazine of Makor Rishon, December 15,
2000. Reprinted by permission.
by Amira Erlich
The Sabbath table in my father’s home gave me some of my best-loved childhood memories. My father excelled at turning the Shabbat songs sometimes into entertaining games, and at other times into exciting concerts. He would sit at the head of the table surrounded by his young daughters who didn’t know yet how to sing in harmony, and he would try—even today we laugh at it in order to hide our wonder—to sing all the vocal parts at once. It seemed to us, young girls unskilled in music, that he really did manage to sing the songs we loved in three voices, and sometimes even in four, all by himself.
These memories came back to me when I listened to Rahel Jaskow’s new disc, “Day of Rest” (“Menuha”), which mostly contains Jaskow’s arrangements of Shabbat songs in several voices. Here is my father’s beloved magic returned: Jaskow, like my father, sings all the vocal parts by herself, using multiple recording techniques. My idyllic childhood memories will not be offended if I admit that the wonders of technology treat Jaskow well and leave my father a little bit behind. He observed the Sabbath, and at the table he had to be content with only what his natural voice could do.
Rahel Jaskow sings the Sabbath songs as they ought to sound: relaxed, heavenly and heart-warming. Her arrangements and pleasant voice (or voices) remind one of folk songs from the Middle Ages, and indeed Sabbath songs are mostly just that. And unlike the usual rushed atmosphere of the Sabbath table, here the listener finds himself thirsting for another verse, another refrain.
The exalted beauty of the arrangements on the disc is drawn from the familiarity and accessibility of the melodies. Jaskow proves that these well-known tunes are exemplary works, and that one doesn’t have to go far in order to find a rich Jewish musical culture.
At the end of the disc, Jaskow adds “Lullaby in C,” actually a love song written by Ray Scudero, for which she wrote the Hebrew version. Her personal style, as expressed by the choice of this song—the only one on the disc that is not a Sabbath song—is influenced by the perfect sound of the pure harmonies in the other tunes. Thus the singer-arranger ends Sabbath eve in a consecrated atmosphere, wishing the listeners—and also giving them—a night of rest.
(translated by Rahel Jaskow)
EXOTICA PAR EXCELLENCE
from Folknotes, the magazine of the Israel Folkstuff
Society, April 2001
by Larry Gamliel (1950–2003)
Reprinted by permission.
They say that confessions are good for the soul. Accordingly, I confess that when I reviewed Rahel Jaskow’s CD several months ago, I didn’t fully realize its uniqueness. I wrote that since it was somewhat specialized, it might not be for everyone. How wrong I was. Precisely because the material and performance are so extraordinary, Rahel’s disc is selling like hotcakes, both in Israel and abroad. Indeed, it has gone into a second printing. Yes, folks, I should have known better, but better late than never to give this very special lady and her music their due.
First about the woman, and then the dues. Rahel Jaskow was born in New York City, but when she was seven, her family moved way beyond the suburbs to rural Monroe. At first she stood out academically: she was what you might call a rather smart cookie. However, as she is wont to muse a bit ruefully, smart cookies do not necessarily stand out in the baking pan of teen social life. So she compensated by developing a dream. At eleven, she went to Jewish summer camp and learned Shabbat songs for the first time. Ever since then, she says, she carried the songs in her mind along with the harmonies she created, and waited for the time they would emerge to be heard by others. In the interim, she studied drama and English literature, and worked as a DJ at a National Public Radio affiliate in Rochester, New York. Those of you who remember Radio West may well recall Rahel’s dulcet tones as she presented the Sabbath Eve program.
In her late teens Rahel became observant. During college and afterwards, she visited Israel several times as an army volunteer. Even as a little girl, she had fallen in love with Hebrew music. After her fourth stint in Israeli khaki, Rahel packed all her belongings and made aliya. Well, she did, but her belongings didn’t. They were thrown off the ship during a storm at sea. (Rahel, the daughter of a former Merchant Marine seaman, mourned the loss of her belongings but notes with gratitude that the ship and her crew made it safely to port.)
And so Rahel arrived in Israel. She did a final volunteer spell in the army, then made her way to Jerusalem.
While working at her day job, she discovered she had a knack for healing. So she studied with Yonina Jacobs, a decision that changed her life. (One of Rahel’s many enduring traits is her willingness to use her healing hands on tight muscles and aching bones. I can tell you from personal experience, it is so very nice.)
It was inevitable that Rahel’s beautiful voice began to attract attention. I first heard her perform at the second AACI song festival in 1997. For me, it was love at first sound. Shortly after that, she realized one of her ongoing dreams when she was introduced to Shuly Nathan, who first sang Naomi Shemer’s Jerusalem of Gold. A fast friendship developed between them, and now Rahel occasionally accompanies Shuly in concert.
Rahel insists that she does not regard herself as a folk singer per se. But none of the folkies who heard her would agree. As a result, she kept getting invited to home hoots and folk clubs where she met an increasing number of singers and musicians upon whom she made a profound impression. She began to be invited to perform, first as a vocal accompanist and then as a solo performer in her own right. She has appeared all over the country and has captured the hearts of all who’ve heard her.
And now we come to the crux. Last spring, Rahel met Ray Scudero. She had long admired his songs and musicianship from afar, and had hoped she might work with him one day. So when Ray opened his new recording studio last year, she set to work with his assistance to bring her childhood dream to fruition. The creative energy was amazing, she tells me. Between Rahel’s singing and Ray’s expert engineering, they constructed an exquisite weave of music. Since I missed the boat before, you all are just going to have to bear with me while I expostulate about why people are buying the resulting disc, “Day of Rest.”
First, Rahel’s voice. Plainly stated, it is very beautiful: soft, warm, clear as a gentle glass bell, and especially vibrant. It comes to her naturally.
Second, her harmonies. I might be ignorant, but I have yet to hear a local artist put down three- and even four-part harmonies, which are so musically precise and clean as a whistle. And please note, not a shred of printed music; it’s all in her head.
Third, the disc is mostly a cappella, with instrumentation on only three tracks. Vocal ensembles are the ones who are supposed to do that sort of thing and get away with it. But one person? You’d better believe it, folks.
Fourth: the material. I must have fallen into the trap of thinking that all lovers of folk music prefer bluegrass, or blues, or Celtic, or just about anything in the English language. But Hebrew? Liturgical traditional Jewish stuff? Could it be? It could and it was. It transpires that not only local people liked it and bought it. Rahel put her disc up on the Net at a site called CD Baby. Has it sold? Has it ever! In addition, a gentleman named Noel Paul Stookey—that is, Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary—heard it and was enthralled. Thus, Rahel joins a small, august company of Israeli English-speaking recording artists who have gained fame and acclaim through the Net.
Rahel probably can’t buy the Brooklyn Bridge just yet. But what she has achieved should serve as an inspiration to all those with music on their lips and dreams in their hearts.
Rahel loves the Stephen Foster classic, “Hard Times.” We have sung it together often, and she considered the song a personal anthem until not so long ago. Now that things seem to be opening up for her, let me voice the congratulations of all those who treasure her as a friend and enjoy her wonderful music.
I HEARD IT ON THE RADIO
from The Jerusalem Post, May 23, 2001
by Barry Davis
Rahel Jaskow’s Day of Rest is a personal and intimate album of Shabbat "favorites." The artist says that, for her, the best part of Shabbat is the music and she demonstrates her love of "zemirot shel Shabbat" (Shabbat songs) with a mostly a-cappella performance of 14 of her own day-of-rest musical fare.
Several of the renditions will, no doubt, be instantly recognizable to some listeners, particularly “Tzur Mishelo” and “Ki Eshmera Shabbat.”
Jaskow, with the help of locally renowned musician and record producer Ray Scudero, makes generous use of multi-tracking to produce homogeneous choral harmonies in the absence of instrumental accompaniment.
The inclusion of three instrumentally embellished tracks adds variety to the end product and seasons the strongly liturgical quality of the a-cappella material. Jaskow’s vibrato vocals impart a sense of spiritual intensity along with her sonorous delivery and the echo effect is, presumably, designed to recreate a sort of expansive synagogue feel.
The album closes with the non-liturgical “Lullaby in C” in which Jaskow is accompanied by Scudero on guitar with the latter adding his highly contrasting throaty vocals.