Contents: Ray Scudero: Fountain of Song; Prayer for Ray; Banjo Bonanza; A Mighty Wind; Spirit in the Dark

Ray Scudero:

Fountain of Song

Songs seem to burst forth from Ray Scudero like the apparently endless supply of water droplets springing from an elaborate fountain. As water nourishes the body, Ray writes songs that spill into every aspect of life and salve the soul. He is not only the fountain: he is also the river carrying the music to all with his expressive voice that accompanies his virtuoso instrumental ability on his own home-luthiered instruments. As this river of song flows towards the sea, different people are touched in various ways. In recent years, the tributary named Joanna joined this vibrant stream, contributing new waters from similar high ground.

We've all been left standing dry and helpless on the shore during these past months, as Ray's illness has kept him from captaining his boat. Then Marc Gittelson, his long-time shipmate and anchorman, had a brilliant idea: a benefit evening of Ray's songs alone. This would constitute only a small bucket from Ray's vast resources, but it would go a small way toward reminding people of the riches that his music offers. Lynn and Judi Lewis agreed to provide the port of call (Kibbutz Tzora's Pundak), and Jill Rogoff agreed to set the sails in Marc’s absence.

Joanna & Ray – JL 2002

It was not hard to find a number of musicians who hold particular songs in special affection. The currents running in Ray's river of songs include love, childhood, sadness, anger, protest (even spotted owls), old age, humor, social comment, transportation (even the Egged bus), science and the beloved sea. It is a tribute to Ray's diversity that no one musician can adequately portray all his streams of music. On the appointed evening the seas were magnificently calm, and the ship was filled to capacity with 250. Regretfully, a few would-be stowaways had to be turned away. The fortunate passengers set out on their New Year’s Eve voyage guided by a crew of 16, in varying configurations addressing the task that Ray can pull off like a sail, deftly changing angles with sudden shifts in the winds. Jill Rogoff was at the helm this magical evening, running a tight ship, while Marc Gittelson emceed in his inimically witty fashion.

The embarkation song was to have been Joanna’s Prayer for Ray (see below), but as she and Ray were unable to attend, Jill stepped in to lead the singing of this beautiful entreaty, followed by that great warmer-upper of passengers and audiences everywhere, Northern Wind. It was appropriate to hear Tal and Lisa Rogoff, the youngest crewmembers, performing the whimsical Jenny’s Song. Ray was particularly touched by their participation, as he has known them since Lisa was a babe in her bunk. The child inside also came out in Ray’s setting of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, Bed in Summer, which was presented by the young at heart, Tarnation (Joshua Goodman & Judi Ganchrow), with a little help “by day” from the young at heart passengers.

Batsheva’s lovely voice suited Starchild and Wildflower Bouquet to a T‚ while Shaun and Marianne’s lively rendition of O Boy had everyone rocking. Rahel Jaskow performed her translation into Hebrew of Lullaby in C, which is always a favorite, while Sandy Cash gave a charged reminder to everyone of Ray’s wit with several songs, including his stinging satire Galileo Galilei. Cyrelle Forman-Sofer guided us along her early morning New York City streets of Poor Working Slob with gusto, as required by this torrent of witty commentary. And Ray’s well-trained audience didn’t miss joining in on that great sing-along chorus.

Not everyone remembered the powerful Till Someone Dares, which Jill sang, followed by a full gospel rendition of Sky Has Broken, surprising some folks. Our gracious hosts Judi and Lynn began guiding us back to shore with their selection of gentle, perfectly rendered love songs, including the popular Picture Puzzle Way. If some of these songs seem to have been written for them, well, they were. At journey’s end, they called all the crew up for the first of Ray’s songs that we ever heard: the much-loved Horizon Dawn. How poignant the lyrics were on this night, with Ray in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.

Throughout the voyage the line-up was kept firmly on deck by the warm guidance of guitarist Shay Tochner and guitarone-player-par-excellence Marc Gittelson and an occasional mandolin run from Paul Graham. Many talented musicians contributed from the passenger side, and the evening ended with dancing and gaiety and a fine shipboard spread of food and drink.

Ray – spring 1998

The passengers returned home in the New Year, carrying with them songs that perhaps they had heard for the first time, songs that were old friends that had once been forgotten, and songs they wanted to share.

It wasn’t the same as hearing Ray sing his songs himself, but it was still enjoyable to hear new interpretations of these songs. Furthermore, the musicians –

and particularly those who might never have tried singing them before - gained not only a musical experience, but a moving personal one as well: the joy of singing songs so beautifully crafted by our finest sailor.

--Judi Ganchrow

Prayer for Ray

Over the sunrise and into the dawn,

Pray to the sky that his life will live on.

Down through the valleys and up by the trees,

Warring the fight of his life.

Chorus:

And we sing our hope for the future:

Let us join now our hands as we rise up in song,

And we pray and we cry and we call out once more,

And we ask that his life will live on.

High noon has passed and the river flows on;

Tribute was paid as the legend lives on.

While tears paid some debts and apologies rained,

And the closest are pushed far away.

(Chorus)

On to the sunset and into the dusk,

Onward he sails though honest he must.

'Cause we never know of the length of our days:

Weigh careful the wake of your ways,

Weigh careful the wake of your ways.

Ray and Joanna’s disk

Poor Working Slob

is out of print. If you want to order a copy of the next printing, please send an email to Joanna : joannak1@netvision.net.il

BANJO BONANZA

Q: What do you call a good musician at a banjo contest?

A: A visitor. (from the internet's "Canonical List of Banjo Jokes" http://bluegrassbanjo.org/banjokes.html)

Well neighbors, that was almost the situation as there were four local banjer players up on yonder stage, each apickin’ away, until a visitor from San Francisco showed 'em how it should be done. But that was the grand finale, and grand it was indeed.

It all started 3½ hours earlier at the TAFC on Feb 4th where I filled in for Ariela’s hoarse throat. Did the Kinston Trio's Three Jolly Coachmen and then East Virginia on home-made banjo and store bought harmonica. Then I changed gears by inviting Mira Moreno to do a sultry jazz version of Love Me Tender. We were now "set-up" for the next guests Judy Buchman Ziv and Hagai Ashkenazi on electric guitar, who knocked everyone out with the Etta James show stopper Stacked Deck. That was followed by a jazzy version of Stormy Weather, and then some sweet R&R. It was a hard act to follow but Michael Greengard displayed his undeniable talent on guitar; infusing intensity and honesty into a performance that was just pure joy to behold. He wowed everyone with an arrangement of a Queen number that, in the opinion of many, was much better than the original. He had everyone singing along on The Cat Came Back. The guy next to me had never heard it before and exclaimed "what a cataclysmic song" (the world gets blown up - but the cat came back the very next day). Then it was the cherry on top: Sandy Cash debuting the songs from her new 2^nd CD, and it was an amazing set. She sings beautifully and plays terrific guitar accompaniments to her uniquely special songs that deal with family life and urban quandaries. All her songs were great but two especially stuck in my mind: The Boy Next Door and the Mad-Lib Song. Sandy will be taking her music on tour in the States soon and the Yanks are in for a treat.

Then it was time to break the banjo barrier and the Israeli record, by accum- ulating five (count 'em, hamsa) five-string banjo players all on the same stage. OK, we've had Larry Brandt bring his tenor banjos to jams/work shops and some five-string banjos might have joined in, but as far as I know, there have never been five five-string banjos on one stage at the same time in Israel, and even if there were, it's the first time I've heard five banjos anywhere, playing in beautiful unison and no clashing – and no rehearsal! Musta been Shay Tochner's doing. He gave us strict instructions at the outset, and I think that's what helped. Shay was the sole guitar valiantly holding down the fort. I tried to fill in the spaces by vamping mandolin-type chords and soloing on the harmonica.

When Jonathan Miller asked me what record was broken, was it a Tzvika Pik record that we broke? After the Macabbi vs Latvia game the Banot Pik (his daughters) did the Dana International song Diva on the parquet. They jumped around and were awful. Then a phone-in popularity contest for choosing the Israeli song that David Daor will sing at the Eurovision song contest produced a truly lousy choice. Gimme the mega banjos instead anytime.

So who are these Banjo Barons you ask? Jordan Klein, the young fella from Frisco I mentioned above, showed us how it's done. He played beautifully, had super Scruggs technique and sang well. He was funny too, with a great laid-back stage presence. He said that a country music revival was sparked after Brother Where Art Thou, and there are about 20 country groups in the Bay Area alone. Hillel Mogle shone and did some amazing picking. Our home-grown kid is doing us proud. Yitz – is Yitz and did his thing. Ronny Pollack was ditto + music stand. Me, well I was ditto minus music stand. We played the old bluegrass warhorses like Orange Blossom Special, Rollin In My Sweet Baby's Arms, etc. We last 3 guys played very unobtrusively and let the two real banjo players trade solos and show off their stuff. It was wonderful. (sigh)

When I was little, my uncle once put me on his shoulders to watch a multitude of Mummers (banjo players) march down the main street of Philly. Musta been traumatized. It all came back to me at the TAFC. I thought I was cured. Phil Ochs used to sing What'sThat I Hear Now Ringing In My Ears? For the answer, read above.

--Harold Jacobs

A MIGHTY WIND

   A new film has hit European theatres: A MIGHTY WIND – and it’s blowing our way! Directed and written by Christopher Guest, in collaboration with Eugene Levy, this is a send-up (they are calling it a “mockumentary”) of the folk scene in the United States before Bob Dylan got everyone all shook up. The main targets are groups that suspiciously echo combos of the time, such as The Kingston Trio (The Folksmen), The New Christy Minstrels (The New Main Street Singers), and Ian and Sylvia (Mitch and Mickey). In the film Irving Steinbloom, the former promoter of these groups, has died, and his son – apparently unaware of the less than pretty sides of his late father's behaviour - decides to bring his favorite acts together for a memorial concert.
   The jokes flow thick and fast for people familiar with this early period in the folk revival, when singer-songwriters were taking off for the first time, and before really serious research into traditional music became more respectable. The film pokes fun at the hokeyness and at the commercialism of some of the early performers who, Guest seems to claim, simply jumped on the bandwagon without respecting the musical traditions of the people in whose archives they fossicked.
   It's fun to watch and listen to, but the satire is balanced by some poignancy, too - particularly with reference to the story of "Mitch and Mickey." Mitch has suffered a nervous breakdown, and his fumbling attempts to fit in are truly touching. You just want to weep for the guy.
    What Guest and Levy seem to miss, however (or maybe they just don't know about it) is the camaraderie that can develop when a bunch of musicians get together to sing a rousing song together. A Mighty Wind is, of course, a reference to the Dylan classic Blowin' in the Wind. Watching and listening to the performance of this fake song, however, I was reminded of all the times that Kibbutz Galuyot gathered together on stages in the past to sing Love Is - the incredible rush and feeling of joy that it brought. This has been repeated time and again at private gatherings, with people singing All My Trials or The Water is Wide, to name two particular favorites of some of the local folkies, and most recently at the New Year's Eve benefit for Ray Scudero, when all the musicians assembled for the final ensemble number, Ray's beloved Horizon Dawn.

Jill at the Concert of Ray’s Songs

Laughter, sneering, or criticism aside, these are special moments that people remember for years afterwards, regardless of the nagging question of “authenticity.” Any acknowledgement of something genuine arising out of such meetings is entirely missing in this film, however. What a pity. See what you think, when A Mighty Wind blows your way.

-- Jill Rogoff

Spirit In The Dark

During the recent memorial concert for Larry Gamliel at the Biblical Zoo, there was a lot of beauty, sincerity, warmth, love and inspired music by his friends and fellow

musicians. His spirit so permeated the atmosphere that, when a sudden power failure threw the small theatre into pitch darkness, I felt he was again laughing at (and with) the majority of us in the audience, while the two visually challenged members of the audience felt perfectly comfortable, since Judi and Lynn’s unplugged music continued to flow unimpeded. (The electricity returned a short while later.)

Batya Walker had written a great song in Larry’s memory and handed out song sheets with the quirky lyrics. He would have loved them, and they truly reflect his love and mastery of all types of popular music; even a Porky Pig impersonation of “D-d-d-dats all folks”!

Some of the song’s most poignant lines, which we all identified with, were:

We would sigh we would die with the heroes in our tunes…

How’d you make each friend feel like a star?

The gifts that you shared will always remain…

There’s a huge void where you went away…

Goodbye is a word we weren’t ready to say…

And it ends with:

There were songs, there are songs, there’ll be songs –

But our favorite song was you.

Batya’s gem was mounted in the solid love and longing of so many people who weren’t ready to say goodbye so soon. It’s just incomprehensible and abysmal and compels us to endeavor to capture and cultivate some of his amazing spirit as best as we can. This can be manifested in his quest for human equality on all levels of his life. During the break I chatted with Susan, who was guided by a beautiful golden seeing-eye dog. She told me how Larry taught her how to use a computer to type out comedy routines that he loved. I guess that Larry’s credo was “laugh and love,” and we loved to learn how to laugh and love with him.

Shelly Ellen superbly performed Good Morning Blues (“I woke up in the mornin with the blues”), since Larry was a true blues enthusiast. (When I got up on the stage I said that one could sometimes read on a true blues musician’s gravestone: “I DIDN’T wake up in the mornin.”)

Earlier in the evening, a woman asked me what instrument I play, and I replied that I play them all on my tape recorder, and so I played part of a comedy routine that Larry especially liked. It was from Mel Brooke’s “2013 year old man interview” in which Carl Reiner asks the old man, “Did you believe in anything? Did you believe in a superior being?”

A: Yes, a guy, Phil.

Q: Who was Phil?

A: Philip, the leader of our tribe.

Q: What made him the leader?

A: Very big, very strong, a big beard, a big chest, big arms and I mean, he could just kill you and walk on you and you could die.

Q: You revered him?

A: We prayed to him. Would you like to hear one of our prayers?

Q: Do your remember these prayers?

A: “Oooooh Philip, please don’t take our eyes out, and don’t pinch us, and don’t

hoyt us, uuumayn” - that was it.

Q: And Philip did these things for you and you followed him?

A: Yes.

Q: How long was his reign?

A: Not too long, not too long, because one day Philip was hit by lightning and we looked up and said … there’s something bigger than Phiiiil!

Shelley and Sharon – for Larry, January 2004

The interview goes on to explain how the Lord’s name developed from the initial

name: gevalt!! After that I played a harmonica and guitar intro to Van Morrison’s When The Leaves Begin To Fall, whose chords I had just figured out the night before. I guess it went over well and the words made their mark because when I sat down afterwards I could see tears streaming down some people’s faces.

The evening ended with about 12 women (Larry’s “harem”) and the audience

solemnly singing Amazing Grace – yes, we were praying to … Philip.

--Harold Jacobs

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Here at last!

Jill Rogoff’s new album:

The King’s Well

all original songs and poem-settings

MILESTONES

Happy Birthday to: David Baron, Barbara Hochman, Julian Newman, Lisa Rogoff,

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FolkNotes Staff: Bev Burge, Sherry Whetstone, Carol Fuchs, and Cecile Panzer

March 2004

Folk Notes

Contents: Ray Scudero: Fountain of Song; Prayer for Ray; Banjo Bonanza; A Mighty Wind; Spirit in the Dark

BANJO BONANZA

Spirit In The Dark

The King’s Well

MILESTONES