December 27, 1999
Aguda Achat
Gal Paz
Udi Ullman, the son of the chazan of Jerusalem's Great Synagogue, shows tremendous potential on his first album, Aguda Achat. This album features some of the best musicians in the world of hassidic music today, including Ron Vered on drums, Yaron Gottfried on piano, Avi Singolda on guitars, Dani Flam on trombone, and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra string section.
With such huge potential, I was disappointed to hear the opening track of the album, which features only synthesized music. In fact, every odd-numbered track on the album is synthesized.
However, as the album progresses, the other songs fulfill the huge potential such a fine collection of artists promises. And Ullman's voice is light and melodious, at home with both full instrumentation and the synthesizer. He blends in quite nicely with the accompaniment, and over all, the album is quite pleasant to listen to.
After the first impression, I found that the blend of styles fits quite nicely on this album, with the synthesizer playing its role quite nicely in most cases. This is especially true on the final track, a remake of the first. Whereas the first track is fully synthesized, the final one is live instrumentation with just a touch of synthesizer to fill in some holes.
In addition to original compositions, mostly by newcomer Yuval Stupel, there are a couple of interesting remakes. Track two is a cover of the classic Lema'an Achai from Shma Kolenu, written by Mutty Kornfeld. It is not often than one can improve on an original, especially a classic, but this mix of Ullman's voice, full instrumentation, and choral background vocals is flawless.
In general, I found the background vocals too heavy, and a poor foil for Ullman's cheery voice. The album probably could have done without them except for the second track. On most others, they were more of a burden than a benefit to the music.
Although the catchier tunes here are generally the synthesized ones, the true mastery of the music comes through with the professional musicians and their real instruments. While the mix between the two styles is, at times, impressive, the heavy reliance on the synthesizer detracts from an otherwise outstanding first effort.
Mendi Jerufi
Veyadata Hayom
Gal Paz
Mendi Jerufi is one of the hottest Israeli traditional singers around. On this, his third album, the combination of Singolda and Flam once again impresses.
Jerufi provides a nice change from some of the more popular North American singers, with a light, carefree, and joyous voice, which comes through on most of the tracks on this album. In particular, Ashira Lashem is an airy, relaxing song that is free of the stress found in most mainstream albums. There is also an upbeat number recalling the history of the city of Shchem.
Jerufi is among the more rare breed of Jewish performer, having proven himself adept at the art of composing as well as performing his own works. While the style of the songs on this album fits well within the mainstream Jewish sound that includes such well-known stars as Mordechai Ben-David, Avraham Fried, Dedi Graucher, and Shloimie Dachs, he is definitely one of the better acts around today.
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