Kedmah is intentional Mizrahi music for our times
Kedmah is intentional Mizrahi music for our times
The musical outreach project from The Rising Song Institute recently released their first album "Simu Lev"
On May 15, Yosef Goldman and Yoni Battat recently had the honor of playing at the Kennedy Center for Jewish American Heritage Month alongside Frank London and Susana Behar. What brought them to the premier performing arts center in America’s capital was their new album released in April, "Simu Lev" and their new project centering Mizrahi Jewish music called Kedmah.
Mixed heritage, mixed music
Yosef Goldman grew up in New York City. Growing up in a mixed Ashkenazi-Mizrahi home, he describes the eclecticism of his Jewish spiritual upbringing. "I was in a lot of different orthodox synagogues spaces from Hasidic shuls to Modern Orthodox synagogues to Carlebach shuls and Mizrahi synagogues in in Brooklyn," says Goldman. Musically he would grow up studying music and piano, but central for Goldman was the time he spent in choirs.
Yoni Battat, like Goldman, is of mixed Ashkenazi-Mizrahi heritage and also describes an eclecticism of Jewish experience growing up in Connecticut. "I went to a Solomon Schechter Day School, but found myself in a lot of different spaces, because I played music for services… Our main synagogue was a Chabad synagogue, so I also had a lot of exposure to Orthodox spaces and had my bar mitzvah at Chabad."
Goldman would become increasingly interested in sacred music in particular. He would grow up to study to become a cantor and rabbi and in the process become heavily invested in singing and drumming in particular. While Goldman was delving into worship music, Battat explored the instrumental realm. Battat has a laundry list of genres and ensembles he got to explore from high school through a graduate program in classical viola. From jazz to klezmer to Persian music and salsa among others, Battat has played a lot of styles.
Finding affinity at the Rising Song Institute
Where Battat and Goldman would converge before meeting was a shared interest in Middle Eastern music which they both have made a point of exploring throughout their lives.
"It wasn't until I was 16 that I heard traditional and older Arab music. I also had a lesson that exposed me for the first time to microtonal tuning systems of the Middle East. And that was really formative for me. Even though I didn't grow up with it, I think that challenge really shaped me to try and learn this music and internalize it. Despite it being my own heritage and having an Iraqi family. It still feels like I'm coming at it as an outsider, even if it's my own culture." — Yoni Battat
Goldman notes Ronnie Ish-Ran as a particularly important teacher as he began to explore the vocal side of maqam and other Arab music traditions.
Goldman and Battat would then meet through participation in the Rising Song Institute (RSI), the musical wing of Hadar, an organization dedicated to enlivening Jewish spiritual life. Goldman met RSI's founder Joey Weisenberg in 2010 and has been heavily involved in the institute's programming since its inception.
"Simu Lev" and intentional Mizrahi music outreach
Battat and Goldman both describe "Simu Lev" and the Kedmah project coming about as a natural outcome of working together through RSI. Both were supporting each other's musical endeavors and had the same shared passion for Middle Eastern styles and exploring Mizrahi music. The Kedmah project at a certain point seemed inevitable.
"Simu Lev" ended up being an album comprised of contemporary manifestations of Mizrahi prayer melodies. As Goldman describes, the album is neither strictly traditional nor simply fusion music. While "Simu Lev" doesn't strictly adhere to traditional instrumentation and uses a lot of modern musical and recording techniques, it also isn't an exercise in genre blending for the sake of genre blending. It preserves the traditional techniques, performance and spirit of Mizrahi and Arab music styles, but is revamped for a contemporary audience.
Describing the recording session, Goldman mentions the spiritual intention with which he, Battat and their collaborators approached it. "We had a table in the main room with photographs of ancestors and teachers and also physical artifacts, such as siddurim from Edot HaMizrach that belong to ancestors. There was a cherished Hebrew-Arabic dictionary that belonged to somebody's grandparents, a Yemenite silver filigree Kiddush cup, a mold for ma'amoul pastries…it felt very prayerful," said Goldman.
"The intention is Kedmah will be a musical and educational initiative where we will share Mizrahi music from concerts to interactive song sessions to workshops and classes," explains Goldman.
Knowing that outreach will inevitably reach a broader audience than just the Mizrahi community, Goldman and Battat both have a sense of being intentional and authentic in sharing the Mizrahi tradition they are stewarding. "It's not plug and play," says Goldman, knowing that non-Western music styles are placed inside of Western frameworks in the name of education.
"My hope is that this leads people to have some curiosity," says Battat. "I think by coming in person and being able to present this music in an authentic form, I'm hoping that we can help to build more cultural literacy in our communities and more appreciation of the diversity within our Jewish community."
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