Hanukkah music for grown-ups

By , December 5, 2014 3:13 pm
Portrait of jazz musician and cantor Kenny Ellis with Vintage microphone

Everyone loves the traditional Hanukkah songs we all learned in childhood.  We teach these songs to our children and our grandchildren. L’dor v’dor.

Today we highlight an album that encourages us to experience Hanukkah as an adult. Embracing the mood and sounds of Swing and Jazz era music, Kenny Ellis has created a truly one-of-a-kind album.

The album includes many old favorites and two wonderful medleys that evoke an upbeat Post WW2 vibe. This is Hanukkah music as you have never heard it before. Read More About This…

Yiddish recordings a big hit at international conference

By , November 19, 2014 8:52 pm
RSA Assistant Director, Maxine Schackman, at the IAYC conference on Nov. 15 in Boca Raton, FL.
RSA Assistant Director, Maxine Schackman, at the IAYC conference on Nov. 15 in Boca Raton, FL.

RSA assistant director, Maxine Schackman, told the audience at the International Association of Yiddish Clubs  conference in Boca Raton that FAU Libraries has been collecting Judaic recordings since 2002.

“We take these antique recordings and digitize them so that a new generation can learn and enjoy what came before them,” she said. Read More About This…

Cantor Todros Greenberg: a family pays homage to their roots

By , November 5, 2014 6:17 pm
Photo of Cantor Todros Greenberg

Cantor Todros Greenberg’s great-granddaughter wanted her son to hear his great-great- grandfather sing, but all she had was a tangle of tapes from dozens of reel-to-reel recordings. What could she do?

After locating a box full of tapes belonging to her great-grandfather, Cheryl Silver reached out to the JSA. With her son Noah’s Bar Mitzvah only a few months away she wanted to preserve the music on the tapes as part of Noah’s Mitzvah Project.

Although most of the tapes seemed to be in fairly good condition they were in total disarray. The home-made tapes were not clearly identified. We had no idea who was singing what on which tape. Read More About This…

Vinyl record give-away a big hit with FAU students

By , October 23, 2014 6:52 pm
FAU students Allyson and Alexander browse through vinyl LPs.
FAU students Allyson and Alexander browse through vinyl LPs.

Over 300 FAU students and invited guests participated in the Recorded Sound Archives Vinyl Record Give-away event on October 20 and 21, 2014 at the Wimberly Library’s fifth floor on FAU’s Boca Raton campus.

More than 1,500 vinyl LP records were distributed as well as cassette tapes, and 45 rpm records (singles). Read More About This…

Austrian museum explores Jewish influence on recorded music

By , October 8, 2014 4:23 pm
Exhibit in Austria - Jukebox Jewkbox

According to the website  of the Hohenems Jewish Museum in Austria the exhibit presents the history of Jewish recordings “from the first gramophones and shellac records to the dissolution of this medium in World Wide Web.”

This sounds like a wonderful project. Looking at sound recordings as cultural mirrors of the 20th century experience, the exhibitors write that “the omnipresent sound of the 20th century, its best known songs, musicals and soundtracks was not always Jewish music – but always also a product of Jewish history and experience.” Read More About This…

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