music of memory and mourning

Fri., Dec 19

David Chevan describes his life as a "dual existence as a teacher and a performer," but he quickly corrects himself. "Actually, it's really one great big life, not really a dual life. I'm often on a plane somewhere, grading papers."

Chevan's "great big life" centers around music, both on and off campus. He travels often with his band, the Afro-Semitic Experience, and as a music professor at Southern, he teaches classes and directs ensembles, producing several concerts a year. The concerts are "a place where our students get to excel," he says.

And Chevan should know something about excellence. His latest album, "Yizkor: Music of Memory," with Hazzan Albert Mizrahi and the Afro-Semitic Experience, is doing well, and the performers will premiere the work in Chicago in January to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. The Afro-Semitic Experience has received much praise over the years, but recently the group's visibility increased with a glowing review of "Yizkor" in the Wall Street Journal.

Noted writer and jazz critic Nat Hentoff, reviewing the album in the Oct. 7 issue of the Journal, wrote, "I've been in Hasidic synagogues where prayers are continually lifted by music, but never before have I heard this lyrically powerful a fusion of Jewish and jazz souls on fire." Hentoff's positive review of the album in a national publication is a big feather in the cap of Chevan and the Afro-Semitic Experience and "a nice moment on the path," Chevan says, referring to the 11 years the group has been together. "It was incredibly gracious of Hentoff to write what he did."

The album, composed by Chevan, is an original setting of the Jewish memorial service, the Yizkor, which Chevan explains is akin to a Requiem Mass. The melodies Chevan composed are based on a style of singing called Hazzanut, a cantorial music that has been almost forgotten by modern day cantors.

Chevan explains that his style of teaching music is "spiritual but not religious, not dogmatic," and this "interfaith approach" carries over into his work with the Afro-Semitic Experience. "I am informed by my Jewish upbringing, but I don't need to proselytize," he says.

Many composers have written Requiem Masses, but Chevan wanted to be the first to write an original version of the Yizkor. He calls the album "a soulful melding of spiritual jazz and Jewish cantorial music." It represents more of a solo project than Chevan's previous recordings with the Afro-Semitic Experience, but Chevan chose to work with the band on this project because, he says, its members "come to the music with an understanding of spirituality." He had also always wanted to write music for a cantor, and the new album features a performance by a Jewish cantor, Albert Mizrahi, who is compared to the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti. 

Chevan turned to the Jewish memorial service as an inspiration for his composing after he experienced some personal losses that caused him to become "more conscious of the personal and communal importance of memory and mourning."

"I'm writing music for adults who are living their lives and have had some losses," Chevan says. He doesn't see many composers writing serious new music for adults and wonders about songwriters who seem to be "stuck in that constant state of adolescence."

"The Rolling Stones, for instance, don't sound like they're dealing with the maturation process," he says. "They sound the same as they always have." In contrast, he points to an artist like James Taylor, who "sounds like he's not afraid of the aging process."

Writing a memorial work, imbued with loss and mourning, represents to Chevan his attempt to address some of life's biggest issues. And his work has struck a chord. "Our work has always gone over very well, but when this review came out in the Wall Street Journal, I was thrilled," Chevan says. "When you're an artist, and you get a review like this one, you get a sense of affirmation for what you're doing."

Update as of Jan. 5, 2009: George Robinson, music critic for the Jewish Weekly and the Jewish Journal and owner of a blog entitled "Shirim Khadashim-New Jewish Songs," where he reviews new Jewish recordings, has posted his list of the 10 best recordings of 2008. Leading that list is Chevan's "Yizkor: Music of Memory." Robinson calls the album "the Afro-Semitic Experience's best CD to date and one of the most fruitful fusions of jazz and hazanut yet recorded." The entire review can be found here.