Calling someone her country's greatest singer would be a huge compliment to most performers. In the case of Chava Alberstein, however, it only tells a small part of the story. Alberstein is undoubtedly Israel's most accomplished singer, having released nearly 50 recordings since the late 1960's, many of them now gold or platinum.
Alberstein is Israel; her development as an artist mirrors Israel's development as a country; her growing pains are Israel's growing pains. Alberstein and Israel are even the same age - both turn 50 - and they both share a tiny but powerful stature. But Chava Alberstein sees herself as much as a singer of the world as just a singer of her beloved Israel. "Even though I have lived in Israel nearly my entire life, I am constantly questioning my place in the world," said Alberstein. "Maybe this searching comes from being an artist, maybe it comes from being a Jew. I'm not really sure." This bittersweet tension between the national and the universal is most evident in all of her recordings. From tender love songs to defiant songs about peace and oppression. There are prayerful songs celebrating the beauty of the human form and more melancholy songs about loss, poverty, and solitude.
Alberstein has lately released "The Well" , an album of Yiddish poems she has transformed into folk songs, with the renowned klezmer group the Klezmatics. "In Israel, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone today composing and singing in Yiddish," said Klezmatics lead singer Lorin Sklamberg. "Some people still see Yiddish as the language of soft Jews who can't protect themselves.
But Chava understands the joy and depth of the language." Yiddish was the mother-tongue of Alberstein's family in the small town in Szczecin, Poland, where Chava was born. Her family moved to Israel when Alberstein was only 4-years-old, but Chava says she has never totally lost the feeling of being a stranger. "No matter where I am, even if it's in my own country, I feel like a bit of a guest," she said. "People can appreciate this today, because they move around so much. Every country you go to in the world is filled with so -called foreigners." Since the very first time she ever sang in public - a four-song set, which included songs in French, Spanish, Yiddish, and a gospel standard in English - Chava Alberstein has been a performer of "World Music."
Chava has released more than 40 albums in Hebrew, six of which have been awarded the Kinor David prize, Israel's Grammy. She has also released six albums in Yiddish, and an English album of standards ranging from Gershwin to Lennon and McCartney. A dozen of the records have gone gold, six platinum, and one triple platinum. Alberstein's early Hebrew recordings, with names like "Songs of My Beloved Country," "Beaches," and "Like a Wildflower," speak to Israel as a fledgling country. They are external, almost frontier. "Israel was like a little child in those days," Chava recalled.
"Discovering all the parts of her body.." "If we have a true folk singer, it
is Chava Alberstein," Yediot Aharonot, Israel's largest daily newspaper said
about Alberstein, naming her the most important female musician in Israel's
history. With a half century of life and song under her belt, Chava Alberstein,
like Israel, has come to understand that good art, like good state craft, is
best achieved by looking inwards and outwards. She is a is a singer who accomplishes
that greatest, most precious rarity of all: she speaks for a culture, a tradition.
"Everything is good only in the proper measure," Chava sings in one of her songs.
It seems her career is yet to see tremendous achievements. She has just signed
a record deal with French label Nave/Auvidis, and will record a new album produced
by Ben Mink.
Coconut
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Catalog #nmc20643 CD $19.99
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. Chava Alberstein
For Children (2000)
6 CD Set
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Chava, the first lady of Israeli song, has been an international star for thirty years. Carzy Flower, her US debut release, is a best of collection of Chava's most popular songs drawn from the entire breadth of her career, including many of her signature hits. She is one of those people whose spirit has found full expression in song. Her passionate dramatic style and rich voice have been part of Israeli life and culture. Considered one of the most important folk singers in the world today, Chava epitomizes the poetry of the Israeli Spirit, presenting an enchanting voyage into the human soul, the heart of the Jewish people and the land of Israel.
Song List
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Chava Alberstein is the premier voice, world class, poignant, some would say world-weary, of Yiddish culture in Israel and the world. Her work in keeping the tradition alive, in tracking down old songs and even setting Yiddish poems to music for the first time, is therefore all the more important. It provides a bridge to a vibrant culture that was.
When it came to selecting the songs for this collection, Chava sought to portray Yiddish life in as much complexity as the repertoire itself conveys. The stories are very much around daily life, around family. They deal with being old, children, love, in many ways they paint a picture of Jewish daily life in a little village or a small street of Poland. You have the hungry thief, the old man, the children. One song, ‘Oifn Veg Sh’tait a Boim’ is a classical song about a young man who wants to leave the village. He wants to get away, change his life, but his mother loves him so much that she puts on him too many clothes and he cannot move because it is all too heavy. And you have the man with three daughters who wants so much to marry them off, but when they get married, the house is empty, and he is again very sad.
Other songs deal with contemporary history. ‘Zog Nit Kein’mol’ is the anthem of the partisans in Poland during the rebellion of the Warsaw ghetto. ‘Friling’ concerns the Holocaust. Much of the material comes from Poland, though there are Romanian songs as well. Overall, Yiddish Songs is an album of pictures from a Jewish life in Poland, in Romania before and until the war. “Dana Dana” is the only song that was written in America, all the others were written in Romania, Poland and Russia. Here is a varied, complex portrait of a world that no longer exists sung in a language soon to disappear forever.
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There is only one Chava Alberstein! In this wonderful music video she presents a beautiful mixture of her songs. She sings songs of love, songs of yearning, a lullaby and even an homage to Edith Piaf. Chava is joined by pantomimists, clowns and actors on a variety of colorful sets. A must for Israeli music lovers. songs. She sings songs of love, songs of yearning, a lullaby and even an homage to Edith Piaf. Chava is joined by pantomimists, clowns and actors on a variety of colorful sets. A must for Israeli music lovers.
36 Minutes Color
Sung in Hebrew---Subtitled in English
A Production of Israel Broadcasting Authority
Produced by Dina Kahanovitz
Directed by Tzadi Tzarfati
Featuring: Aryeh Tzarnar/ Yehuddit Ron/Rafi Barbibbai/Ofer Nir/Dina Rubin/ Ron Kahlili/Zygmund Goldrik/Dafna Carta/Bender Ofer
Catalog #770 CD $19.99
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