MONTY GUY Friends In Motion; San Diego Jewish Men's Choir/Ruth Weber, Director

Well, I figured to start this day in a reserved, yet spiritual, groove. So I put SDJMC on the box. I expected the reserved and somewhat reverent tone of track one; "Psalm 150"; a great study in outstanding Choral arrangement. Then the party started with ten tracks to go! Ruth Weber, along with twenty five superb male voices, launched in to an uptempo swing piece entitled "Bel Mir Bist Du Shein". They really caught me off guard. Seems like I was in for a treat. The surprise continued with "Ye Varecha Medley"; another uptempo performance...this scene was beginning to Rock with ten tracks to go! Then Ruth introduced Larry Kornit as the lead vocalist on "S'u She'arim", a ballad-type piece. Larry is great. Then, on a similar ballad-type groove, Bernardo Bicas stepped forward to show the depth of talent in the San Diego Jewish Men's Choir; augmented with the excellent acoustic guitar work of George Svoboda. Track seven started off like a torch song, then the vocal ensemble infused the performance with "Doo Wop" flavoring. The resulting "Lo Teida Milchama" encouraged this listener to launch into 'big applause' behavior at the end of the song. With four tracks to go in this surprise laden choral production, it was clear that Jeff McCullough, Engineer had done a masterful job of presenting twenty five wonderful male voices as a palatable, delightful, and sonorous unit. Of course, the musicians complemented this outstanding CD work with instrumentation which included: drums, trumpet, oboe, flute, saxophone, acoustic bass, acoustic & electric guitar, clarinet, violin, and superb piano support by Ruth Weber, Director. So, it seems to me that it is O K to play "Heritage" anyplace, anytime, and any hour of the day. The San Diego Jewish Men's Choir can sing...and they Rock!

1 comment