Charming Hostess

Both these discs work within the framework of Jewish-directed music. However the indelible impression made by each is because within this framework, other and more contemporary currents galvanize the performances.

Toronto percussionist Lorie Wolf, who has worked with the likes of Lina Allemano and Frank London, and her Queen Kong band perform instrumentals that take off from characteristic Klezmer forms to notch original incursions into the existing tradition. There is only one vocal included Fray’s song collection, the majority of which were composed by Wolf. An inverse situation, The Ginzburg Geography is very much vocal oriented and is the final statement of  singer/composer Jewlia Eisenberg, who died of a rare disease in March 2021, having conceptualized and almost finished recording the disc. Highlighting it are the multiple voices which made up Eisenberg’s Charming Hostess group, a key part of  the Bay area sonic gestalt that mixed politics, sexual and otherwise, radical culture and musical experimentation. Besides that, this the album’s 13 selection also include hearty contributions from a shifting cast of local instrumentalists.

“Di Zun Vet Aruntergeyn” sung by Wolf in honor of her Holocaust-survivor grandmother is Queen Kong’s only vocal. And while it and the two arrangements of “Kaddish for Johnny”, the drummer’s threnody for a deceased friend are the only track suffused with melancholy, bathos doesn’t overcome blowing. The second version of “Johnny” for instance, mates emotion-laden trills from Michael Winograd’s clarinet and Wolf’s paced paradiddles.  Meanwhile the first “Johnny” variation features slightly rougher percussion pushes and floats on a construction that joins reed glissandi and half-valve smears from trumpeter Max Forster with electronic pushes.

Most of the other tracks are more upbeat, with Tom Richards’ sousaphone providing the proper burbling lilt. This is particularly noticeable on tracks like “Pirate Max” where his jerky oomph-pa-pa underlines harmonized horn riffs, Jaron Freeman-Fox’s fiddle sawing and, Klez-like brass blasts and cymbal claps. Among the stop-time or flowing performances, guitarist Graham Campbell adds some goyisha intricacies such as a pseudo-Spanish guitar picking to the eastern European theme on “If/Then”; and upsetting a similar narrative on “East 3^rd and C”, based on clarinet stutters, with a near Metal solo.

While there are breaks rather than extended solos on Fray and a non-specific Diaspora perception, the other CD is focused on both. A final statement from someone who described herself as a “Nerdy-Sexy-Commie-Girly” person, the tunes on The Ginzburg Geography also relate to the life of Natalia and Leone Ginzburg. Italian anti-fascists before and during World War II, the couple was exiled to Abruzzo for their activities. While Natalia later become a prominent author, Leone was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944.

Fitting many of Eisenberg’s preoccupations, the tracks mix agit-prop elaborations of political themes, sung lustily by Eisenberg and the hostesses; Italian children’s play party songs that demonstrate the close harmonies and animable overlapping voices of the singers’ intimate vocal designs; and more varied tunes with unexpected instrumental breaks. Because a Rockabilly lead guitar run is featured as well as overlapping voices “La Lega” become more than a kids’ song, while ‘La Situazione” makes its point about the Ginzburg’s mountain exile by contrasting Alpine-style yodeling with an enhanced orchestral arrangement that suggest Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. Eisenberg’s vocal equipment is such that on “Memoria” she succinctly bares the feelings of widowed Natalia recalling having to view the corpse of her murdered husband and the recollections that go with it.

True to the politics of both the Ginzburgs and the singer/composer herself, the most rousing track is a dynamic reading of “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”. Here Eisenberg’s brawny exposition shouted over a lively string band arrangement, heavy on dobro-like strumming, returns the folksy singalong back into its Popular Front origins as music as a method of political action. Considering what eventually transpired, “Waiting”, the final track, during which Eisenberg sings a simple ballad about leaving her fiends behind and going to heaven takes on added poignancy.

Still it’s almost certain that the singer would want to be remembered for her ability to mix politics with music without compromise and with worldly respect for each. That’s what makes The Ginzburg Geography an admirable work. Thankfully with none of the death foreshadowing of the other disc, but with similar maturity and professionalism, is why Fray also comes across as an eminent musical experience.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fray: 1. Kavod 2. Bethema*# 3. Let Me Take My Time*# 4. If/Then* 5. Kaddish for Johnny# 6. East 3^rd and C 7. Di Zun Vet Aruntergeyn 8. Pirate Max* 9. NBK 10. Kaddish for Johnny II 11. Moshi

Personnel: Fray: Max Forster (trumpet, electronics); Nathan Dell-Vandenburg (trombone); Tom Richards (sousaphone); Michael Winograd (clarinet): Jaron Freeman-Fox (violin)*; Graham Campbell (guitar); Beth Silver (cello)#; Lorie Wolf (drums, percussion, vocals)

Track Listing: Ginzburg: 1. Revolution in Borgo San Costanzo 2. Marciar, Marciar 3. Corso Re Umberto 4. La Situazione 5. La Filera 6. Guerra di Popolo 7. These Three Friends 8. Old Ones Remain 9. La Lega 10. Memoria 11. Winter in Abruzzo 12. All You Fascists Bound to Lose 13. Waiting

Personnel: Ginzburg: Darren Johnston (trumpet); Jason Ditzian, Morgan Nilsen (clarinets); Sylvain Carton (soprano, alto saxophones, clarinet); Alisa Rose (violin); Dina Maccabee (violin, viola); Dan Cantrell (accordion, Hammond, pump organ, harmonium); Jeremiah Lockwood (guitar); Jessica Ivry (cello); Marika Hughes (cello, cymbal, voice);  Max Baloian (bass, guitars); Jason Levis (drums, percussion); Laura Inserra: (percussion); Kat Covell (scrub board); Jewlia Eisenberg, Nils Frykdahl, Dawn McCarthy, Dan Rathbun, Nina Rolle, Ganda Suthivarakom, Cynthia Taylor (voice)