Teiku (Copy)
Reframing Ancestral Jewish Melodies
Teiku
REFRAMING ANCESTRAL JEWISH MELODIES
“It was a pleasure to broadcast Teiku from our studios here at Blue Lake Public Radio to the tens of thousands of listeners who tune in...such personal music...transmuted into something excitingly new and previously unheard, is the pinnacle of creative musical expression.”
Josh Harlow and Jonathan Taylor both grew up singing unique Passover melodies that were brought to America when their ancestors emigrated from the Jewish-Ukrainian communities in Bershnitz and Monastrishte. Their musical project Teiku interprets these melodies through the lens of creative music and modern jazz, reframing them as launching points for improvisation and arranging them in a rich song cycle that is deeply personal yet universal in its beauty.
The excitement of improvisation lies in its uncertainty and its potential for infinite possibilities. Teiku (a Talmudic acronym which means “unanswered question”) refers to the collective feeling of discovery that improvising musicians know well: creating spontaneous and cohesive sonic environments that are felt viscerally but cannot be expressed with words.
Teiku is also archival in its scope, working to document and reframe unique family melodies from the larger Jewish community. Harlow (piano) and Taylor (drums) are joined in various formations by John Lindberg (bass) Peter Formanek (woodwinds) Aliya Ultan (cello) and Will McEvoy (bass) to bring this concept to life.
“Teiku presents a whole different spin on Passover songs. Inventive and creative, the highly skilled quartet takes the familiar to a whole other realm.
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“Teiku’s performance calls to mind a Jewish “A Love Supreme”: Exceptional musicians playing beautiful, spiritual music that binds together jazz and Jewish culture. An audience member was moved to tears three times in just the first 15 minutes of the concert! ”
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“A stunning and meaningful project and performance! We must make our music personal.”