TORONTO — While performing at Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival in 2006, singer Mitch Smolkin, the festival’s artistic director at the time, found the band with which he wanted to record a CD.
“While I was saying goodbye as the Ashkenaz artistic director, there was an intimate moment when I got on stage to perform with [Marcelo] Moguilevsky and [Cesar] Lerner from Buenos Aires and Boris Sihon from British Columbia, who I brought together because individually they were incredible musicians,” Smolkin says.
Smolkin is launching A Song Is Born, the CD he recorded with these musicians, at this year’s Ashkenaz Festival on Aug. 30 at 7 pm in the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront Centre.
Smolkin had toyed with the idea of making a Yiddish album for a few years, and after he performed with the musicians in 2006, it came together. “Then all of a sudden everything finally made sense. I’ve been thinking about [the CD] for five or six years. I was in the studio twice, about to record an album and decided in both cases it wasn’t the right direction,” he says.
“Then when I knew what musicians I wanted to play with, I ended up choosing songs that were formative for me in the genre of Yiddish music.”
Musicians featured on the CD include Moguilevsky and Lerner of Klezmer en Buenos Aires; Berlin-based trumpeter Paul Brody; percussionist Sihon; vocalist Aviva Chernick; and guitarist Levon Ichkhanian, who produced the album. They will perform with Smolkin at Harbourfront.
Song selection for the album began two years ago. Smolkin chose songs that told stories that are aspects of his life and the lives of others who preceded him.
Unter Dayne Vayse Shtern (Under Your White Starry Heaven ) a song by Abraham Sutzkever about being an exile, connects Smolkin to his late grandfather, who was an orphan due to the Nazis after World War II.
“My grandfather could never talk about it [his experience], so I would tell the audience, and ostensibly my grandfather… that because he could not tell me his story, I would sing about how desperate he was to find nobody left.”
Smolkin will perform all 13 tracks from The Song Is Born, including two original songs. One is by Winnipeg composer Sid Rabinovitch, the other by Moguilevsky, who will sing a duet with Smolkin at Harbourfront. Toronto singer Chernick, the backup vocalist on the album, will also perform a solo.
“Our sound is ground in melody – that’s very important. People will hear definite melodic influences, but [the music] also incorporates a lot of the strengths of the musicians and draws from a whole array of musical influences to produce a sound that’s very refreshing,” Smolkin says.
The group’s sound includes jazz and a choral piece with classical underpinnings, as well as featuring the didgeridoo – an Australian aboriginal wind instrument. Armenian guitarist Ichkhanian brings Middle Eastern influences to the mix.
Smolkin says it made sense to come back to Ashkenaz as an artist, “to give my gift in a different way. It’s very important that it comes full circle and I release the album at Ashkenaz.”
Concert tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. Contact the Harbourfront Centre box office at 416-973-4000 or online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com. Smolkin’s website address is www.mitchsmolkin.com.
