Jewish Music Review: Avraham Fried: Bein Kach U"Bein Kach

I would like to thank Sruly Meyer at Sameach Music for this pre-release album. 1) Matzliach Moshiach Composed by Eliezer Kalish Lively clarinet ( klezmer) intro here. This is a typical oompah freilach but they try to juice it up with different drum patterns through the song. I can see this being put in the frielach set at weddings. Rating: 7 ½ 2)Baishanim Composed by Yossi Green Eli Lishinsky arranged this song with a real Middle Eastern (Sephardic) flavor. You hear songs on many albums that try to capture some of that but this song hits closer to it. It has a nice bounce and if you like Sephardic music you will no doubt enjoy it. Rating: 8 3) M’ noroh Composed by Avraham Fried Avraham Fried hits us for one of his own. It’s ok although he tries to spice things up at the end. Rating: 6 4) Bein Kach U"Bein Kach Composed by Avraham Fried and Benny Marcus Starts off with a snapping finger swing style intro. This has to be one of the stranger songs you will ever hear Fried sing. Yuval Supal arranged it and he certainly has some interesting ideas about arrangements. It changes into a march and goes from Hebrew to English to Yiddish. Risks are good when they pay off: this song was just strange. Rating: 5 5) Al Tiro Composed Avraham Fried and Moshe Laufer This intro is interesting it features some horses running (I think) and some intense piano vamping. The choir introduces the song and Fried takes over. The song is for the most part a rock/disco type. Rating: 6 6) Father don’t Cry Composed by Avraham Fried To be fair most english songs are doomed from the start since they are generally cheesy and arranged badly. I really didn’t expect much but Avremi G. arranged this song excellently. The style is very contemporary and the song does not rhyme so it’s more of poem. Rating: 8 ½ 7) Malko D’olmo Composed by Yossi Green This is quite a different intro then you typically hear even from a chazzan type song on an album like this. Fried went with Matthew Lazar to pull all the stops on a real serious cantorial choir intro.the song starts off as a ballad but a more freestyle cantorial one. It then moves into what could be called an oompah klezmer style. You certainly are not expecting the song to be headed in this direction. Fried was obviously going for a more classic sound from the altar heim. Rating: 8 8) Lo Ovo Composed by Yossi Green A more contemporary style ballad. Starts off very simply with a piano accompaniment and moves into a rock ballad. The song ends with choir (conducted by Mona Rosenblum ) and a heavy rock ending. Rating: 7 9) Shetita! Composed by Eliezer Kalish This hora starts with another arrangement by Yuval Stupal going for the Middle Eastern flair. This song is arranged with a straight ahead hora feel with some drum breaks. Rating: 7 10) G-D of Avraham Composed by Nessie Niazoff This yiddish song is a ballad that picks up pace to become an oompah frielach and back again to a ballad.It’s also the longest song featured on this album (7:04). Rating: 7 ½ 11) Nu Nu Nu Composed by Avraham Fried This song changes quite a bit starts out as some kind of 16 beat disco intro. Then becomes a moderate rock and changes to frielach back to rock then breaks for a bridge featuring a capella then back to rock with horns then back to frielach…you get the picture Rating: 7 12) Kol Ho’oseik Composed by Rabbi Hillel Palei A slow ballad featuring acoustic guitars which picks up with drums about halfway through. Rating: 6 13) B’zu Hasho’oh Composed by Pinky Weber Ruvi benet arranges this lively freilach and does a nice job bringing us the rock vibe in the middle.It’s nice to end this album on a strong note as this is probably one of the better songs on the album. Rating: 8 Synopsis: This album is no Chazak but it certainly has its high points. The choir is quite good and the different arrangers each bring something new to the table. The problem is of course the songs, Yossi Green is not putting out the same quality material and I have yet to see someone putting out consistently good material come to the plate. You also must remember I haven’t heard this album that many times so don’t take my word for it check out the samples and make your own judgement. Overall it’s a pretty good album.