The songs I wrote – Mishpacha Magazine

“Other artists have expressed my songs differently, but here I decided to express them in my own style.”

In out

AAfter years of composing and arranging music for a who’s who of top Jewish musicians, ELI KLEIN recently decided to branch out and release a full album of his own compositions. Eli is half of the talented team Yitzy Berry and Eli Klein, whose Jerusalem studio is a creative hub offering full services from songwriting to arranging, producing, mixing and mastering and everything in between. Their clients include MBD, Ohad, Naftali Kempeh, Rabbi Shloime Taussig, Benny Friedman, Eli Marcus and dozens of others.

“When I record demos of my new compositions to offer them to singers, they often ask me why I don’t just sing them and release them myself. At some point I started to think: Why not?“, says Eli.

Klein’s album, SHIRIM SHEKATAVTIa collection of some of his best compositions, is also a platform for his own singing debut. He is accompanied by a choir of Bochurim to give the whole album a Kumzitz feel – he describes his singing as “kumzitz style”, which means that on some tracks he changed the entire arrangement and tempo compared to the original version.

“This is how I like to sing,” says Eli. “Although other artists have expressed my songs differently, here I have chosen to perform them in my own style. For example, when Motti Steinmetz recorded my ‘Zechor Bris Avraham’, it was clear that he would record it in his Hasidic language. Havarah and style. I was so used to that sound that it actually took me a while to remember how I had originally composed it 14 years ago. I had to sing it a few times before I got used to it again and made it my own.”

The song “Tze’akah” was recorded by Mordechai ben David with an electronic arrangement, but Eli decided to rewrite the musical arrangement and use live instruments for a softer, more singable feel.

“I imagined being with a crowd singing along to the song,” says Eli. “Even though I wrote the original arrangement and MBD might not have recorded the song in this new style, I saw this album as a chance to slow things down. When I wrote the song, I laid down a beat first and then composed the song, so the melody was born in an electronic beat. But if I had composed it with just a piano, the creation might have been different.”

Meir Gafni’s 2015 release “Ha’avos Hakedoshim” was re-recorded here at a slightly faster tempo. At the time, there was a debate among several arrangers about the right tempo and a softer version was chosen. “I actually found the original a bit slow and when I recorded it here, I chose a faster tempo. I think it improved the flow of the song, although it is still up for debate.”

The collection includes world-class hits like Ohad’s “Birchas Habonim,” which Eli wrote at Ohad’s request when the singer was looking for a song to express his feelings at his son’s bar mitzvah. There are also a few lesser-known pieces and even two new songs. One of them, “Mah Ashiv,” was sent to some singers, but after one of them had already chosen it, Eli decided it was taken – he would keep it for his own album.

“It’s really singable, a piece that the chazzan and the kahal can sing together in the synagogue,” he says of his new composition. But if he had to choose a favorite, it might be “Basi Legani,” which he composed with Yonatan Shainfeld in honor of Yonatan’s wedding. “I love it. It’s about the connection between Knesses Yisrael and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and you feel the longing and the search for Hashem in the melody.”

Longtime chavrusa and musical partner Yitzy Berry joins Eli on the new version of “Bizchus HaTorah,” which they wrote together for the last Siyum HaShas. Eli’s voice is both soothing and rich in timbre, and it’s clear why so many friends in the industry urged him to record. “What surprises me is that now a few people have invited me to sing at Kumtzitz events,” says Eli. “I never expected this to happen, but when you open one door, sometimes another door of opportunity is hidden behind it.”

What Are you Play Tonight?

Nowadays everyone sings along

The weeks from Shavuot to the 17th of Tammuz are always full of weddings. As the musicians and singers play Simcha night after night, ARI BOIANGIU, owner and director of Blue Melody, shares the trends he has observed in the current wedding scene, which takes a break at the start of the Three Weeks.

He says the difficult situation Klal Yisrael is in and the suffering the war is causing in Eretz Yisrael are reflected in the celebratory undertones even in our happiest times. “We are often asked to sing ‘Acheinu’ or something similar, either at the beginning of the simchah to set the tone, or before ‘Im Eshkacheich.’ Some crowds recite or sing Mi Shebeirach to protect the soldiers, while others are just thinking about the situation,” he says.

In general, not only is there a lot more singing at chuppahs these days, but the crowd is no longer a silent audience. “It’s often interactive. The whole room now sings along to the chuppah songs, both the bochurim and the adults.”

Ari has observed how Israeli songs have become more widespread among American audiences and how the popularity of Colored And kumzitWhether before the start of the chassan and kallah or later at the end of the wedding, people want to create unforgettable moments and sit down to sing. Eitan Katz’s song “Ki Karov”, Ishay Ribo’s “Halev Sheli” and in yeshivish groups Tzemach Tzedek Niggun or “Shaarei Shamayim P’sach” are often requested. When the requests are spontaneous, the band must always be on the ball to change the mood and follow the mood of the singer and the crowd.

“At one wedding,” Ari says, “the family came up to me between the first and second dance and asked me to play their three favorite songs. kumzitz songs. They gathered on the dance floor and wanted to have fun singing together.”

While clients occasionally have their own idea of ​​chuppah music, Ari says, people are usually influenced by what they see and hear at other weddings.

“There are beautiful songs that are played frequently, such as ‘Tefillas Haneiros,’ ‘Ribbon,’ ‘Maskil LeDovid’ by Isaac Honig or ‘Laasos Retzoncha’ by Yaakov Rosenblum, but even if someone tells me they are dreaming of a different song, it is usually something they have heard before at another chuppah.”

Dance music by Matt Dubb and Shmueli Ungar continues to get people excited, as does Motty Weiss’ “Machshavot Tovot,” but Ari says he gets the same buzz when he plays the Bentzion Shenker classic “Hatov Hatov Hatov.” Classic horas by Fried, Shwekey and MBD from the 1990s and early 2000s are always popular, especially with parents, but Ari cautions against playing too much of it.

“If you play something that not everyone in the room likes, you can’t play it for too long and you have to follow it up with something that everyone knows.”

An album that surprised me

There is an album by Sruli Green and Thank You Hashem called Koach HaYisraeli. It was a low budget project, more of a rough project, but somehow I really love the feeling and the mood and can identify with it.

—Moshy Kraus

(Originally published in Mishpacha, issue 1020)