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01/06/2016 11:01 PMIf David Chevan, a bass player and one of the founders of the Afro-Semitic experience, hadn’t been late for a gig in the lounge at Foxwoods, the group might never have been formed. It began in a moment of that you could call either inspired serendipity or unavoidable improvisation. Whatever you call it, the Afro-Semitic Experience has lasted for nearly two decades. The group will perform at Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek (CBSRZ) in Chester on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 5 p.m., the day before the annual Martin Luther King holiday. It is the first concert in CBSRZ’s eighth annual Music & More series.
Music for the Afro-Semitic experience ranges from classic gospel like “Go Down Moses” to salsa, jazz, cantorial, and klezmer, the folk music of the Jews of Eastern Europe. Whatever its style, the music has an objective beyond getting the notes and the rhythms right. The goal is bringing people together, or as the musicians of the Afro-Semitic Experience phrase it: Unity in the Community.
Because Chevan had not shown up on time at the casino lounge, the other two members of the trio, both African American, pianist Warren Byrd and drummer Alvin Carter, Jr., began jamming on a gospel number, Andrae Crouch’s “Soon and Very Soon.” When Chevan arrived, he knew the song and joined in.
“I’d done gigs in Brooklyn and I was familiar with gospel tunes,” he recalls.
The trio sounded good and when the song finished, Chevan suggested to Byrd that they might be on to something, a group that would combine the African American tradition with his own melodic background, Jewish music.
“Warren was not super game for the idea, but he thought it was okay,” Chevan recalls.
Things could have ended there, but Chevan then mentioned the idea to the cantor of his own synagogue, Mishkan Israel in Hamden. The cantor was enthusiastic and thought the Afro-Semitic experience would be perfect for a Martin Luther King service. Chevan filed the information in the back of his mind, but did nothing further about it. Then, closer to the performance date, the cantor asked Chevan how the preparations for the Martin Luther King concert were coming.
“He wanted to know if we were all set for the service,” Chevan remembers, “and I had to get cracking, and get Warren and rehearse.”
And so, with Chevan and Byrd as co-founders, the Afro-Semitic Experience made its debut.
“We played the service, but it was a nervous night,” Chevan says, noting it wasn’t the setting the musicians knew: jazz in a nightclub.
Now, 18 years later, the group has expanded from its original members to some seven musicians, but some of the questions they get remain the same. According to Chevan, when he says Afro-Semitic Experience, the most common response is a question: “What is that?” When people hear the concerts, there is also a common reaction—”They say, ‘Oh, wow!’” Chevan says.
The Jewish and African American musical traditions can seem dissimilar, but Chevan emphasized at the most basic level they have much in common.
“They can both make you laugh and cry; that’s why they work together,” he explained. “In the end, it’s an experience of joy and of the soul.”
Most of the group’s concerts are at religious institutions, and for many years one of their most effective avenues of publicity was the enthusiastic recommendation of those who had attended the events. Whether church or synagogue, all the concert locations have common characteristics.
“They are all in open-minded houses of worship, really progressive and part of an ongoing dialogue,” Chevan says.
He adds that these days the group receives more recognition from the jazz world that had nurtured them as individual musicians. There’s even talk of an Afro-Semitic Experience appearance at Jazz at Lincoln Center when the present redesign of the Rose Hall Atrium is completed.
Music & More has scheduled four concerts starting with the Afro-Semitic Experience on Jan. 17. Caravan of Thieves, blending gypsy swing and popular music, will appear on Sunday, Feb. 28, and the Paul Winter Consort, featuring Winter on soprano saxophone, will perform on Sunday, April 10. The season will finish with a free outdoor concert on June 26 by The String of Pearls Big Band. All concerts take place at CBSRZ in Chester at 5 p.m.
CBSRZ concert committee chairperson David Zeleznik wanted to bring a new dimension to this year’s Music & More series.
“We were getting a bit formulaic—a classical pianist, an operatic singer—and I thought there was an appetite for some fresh and new programming,” he says.
Zeleznik also noted that though their musical styles differ, the groups performing this year have one thing in common: They are all Connecticut based.
All Music & More concerts conclude with a reception to which the audience is invited.
For tickets and information, call CBSRZ at 860-526-8920 or visit www.cbsrz.org.