DubMC

Pulse Check on Jewish Music in America, JDub's Founder Talks on Fifth Anniversary

As JDub Records celebrates its fifth anniversary (including a free concert July 20 at Prospect Park's bandshell, Brooklyn, NY), we check the pulse of Jewish music in America with JDub founder Aaron Bisman.

1. What are the newest aspects of Jewish music to emerge in the last five years?

The embrace of modern American music as a valid component of Jewish expression has led to Klezmer punk, Eastern European infused hip hop, Sepharic indie rock, and Hasidic reggae. Jewish music is nothing if not the appropriation of diasporic host cultures mixed with the traditions Jews carried from their previous homelands. This progression was stifled over the last 40 years in America, but beginning in 2002, we began to see a new emergence of uniquely Jewish sounds in these genres that had never before gained much prominence.

Music Business, a Kenyan Perspective

Kenyan band Yunasi offered to share a little bit about the music business in Kenya. We often talk about the music business in the US, North America as a whole, and Europe. So we decided to take them up on their offer to share some insights about business on the ground in Kenya.

1. Tell us about your band.

The band's name is YUNASI and our music falls under world music/afro-fusion genre. We call our music, SESUBE (SEga, iSUkuti, BEnga) which is a melting pot of traditional Kenyan rhythms from our local tribes (Luo, Kisii, Luhya, Swahili, with smatterings of English and French) and mixed with modern influences and arrangement resulting in afro-pop sensibilities. This is achieved also by playing modern and traditional instruments like Luo Nyatiti, lots of percussions, guitars, drum kit and African vocal harmonies. Yunasi is a 9-member, live-performing and recording band based in Nairobi, Kenya where all band members come from.

2. How do musicians in Kenya make a living?

In Kenya, most musicians rely mostly on live performances, be it concerts, playing at corporate gigs, or the few festivals around. Album sales are hardly anything to talk about because of rampant piracy, lack of the necessary legal and intellectual rights and  structures and poverty which makes possible buyers not able to afford albums despite loving the music.

3. What are some of the biggest challenges of being a musician in Kenya?

Funds and lack of music industry structures are the biggest challenge. This is because as a musician, you have to do everything by yourself - produce music, market, promote and distribute your music and organize your own shows largely without even corporate support in form of sponsorships or in kind. Also, local media gives heavy rotation to American and western sounding music at the expense of authentic music. Yunasi's music is hardly ever played in mainstream media so we have to rely on word-of-mouth or organizing our own shows to make a living here.