Kathleen Reichelt
with patrick brennan
October 2020

Adeena Karasick’s Bold Beats In CD Release: Salomé: Woman Of Valor

Adeena Karasick’s voice is instantly recognizable. This New York based artist has joined forces with Grammy award-winning musician Frank London and are releasing a recording on London’s NuJu Music label.  The project has taken seven years to realize.  The artists, who developed a fantastical spoken word opera that has toured stages worldwide, have created a beautifully styled CD featuring Karasick’s performance poetry in a retelling of the often misunderstood and unnamed figure in history credited for the beheading of John the Baptist: Salomé .

As someone who still listens to CDs, records, tapes and the occasional phonograph, I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of this music and spoken word recording before it drops October 13.  Not only did I get the old school joy of reading liner notes, production credits and Adeena’s poetry in the spectacularly designed accompanying booklet, but the package I received came with a face mask of the CD’s iconic cover artwork by Anya Roz, featuring Karasick and London’s head on a platter.  Very meta.

Frank London draws from many musical traditions including Klezmer, Bhangra, Arabic and Jazz.  London’s score circulates a choice selection of recurring themes that are quietly absorbing in such a way that each reentrance of Adeena’s voice feels fresh & highlighted.  His trumpet plays almost continuously throughout, mostly as a one instrument orchestral section with occasional forays into a trumpet concerto format where he briefly  improvises and hints at just how much capacity he’s also holding in reserve. Such fantastic trills!

Karasick forges paths, creates new routes/roots and connections between cultures, time and word.  In particular my favourites are “Dance of Desire” and “O Silly Mae”.  To hear them in combination with the musicians underscores where the beat and jazz are emphasized in the poet’s writing:

oh silly may,
solo me oh
,
salo salo me no sweat, no
way no slough sallow may laced with liaised space
no shidduch shadow shakes aching
pal mal! salomé swirl no slam dunk oh sally swing low
n ride sally ride like a resale sale oh sally sally mae be my girl sally
mustang sally headlong agon so langue tall sally
salient alias wholesale sally down wind done gone
done rot her s[ou]lamé so lay me down sally
don’t slow me with your tally sally hey dolly dolly psalm soullier
what sally say salomé slalom mal
Allez!
andelez salomé
holy olé salomé me softly
tallying the cadences
of aphoristic ring

Adeena’s delivery aptly matches London’s accompaniment  in an attentive heterophony. His well thought out arrangement achieves a perfect balance with the delivery of Adeena’s libretto.  The recordings capture the feeling of hearing Adeena Karasick perform live.

I’ve witnessed Karasick’s performance when she was part of a film project and an artist in residence at the Thousand Islands Film & Stage, and numerous other times in NYC, Toronto and Ottawa.  Adeena is a poet who puts her swing, beat, cadence, feminism, style and sizzle into every word.  Karasick as performer playfully seduces with her words, rhythm and heavy-weight languageology.  Her libretto reclaims the figure of Salomé in a feminist reading, with references to Hebrew texts and Kabbalistic practices, popular music, sound poetry and neo-fluxus performatics.

The rich and complex sounds on this album include guest artists Deep Sing on tabla, dhol and percussion, Shai Bachar on keyboard, electronics, Tony Torn and Manu Narayan on vocals.  The work was recorded between 2016 – 2020 in New York and mixed by Hugo Dwyer.

In asking Adeena more about the meaning of “Woman of Valor”, she responded by sending this from the intro for Salomé: Woman of Valor (trans. Pina Piccolo and Serena Picoli, University of Padua Press, 2017).

“The term “Woman of Valor” (in Hebrew, Eshet Chayil) comes from Proverbs 31. The text is originally a 22 verse Hebrew acrostic, each verse beginning with a different Hebrew letter and is usually sung on the eve of Shabbat by a husband to his wife, praising her as a valiant woman, mother and partner. According to Aggadic Midrashim’s interpretation of the non-legal portions of the Torah, the poem was originally composed by Abraham as a eulogy for his wife Sarah. According to Kabbalah, the poem is a reference to the Shekhinah (The divine Presence), the spiritual soulmate of the Jewish nation, but is also seen as a song to the Shabbas Queen and Torah itself.

“A Woman of Valor, who can find? Her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her. And nothing shall he lack. He renders him good and not evil. All the days of her. She opens her hand to the needy. And extends her hands to the poor. She is robed in strength and dignity. And cheerfully faces whatever may come. She opens her mouth with wisdom. Her tongue is guided by kindness. She tends to the affairs of her household. And eats not the bread of idleness. Her children come forward and bless her. Her husband too and he praises her. Many women have done superbly. But you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a G-d-fearing woman is much to be praised. Place before her the fruits of her hands. Wherever people gather, her deeds speak her praise.”

But, throughout history, as Salomé has been deemed a seductress and “murderess” to attribute the term valor to her, seems wildly ironic. However, upon closer investigation, the term “valor” cross linguistically references voir.  vouloir. And if voir (Fr) is to see (re-see), vouloir (Fr) is to want), Salomé becomes an embodiment of courage, bravery, daring and desire”

Dance of Desire: track 6 from Salomé: Woman of Valor

You can listen to all tracks here→

Visit Salomé: Woman of Valor website for more information→

Kathleen Reichelt’s 2019 interview with Adeena Karasick
Housing the Flux of Creation on Arteiodolia→