Jewish Life Digital Edition September 2015 | Page 82

feature

Guy Lerner

Up close and personal with some local Jewish
musicians I By Chandrea Serebro

Choni G
I was doing some research into how music
unifies us, employing unity within its very
structure, and was trying to relate this
lofty concept to Jewish music and ideals
specifically, when I came across a wonderfully entertaining YouTube video of homegrown artist Choni G, the chazzan for the
Garden’s Shul, parodying local band Die
Antwoord’s ‘I Fink U Freeky’. Choni
summed up his spoof, ‘I Fink U Jewish’, as
a message of unity for the global Jewish
community, as he sings of the diversity of
the Jewish people amid the commonality
that lies behind our differences.
“Words or speech are an expression of
the mind – a source of difference. Song, on
the other hand, is the expression of the
soul – a selfless place of inclusion. Maybe
that’s why if you try talking with someone
at the same time, even about the same
subject, it doesn’t sound good, whereas, if

78 JEWISH LIFE n ISSUE 88

you sing with another person, it sounds
beautiful – it’s music.”
Initially, Choni delayed getting into the
wedding scene as he had musician friends
in the market and didn’t want to go into
competition with them, until a friend
asked him to sing at his wedding, and
Choni discovered, as it turns out, just how
much he loves weddings. “I love the fact
that I’ve been asked to do gigs across the
board of the Jewish spectrum – at the
heart of it, everyone wants the same
thing. People have different, sometimes
opposing, ideas, but on the music level,
people enter a different zone where
they’re more united. Because what makes
a great song is the marriage of the melody
and lyrics. And then, when you add to that
how it’s mixed and blended together, the
oneness stretches in every sphere. More
so when genres which are traditionally
supposed to be so different, fuse together,
and people go crazy. Ubuntu in the music
– boom!”
Choni enjoys being a bridge between
worlds. Sometimes, he says, he struggles
between them, but it’s most gratifying
when he can connect them. “I’m the middle child – I feel I need to connect the different spaces.” And in his music itself, he
connects the dots between genres, playing

Rabbi
Eliezer
Auerbach
If anyone can speak the language of life
through music and song, it’s Rabbi
Eliezer Auerbach, who started playing
drums at the age of six, later advancing
to the clarinet and the piano, before
starting to write his own songs in his ear-

Song, on the other hand, is the expression
of the soul – a selfless place of inclusion.
Maybe that’s why if you try talking with
someone at the same time, even about the same
subject, it doesn’t sound good, whereas, if you
sing with another person, it sounds beautiful
– it’s music. choni g

photographs: supplied

and unite

Jason Crouse Photography

Music to inspire

what he feels is right, to create that
“boom!” that he speaks of when taking
different elements and placing them in
harmony. “I don’t have a particular genre.
I like to think I’m quite versatile; I love
many different styles. It really just depends on the song itself. At a chuppah, I
enjoy a more acoustic, gentle vibe, yet at a
party, it’s rocking, dance beats. So each
phase requires a certain style of music,
and it’s more about the song and where it
fits.” Choni G sums it up: “The rabbi complains that he has to write a new speech
every week, while I can just sing the same
song. That’s music. Go figure.”
www.chonigmusic.com