‘Piety and Desire’ — a joyous, jazzy wedding romp through N’awlins

"Piety and Desire" — the recipe for a Jewish wedding, or a couple of parallel streets in New Orleans?

Actually, right on both counts, if one is referring to Cantor Neil F. Blumofe's new CD, which celebrates both the wedding ceremony and the spirit of New Orleans rising from the ravages of hurricane.

Quite a mix, but chazzan Blumofe seems to be quite a guy.

A graduate of Tulane University with close ties to the Crescent City, he is a composer and jazz singer as well as religious leader in Austin, Texas. He has put together this remarkable album, with a little help from his friends — who happen to include a number of topnotch jazz men, including Jason Marsalis, the youngest branch on the musical Marsalis family tree.

It begins with, of all things, a slow rendition of the Wedding March from Wagner's "Lohengrin," played in a slow, muted trumpet solo.

Soon this melody becomes deconstructed — perhaps paralleling the musicians' intent to deconstruct Wagner's anti-Semitic message — into the mode of synagogue confession.

Against a sexy, sad, jazzy clarinet solo with Mideastern overtones, the bridegroom chants a Vidui — a confession not unlike the one used on Yom Kippur. Blumofe, who composed the music for this recording, also is the vocalist — except at the very end when, after the glass is broken, the entire ensemble shouts "Mazel tov!"

As the ceremony moves on, we are not yet free of sad historical reference. A theme from Haydn's "String Quartet in C Major" that is chillingly recognizable as the Nazi anthem "Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles," is intermingled with a Polish wedding song "Tants, Tants, Tants" (Dance, Dance, Dance) from the Vilna ghetto.

Blumofe points out in his liner notes that famed 19th-century Cantor Salomon Sulzer used Haydn's theme in his own composed wedding music in an attempt to share the greater cultural milieu. That it turned into a reminder of horror simply enriches the experience. The bride and groom are aware that life can turn around in an instant and yet, in a supreme act of confidence, resolve to face whatever comes, hand in hand.

The next section brings us under the canopy with a beautiful Hebrew chant, accompanied only by a few piano chords.

Then comes the processional, a traditional klezmer tune that accelerates with each of the seven circles the bride makes around her groom. A Sephardic melody, "Ladder of Gold," accompanies the ascent to the chuppah. This is followed by a beautiful cantorial chant, the bridegroom asking to be granted true and meaningful speech within the relationship. Then comes "Betrothal Chant" with a jazz background.

"High Fidelity," the next track, is a joyous jam session sparked by tuba, high-pitched whistle and wild percussion. The inference is that a marriage may be planned but the future is improvised.

The longest track — 18-plus minutes — "Seven Blessings in the Garden District," caps the ceremony. There is a definite touch of Coltrane here, with bass, violin, cello and vibes solos introducing and accompanying the cantor's voice. Blumofe's melody creates a spiritual space.

The fifth blessing is a mournful dirge reminding us that we are, after all, in New Orleans — "Let the barren city be jubilantly happy and joyful at her joyous reunion with her children ..."

The final blessing is like a march, with percussion in the background. The klezmer influence enters again, mingling with a Sephardic rhythm. As it gains power you almost can see a parade winding down Bourbon Street.

But the celebration is not yet ready to spill out of the synagogue. First you must have the Priestly Blessing: Marsalis' powerful vibes solo leads into the traditional melody, played in counterpoint by the winds and piano as the cantor's voice soars above. In the background, the bass imitates the ticking of a clock: Time will pass, things will change and who can predict the outcome?

To the tune of "Playpen Stomp," the glass is broken, the lovers kiss and disappear for private time. A Turkish mode known as fasil, complete with oud solo, mingles with a couple of American folksongs, to usher in the public celebration.

You can write and write about this kind of music, a melding of ancient liturgy and contemporary jazz, but you really have to experience it aurally to understand its power. The musicians — Maurice Brown, Derek Douget, Alex Coke, Ben Saffer, Roland Guerin, Matt Perrine, Fred Sanders, Mark Rubin and Steven Greenman, in addition to Marsalis and Blumofe himself — are highly accomplished, the music is exciting and, if one could reproduce it at one's own wedding, it would be a true blessing. If not, listening to it could just make you fall in love all over again.




Piety and Desire, $16, plus $2 for shipping, is available from www.horebrecords.com.