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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/35758/full/35758/peninsula-cantor-puts-a-worldly-twist-on-your-favorite-kids-songs/ <br /><br /> <b>Peninsula cantor puts a worldly twist on your favorite kids’ songs</b> <br /> Friday, September 12, 2008 | by emily savage <br /><br /><p>At the very end of musician Elana Jagoda's Jewish children's album "Zum Gali Gali," she hums a little melody that, while beautiful, wouldn't mean much to anyone besides the women in her family.<br /><br /> The last song is a lullaby Jagoda learned from a Bay Area friend, but she took the end of the song to sing a little melody her mother sang to her as a child. Her mother had learned the melody from Jagoda's grandmother. <br /><br /> "It was a way to give back to my mom," Jagoda explains. "My parents have always been supportive of my music and instilled a strong sense of Judaism in me — which was just as important as any singing or guitar lesson they could have given me."<br /><br /> Jagoda was raised in the Oakland hills but currently resides in San Francisco after graduating from U.C. Santa Cruz. She's played the To Life! festival for the past three years as part of the Oakland group Hip Hop Shabbat, but this year she is poised to sing and play guitar as herself (with some help from a few friendly musicians).<br /><br /> Jagoda will play at the Jessica Saal Memorial Main Stage at 1 p.m. with Glenn Hartman of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, a drummer and another percussionist. She'll be playing songs off "Zum Gali Gali" along with other classic Jewish children's songs — with a world music twist. <br /><br /> While at U.C. Santa Cruz, Jagoda studied Spanish, visited Spain and joined a Latin music ensemble. She also had her hands full with Jewish obligations: She taught religious school music at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos and spent summers working at day camps at the JCCSF and the Peninsula JCC. <br /><br /> The preschool director at the PJCC started pushing her to come teach music during the school year, so Jagoda made the weekly trek from Santa Cruz to San Mateo. <br /><br /> After she graduated in 2003, Jagoda started working with Music Together, a family music program for parents and children under the age of 4. While it is a secular program, Jagoda began teaching it at the JCCSF. It was there that she honed her craft and began exploring the incorporation of world music wtih traditional Jewish children's songs.<br /><br /> "Music Together got me playing more — I was able to be in a musical environment everyday," she says. <br /><br /> While working Music Together, Jagoda, ever the busy vocalist, also began teaching music for the religious school at Peninsula Temple Beth El. <br /><br /> "The families at the synagogue kept approaching me to make an album," Jagoda explains. "I wanted to record [the songs] but make them more original and bring in world music influences." <br /><br /> With the help of a Bay Area producer, Jagoda recorded songs like "Bim Bam," "David Melech Yisrael" and the title track, "Zum Gali Gali." On the album she sang and played guitar and percussion, while other musicians and friends came in and added their own instrumentation. It was a group effort that just kept growing, she says. Jagoda notes there are Middle Eastern influences along with African drumming, which helped created a rich sound. <br /><br /> "It was a goal to make it something that parents can tolerate," she says. "I was trying to make something appropriate for 2- and 3-year-olds that parents could also groove to — there's more interesting arrangements and more instruments."<br /><br /> Now, at age 27, Jagoda is a full-time cantorial soloist at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, which was one of the reasons she had to leave Hip Hop Shabbat (the times conflicted). She does the Shabbat program and continues to work with the children at the temple.<br /><br /> Jagoda's mother grew up in an Orthodox home and Jagoda attended a Modern Orthodox synagogue as a child. She says there was always a sense of Jewish tradition in her home, and now that she works for a Reform synagogue, she feels has been able to experience the full spectrum of Judaism. <br /><br /> "I've been trying to see how much the songs influence the children," Jagoda says. "The music you learn in preschool sticks with you — if I can teach songs that talk about Jewish ritual, the kids will absorb that and it will stay with them."</p>

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