David Chevan slid into the season of repentance, up the neck of his bass guitar.
Chevan was knocking on heaven’s door, launching into a prayer that Jews say repeatedly when we confess our sins and beat our chests and plead for divine forgiveness, beginning with Rosh Hashana, the religious New Year.
The prayer is “Avinu Malkeinu.” Chevan wasn’t speaking or chanting the prayer. He was channeling it as he played a passionate, free-floating instrumental version, in the Elm Street studio of WNHH radio, during an episode of “Dateline New Haven.”
Paul Bass Photo
Chevan has made a career out of preserving and reinterpreting liturgical music with jazz, salsa, world, and funk beats. Seventeen years ago, with pianist Warren Byrd, he formed the Afro-Semitic Experience, an integrated band that performs updated renditions of Negro spirituals and Jewish traditional music. The band has produced eight recordings and toured the country. Its base is here in New Haven.
Two of the recordings have focused on music associated with the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah (which begins this year at sundown on Sunday, Sept. 13) and Yom Kippur , as well as the penitential season that begins int he weeks preceding it. The group will perform at the lovingly restored Orchard Street Shul (232 Orchard St.) this Sunday beginning at 4 p.m. (Tickets are $10; seniors and students get in free.)
Without the horns and the keyboards and drums, Chevan offered a taste of the music during the program, riffing on “Avinu Malkeinu.” Click on the video at the top of this story to watch it.
He also spoke at length of the mission behind the music, as well as the philosophy. Click on the above sound file to hear the program and get in the holiday spirit. It begins with Chevan jamming live with his own band’s 2002 recording of “Eliyahu Ha-Navi,” which is Dateline New Haven’s theme song; and includes an exploration of the intersection between sacred and modern music, and spirituality.