Nice Jewish Music
Having a band rather than a DJ is important to us, and having a band that can play the Hava Negila is especially important – there’s just something about inserting a CD for the most exciting song of the reception that doesn’t sit well with us.
My first instinct was to hire my favorite band from college. They’re one of those bands that does the perfect cover of both Van Morrison and Ludacris, and whose gigs have been the destination on many a Friday night for me and my friends. Although they didn’t know the Hava Negila, they were willing to learn it for us. Ultimately, I realized that as much as it pained me to admit it, this wasn’t college and our guest list consists mostly of older Jewish relatives – not exactly the college bar scene audience.
Our search took us outside of the city down to New Orleans, where Judaism isn’t as much of a rarity. There are three reform temples, two JCCs, and at least one band that knows Hava Negila: The Panorama Jazz Band (PJB).
The band had performed for Simchat Torah at our synagogue one year, and although I was not in attendance, I was aware that they existed. I checked out their webpage, and not only do they have an impressive playlist of Jewish music, they are also technically a New Orleans jazz band. Since we can’t let our guests sample traditional Louisiana fare like crawfish etouffe or shrimp and grits, we figured we would treat them to a different facet of Louisiana culture, the music. In addition to playing at our reception, The PJB will also serve as our ceremony musicians.
Since PJB doesn’t typically play much popular music, we had a few decisions to make about our first dance. We could either choose an actual style of song and learn the dance (waltz, foxtrot), or we could ask the band to learn a song of our choosing. From the beginning of our wedding planning, choosing a song has proven to be one of our biggest challenges. We don’t have “a song” per se, but I wanted the song we chose for our first dance to have some kind of personal meaning.
Eventually, I realized that there was one band whose music seemed to follow us around. See, my fiancé and I love to travel and don’t mind long drives. Our longest trips were a two week vacation that involved driving from Louisiana to Los Angeles, and a month long road trip from Louisiana up to Toronto via NYC and Boston, and back down through Chicago. On both of our journeys, my fiance’s iPod contained every Beatles song you could imagine – and luckily, the PJB knows a few of their songs. We chose “Something”, and I’m excited to hear PBJ’s jazz rendition of it… I’m crossing my fingers that their talent will overshadow our lack of dancing skills!
1 comment
Panorama is amazing, incredibly versatyle. You’re in a for a real treat.
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