Record of Jewish melodies helps to inspire Terry’s finest ‘Hour’

Jewish Telegraph, July 2003

AN album of Jewish songs was one of the driving forces behind Terry Hall’s decision to make a ‘world music’ album.
Hall, who shot to fame in 1979 as lead singer with The Specials, has joined with musician Mushtaq to release The Hour Of Two Lights (Honest Jon).
The album includes Jewish singer Eva Katzler performing in Hebrew; 12-year-old Lebanese singer Natasha; blind Algerian rapper Mohammed; and a group of gypsy refugees.
‘‘A lot of world music is put together without any thought,’’ Terry, 44, said. ‘‘It’s like, ‘Here’s what Africa sounds like’.
‘‘What we wanted to do was to integrate the music into our own sounds.’’
As a result, the album is more likely to be found in the rock/pop section than specialist rack in your local record shop.
Hall isn’t too keen on the CD being classified as world music. He says: ‘‘It’s a lazy term and a tiny word for such a lot of music.’’
Difficult
He also avoided using well-known musicians — instead finding artistes located in London.
‘‘I was trying to find a clarinet player and a friend of a friend of a friend remembered a guy from the 1950s who played on the Pink Panther theme tune. So we found him and he was perfect,’’ Terry says.
‘‘I also wanted two or three songs on the album with female Hebrew vocals, but it was difficult.
‘‘Some friends said they would do it, but they were male. Then I found someone in New York but that proved too problematic.’’
Surfing the internet, Terry came across Londoner Eva Katzler. And it’s her voice that appears on stand-out track A Gathering Storm.
‘‘When you write a song in English that has to be translated into Hebrew or Arabic, you have to rely on someone to help you translate it. But it can wander off.
‘‘It’s like a language version of Chinese whispers.’’
It’s not surprising that Terry — who has also had hits with Fun Boy Three and Colourfield — is a fan of Jewish music. When he was in his early teens he discovered that his great-grandfather was a German Jew.
‘‘It’s an unknown background,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve always known that my father’s roots are Irish, but I can’t find out anything about my great-grandfather.
‘‘I’ve looked a couple of times but keep stopping because I get nowhere. My mother’s maiden name is Kay, but that’s as far as I have got.
‘‘One day I will sit down and trace it back. When I found out about my Jewish relative I was curious really. And I’ve become more curious as time has gone on.
‘‘I remarried three years ago and my wife’s father is Jewish so that point raised itself again. It comes up every few years.’’
Terry adds: ‘‘I enjoy listening to music from the Middle East and Eastern Europe and wanted to try to incorporate it in things I did.’’
He describes the reasons for the album as a ‘‘mostly music thing’’ but adds that he wants to remain positive about peace between Jews and Arabs.
The Specials, who had number one hits with Ghost Town and Rat Race amongst others, were known for their political views.
But Terry says: ‘‘I’m not as naive now as I was when I was 17–18. At that age you want to find a voice and I did that through a band.
‘‘And my personal situation was that I was unemployed so it was the voice I needed.’’
The Two-Tone scene that The Specials — who had two black members — found themselves in had racism running through it.
‘‘We took a stand early on,’’ Terry says. ‘‘We were not prepared to accept it at gigs. We would stop the concert and get them out immediately.’’
Hall, who says he became a skinhead when he was nine, grew up listening to reggae and black music. But with the emergence of Two Tone and ska, the skinhead look gained a nasty reputation.
Project
‘‘We took the death threats seriously and when there was a stage invasion it would be quite worrying,’’ he adds.
He has fond memories of his time with The Specials.
‘‘We achieved what we set out to achieve, to air our issues,’’ he says. ‘‘We made albums that lasted. They summed up a mood.’’
His collaboration with Mushtaq, a one-time member of Asian rap group Fun-Da-Mental, came about by chance.
‘‘My producers hooked me up with him,’’ Terry says. ‘‘I knew his work and we just played records we liked to each other.’’
One of these records was Traditional Jewish Melodies, which Terry had bought in 1980.
The pair want to take the project on the road, but Terry can already see difficulties with this idea.
‘‘A London concert would be easy to arrange because all the performers live there,’’ he said, ‘‘but we’d also like to do shows in France and New York, although some of the performers would not be able to get visas because they can’t leave Britain.’’
lTHE Jewish Telegraph has also had some involvement with The Hour of Two Lights.
Not only were we the first paper to publicise the album, but we were approached by Honest Jon’s to provide a translation of A Gathering Storm for the CD’s cover.
Mirroring Terry’s experience, we also found out that there is not always a definitive translation.
But after checking with a number of sources, we were happy that we had an interpretation that fitted the expression best.