专辑简介

Released originally on a limited basis in 2010, “Halilah Hazeh! A Shir Fun Pesach” from DAFNA, the popular Israeli-American performer and founder of Shir Fun, the Hebrew music-based childhood development program, with its own record label and multimedia division, is being re-released in time for this Pesach, with worldwide digital distribution and new cover artwork.

The album, available on iTunes, Amazon, and cdBaby, as well as in physical CD form from the Shir Fun webstore at shirfun.com, displays a rootsy sound that appeals to all ages, and features traditional favorites such as “Ma Nishtana,” “Dayeinu” and “Elyahu Hanavi” as well as stirring original compositions of “Had Gadya,” “Kadesh Urchatz” and “Hodu l’Hashem.” In Part II of “Dayeinu (Parts I & II)” Dafna sets the Pesach staple to a reggae groove featuring Dafna’s own daughter taking a couple turns on vocals. But perhaps the lasting legacy of this album will be its original compositions and arrangements. The album kicks off with “Halilah Hazeh,” a reworking of the traditional Four Questions adapted from a jovial Irish folk melody actively capturing the celebratory and communal spirit of Pesach with rousing pub-style choral singing and triumphant clapping. In “Kadesh Urchatz,” only one minute and forty-five seconds long, Dafna unleashes all the soul that can be extracted from the agenda found on page 1 of most Haggadot in an original bluesy ballad composition. Teaming up on several songs with former (and founding) Soulfarm drummer, Mark Ambrosino – who also recorded, mixed and engineered the record - on several songs, “Hodu L’Hashem,” is given an eclectic jam rock feel, sounding like Rusted Root dropped by the seder just in time for Hallel. The album also features an original composition for the mysterious “Had Gadya” which conjures up sounds of Spain, Morocco and Appalachia with a solo acoustic guitar and a pair of bongos. “Halilah Hazeh! A Shir Fun Pesach” closes with the playful and yearning “L’Shana Haba’a,” a jam session and sing-a-long dripping in the sounds of Johnny Cash, traditional American folk and even gospel.

“Although I often perform and record my music for children and families, the album is really geared toward all ages,” says Dafna. “The musical traditions of Passover are timeless and are meant to be carried on in every generation. That’s why we didn’t want to create music that was overly childlike or that followed the latest trends in popular music. That could send the wrong message that celebrating our culture, traditions and the Hebrew language is something to be outgrown. I have learned from experience that our children are much more musically and culturally sophisticated that we tend to think. That is a guiding principle of my music and the Shir Fun program and also a reason why many parents tell me they are enjoying the music as much as their kids.”