Earlier this summer Raizy and I went up to hear Israeli/Jewish Blues Musician Lazer Llyod play at Saratoga Chabad. Lazer is a Skidmore alumn, and this was his first tour back from Israel in the US in many years. While he also plays electric guitar this show was in an intimate setting and he played acoustic guitar accompanied by harmonica both with gusto. In between songs he told the story of his Jewish and musical journey. One of the most memorable pieces was about the Flat-5.
He was about to graduate High School and he had been playing jazz and blues fairly regularly in CT Shoreline bars and clubs with his group “Legacy”.He didn’t think much about college, but his mother was insistent that he look into colleges, but he wasn’t so interested. His mom pursued it with vigor and brought him along to a bunch of interviews until she got him into the music program at Skidmore College in Saratoga. In his senior year the head of the department sat him down, and said she would pass him (it wouldn’t be by much) but realizing how talented a musician he was, wondered why he didn’t appreciate the classical music that was being taught.
Lazer told the professor, “Some years ago I heard BB King play. He played this amazing note that stole its way into my heart. It was so real, it spoke to me. That note was a Flat-5, something I never heard before. It reached into me, deep inside, I felt it in my gut.” The professor argued that a Flat-5 is not a true note, it isn’t accurate. And that was precisely the issue for Lazer, the Flat-5 spoke to him in ways that classical music never did.
After Skidmore, he went to NY, played in different places and got a band “The Last Mavericks” started. While in NY he was invited to showcase for Atlantic Records, and by a twist of fate and a homeless Jew in Central Park he met the singing Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach and ended up singing and playing music with him. He loved Rabbi Shlomo, but what really got him was once when they started playing together, he heard Carlebach play that same Flat-5 or a variation off it. Where does that come from, he asked. “The Baal Shem Tov” was the answer. Lloyd insisted on seeing the Baal Shem Tov but was told that he lived in the 1700’s. So he went off to Israel to find out more about the Flat-5 and its Jewish origins.
I (Mendel) am no musician. I don’t really know what a Flat-5 is. But hearing him play the Flat-5 from BB King, and the Flat-5 in a Chassidic Melody, it seems to be that unique note that hovers between despair and hope, that combines both of them. It is sad, low and deep, but also has a tang, it has zest, it has uplift. This is the Chassidic mood of the High Holidays. Yes, it is a serious time, and yes it is a time for serious reflection, and even regret for past misdeeds. But it is also filled with hope, it is joyous.
This feeling is also reflected in a psychological insight into the sequence of the Shofar sounds. Each broken blast (Shevarim or Teruah) is sandwiched, surrounded and supported by whole, strong, unbroken sounds (Tekiah). Here’s one message: It’s OK to be down sometimes, that’s life, but the sequence teaches us that we need to make sure there’s whole and unbroken on either side. The two sounds, two feelings – broken and unbroken, coming together. The Flat-5!