He’s Canada’s Socalled Jewish cowboy
Socalled grew up Joshua Dolgin in the village of Chelsea, north of Ottawa. Now based in Montreal, he’s been called Canada’s Jewish cowboy for his fearless wrangling of hiphop and klezmer.
The subject of a 2010 documentary by the National Film Board, Dolgin is not only a multidisciplinary artist who creates inventive works in music, theatre and art, but also a master collaborator who’s worked with everyone from reggae-rapper Matisyahu to funk legend Fred Wesley.
Socalled’s last album, Sleepover, was nominated for a 2012 Juno in the world-music category. This year, he’s up for classical album of the year (solo or chamber ensemble) for a project that finds virtuoso musicians putting a fresh spin on the Olivier Messiaen masterpiece, Quartet for the End of the World. It includes Meanwhile ..., a sampleand beat-laden piece by Socalled.
According to the bio, “The album lifts Messiaen’s original work out of the polite context of a chamber music performance and places it in a dramatic setting that drives home its gravity and impact, while bringing it into the 21st century.”
Here’s more on it from Socalled.
Q : You’re nominated for Juno in one of the clasasical music categories the OlivierMessi for aen project with David Matt Haimov-Krakauer, itz, Jonathan Crow & Geoffrey Burleson. How and why did you come to be involved in this Did the nomirecording? nation surprise you?
A : I met Haimovitz at a Klezmer festival, Klezkanada, c. 2010. I had already been collaborating with David for quite a while at this point, and when Haimo, a phenomenal classical virtuoso now based in Montreal, was invited by Yaela Herz to the Yiddish Culture festival as a visitor to ostensibly check out the scene, he was eventually introduced to David, who is also a masterful classical musician, but one interested and passionate about Klezmer, so they were a good fit. Over the course of the week, the two discussed a mutual obsession, the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen, written by the organist/pianist/composer during his time in a POW camp during the Second World War. (It was) written to be played by other musicians in the camp, a clarinetist, cellist and violinist. They invited me into their circle of creation considering doing something with the quartet that sort of re-framed the masterpiece in a contemporary context for the 60th anniversary of its composition... so that was that... and we got time at the Banff Centre to develop the project, which is where I created the “Meanwhile” piece by hanging out with the quartet for about a week’s work or rehearsals. Meanwhile ... comes directly after the quartet when performed “live,” which we’ve done a good half-dozen times here and there. We recorded a series of live performances at McGill, and this became the Juno-nom’ed record. Every nomination for every award is always a kind of pleasant surprise, and every “loss” a crushing blow, but the quality of the quartet’s performance is so stunning that it certainly deserved all the attention it could get... and, false modesty aside, my piece does get people talking about the material... but to be nominated for Classical album of the year is truly hilarious for me, a more pop-hip-hop artist. I hope it wins.
Q : Were you familiar with the piece, Quartet for the End of Time?
A : I wasn’t familiar with the piece until I heard the story from David and Matt. The story really dictated how I proceeded with my part of the collaboration. I found inspiration in the sounds of the time, of the stories of the musicians involved in the original Messiaen performances, and then tried to inject some of myself into THAT story.
Q : Your style is very different from the other musicians. What your goal with the collaboration?
A : Just the fact that Krakauer and Haimovitz trusted me to be “in the room” with them says a lot about them as artists. The cliché of the staid, closed, in-themuseum classical music world is certainly challenged by this kind of collaboration. My goal was to somehow not fall on my face after the mind-bogglingly virtuosic, heart-wrenching performances of Messiaen’s masterwork.