Why this tune?
Last year around this time I released a collection of eight short interpretations of Hanukkah songs, one for each of the eight days of the Festival of Lights. The oldest arrangement in the collection is one I’ve played with for several years, a jazz version of the Hanukkah classic Mi Yimalel (מי ימלל), “Who can retell,” written by Menashe Rabina in 1936 and set to a traditional melody.
My collection joins an impressive tradition of reharmonized, reinterpreted, and remixed Hanukkah songs in Hebrew and English (and many other languages, I assume). These are an inspiration to keep experimenting with the Hanukkah repertoire.
This collection closes with an instrumental version of my original Hanukkah song “Hanukkah Light,” which I had the pleasure to record with Aaron Myers several years ago for his holiday project “Snowing In Vegas.”
Wishing you a Happy Hanukkah and happy holiday season to you and your loved ones!
Photo above by Ted Eytan from flickr: CC BY-SA 2.0
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 