2004-12-23 Totally Jewish

LINK

New York's Queen Of Cool

by Robert Collins - Dec 23

It’s finally happened. I can’t tell you how or why, but being Jewish has never been cooler. And top of the hip tree right now is Regina Spektor, the new queen of New York, a singer songwriter destined to make 2005 her own.

Coolness, for want of a better expression, is a very transient quality, but the story of Regina suggests that she’s going to be around a lot longer than TV-spawned flashes in the pan like poor Michelle McManus (assuming you even remember her at all).

Born in Moscow in the bad old days of the Soviet Union, Regina spent her formative years learning classical piano and keeping her Judaism as quiet as possible. It was only when the Spektor family relocated to The Bronx district of New York City when the aspiring singer was nine, that her eyes were opened to the possibilities before her.

“When we came to America it was very normal to be a practicing Jew,” she explains. “So, of course, we began exploring all of that.”

Rediscovering her family’s faith went hand in hand with expanding her musical education courtesy of one Sonia Vargas. The young Regina charmed the Manhattan school of music professor into giving her lessons, despite the fact that the immigrant Spektors had no money to pay for them. Or even a piano to practice on.

By 2001 Regina had graduated from New York’s SUNY Purchase College, and was becoming a shining light in the city’s tight-knit (and ludicrously trendy) anti-folk community. The big time beckoned, and it came in the form of an invitation from world famous rock stars The Strokes - who count Jewish guitarist Nick Valensi among their number - to open for them on their American tour. Impressed with what they saw, Regina’s next step on the superstardom escalator was a duet with The Strokes, Modern Girls and Old-Fashioned Men, and a growing buzz around this mystery girl from Russia.

So when third album Soviet Kitsch arrived this summer, there was a growing army of newfound fans waiting to lap it up. They weren’t disappointed. Sitting somewhere between Norah Jones’ keen ear for melody and Tori Amos’ natural weirdness, Soviet Kitsch proved that Sonia and The Strokes were right all along. Songs were subtle, piano-flavoured pieces with echoes of folk, jazz, rock and even snatches of traditional klezmer thrown in for good measure. Because as Regina is fully aware, there’s nothing cooler right now than standing up and asserting your Judaism.

“I still keep kosher and some of the holidays,” she is happy to admit, “But I am not very Orthodox at all. I guess I pick and choose which parts of the tradition to follow, but I always appreciate that I have a choice.”

Smart, sexy and super-talented, Regina Spektor is going to be huge.