Maseng’s style of storytelling is Chasidic; some myths surrounded by reality. The music is both familiar and new, incorporating 
themes we already know, with others he wishes us to experience for the first time. There are dynamic changes in rhythm and 
dramatic changes in verse; at times more a prayer, before bringing us back to his point of reality. Just the sound of his voice
 had a shape-shifting quality of its own: at first soft, warm and comforting, then quite strong and forceful, with an accompanying
 increase in volume. He moves us back and forth in time and to settings far and near.

  Below: Danny Maseng autographs CDs following concert

Maseng performed a dozen songs by other composers, some well known, 
some lesser known. He also included four of his own compositions in which
 I  heard influences of American, Traditional Jewish and Israeli music. 
Starting with part of the weekly liturgy we say on Erev Shabbat:  Vay‘hi Erev 
(And there was  evening) and continuing into his The Lion, the Eagle and 
the Dove, Maseng  uses  tonalities based, for the most part, on the harmonic
 minor mode. This is the "sound"  so very common in traditional Jewish liturgical
 music. 

Think of a minor scale with a step and a half between the sixth and seventh 
notes.  (C, D, E flat, F, G, A flat, B and C). If you build a series of chords
 (a chord progression)  on C F and G the "sound" will resolve into a "Jewish" 
sounding musical  phrase. By the time we get to song number 9 in his concert, 
See No Evil, Maseng has moved into a Rock & Roll sound, very up-tempo 
His last composition, Oh Lord,  My G-d moves toward a more "modern  sound" by uisng new modulations (key changes).
                                                                    
I trust that by this column my readers are sensing that for me, music is a true spiritual experience: well, not exactly all music. As I
listened I wondered, is there an Old Rebbe, back among the many generations of Rabbis on my father’s side of the family? I have
heard there are somewhere between 8 and 14. Was Maseng's imagery also part of my own story? 

While most of those attending Maseng's concert were in my age range of 70 and up, there were some within the age range of 
my children,  that being 24 to 45. The expressions on their faces seemed to say; "are these our roots?" or "these are our roots!" 
Maseng’s journey was one  which I wished I had traveled many years ago. For this writer, it was a soul-searching experience.

It was fortunate that jewishsightseeing.com editor Don Harrison picked this festival as my first assignment. All of the programs 
to date have generated a flood of thoughts and memories, and last Saturday Maseng helped me to navigate the waters.