#purim celebrations

[tikkunolamresistance]

Anti-Zionism & Purim:

Purim is a wonderfully joyous, often colourful and very tasty, Jewish holiday celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (which corresponds to late winter/early spring). A holiday where drinking is a mitzvah, some dress up as characters from the Book of Esther, we gift good food and most definitely argue about which hamantaschen filling is best. Purim is about Jewish joy, resistance and outliving those who wish for our destruction.

Purim starts the evening of Saturday 23rd March, and ends at sundown the following day, Sunday 24th.

What’s the Purim story?

It is a story of salvation, of Jewish survival and being against all odds. The story of Purim comes from the salvation of the Jewish from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day”. Haman, or Haman the Agagite, was a royal vizier in the court of the Persian empire, to King Ahasuerus/Xerxes I (465 BCE) who was agrivated by Moredcai, of the tribe Benjamin, and his refusal to bow down to his demands— thus Haman seeked revenge on his rejection and convinces the King to issue a decree to kill all Jews in the Persian empire. However the genocidal plot would soon be thearted by Hadassah, or as we know her, Queen Esther.

Queen Esther was an incredible Jewish woman whom the King Ahasuerus (transliteration of Xerxes) had fallen in love with. The Queen revealed her Jewish identity and pleaded with the King to spare her people, to which then, the King was appalled by Haman’s treachery— ordering his execution and granting Jews permission to defeat their enemies.

This story is apart of the Five Melligot (Melligah meaning “scroll” in Hebrew), the Book of Esther.

How is Purim celebrated?

Celebrating Purim depends on minhagim (customs) amongst Jewish cultural and ethnic communities: Ashkenazim may celebrate differently from Sefardim, who celebrate different from Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian and Ethiopian Jewry!

However, these are some universal rituals:

• Listen to the Purim story, the Book of Esther, typically at a Synagogue.

• Eating good for Seudah, a meal had during the day of Purim. Including foods such as pomegranate and wine brisket, hamantaschen, boyosa, challah with various toppings, rugelach, onion and poppy seed rings, hojuelas, kreplach, pickled vegetables and so much more.

• Mishloach Manot, gifting food to friends and/or family.

• Tzedakah, charity, and Metanot L’evyonim, supporting those in need.

• Haka’at Haman: during Megillah reading, there is a custom to make noise at the reading of Haman’s name. From stomping your feet to booing, this minhag is associated with Jewry of France and Provence, though has roots in Talmudic sources. You can read more here.

• Drinking lots of wine!

If you have any specific cultural Purim traditions, leave a comment! Traditions vary from family, to minhag, to cultures!

So, what do we learn from the story of Queen Esther?

Where our Rabbis may dress as Queen Esther, and we get drunk because it’s might be your favourite mitzvah, where we stick to tradition and try a new hamantaschen filling, and hearing the megillah like it’s the first time, all over again. Purim is where we introspect through our celebration; the very expression of joy, against all odds, is where we seek our growth. We exercise our liberty, our bravery and boldness— like Esther, we do not hide our Jewishness, instead we decorate ourselves. We do not stand in the face of adversity and let it through, we crush it and celebrate our resilience. Purim is a reminder of pride, of resistance and using your voice for those who may have theirs silenced. Like Queen Esther, we must not allow genocide and violence, and certainly not in our name as a people who have faught against it through out history. In honour of Purim, we must use what power we have to call for Tikkun Olam— a better future, for all.

Purim is where live to see ourselves dance and sing, the complete expression of G!d— HaShem, the Divine, the Universe, our collective human spirit— we live to build a future of many more Purims, many more celebrations of collective resistance. We dance and sing, and dress up, and drink, as is written, so that there is no world without this freedom.

Families often get creative in teaching their children, and communities, the importance of Purim, by making decorative masks to communicate the importance of identity, or dressing up in fun costumes inspired by strong characters, wether from the Purim story or just fictional worlds. Art is an incredible and important way to communicate, so if you want to get creative and make your own mask, costume or simply create artwork inspired by the story of Purim— tapping into your creative liberty is a wonderful ritual to add to your own traditions.

You can also show your gratitude to people, such as friends, family, service workers, activists, with gifts and letters to celebrate them and their bravery, their selflessness. Do you have anybody you’re greatful for, who’s inspired you to be more selfless, to give back?

What can I reflect on for Purim?

Think about how you show your Jewish pride, how you express your Jewish joy. Do you want to be more loud, more unapologetic, more open? How can you show up for others in need, who are in need for their voices to be uplifted? How can you do your part in building a future that celebrates total liberation from what tries to destroy us? Purim is about celebration, about joy, so as you join in on the festivities however you celebrate, remember that this full expression of your Jewish self is an act of resistance against a history of Jew hatred, a history of antisemitism, and that our existence will outlive the powers that pretend to be on our side.

How can I incorporate Palestine into my Purim celebrations?

Following traditions of donating and tzedekah, you can donate funds to GoFundMes of Palestinian families seeking refuge outside of Gaza, to ensure these families can make it to safety and eat well. We’ll be reposting and sharing GoFundMes and other calls for aid all day on Purim, if you’re looking to do some tzedekah.

As millions of Palestinians in Gaza are imminently facing starvation, you could aim to organise protests and rallies with your communities to demand action to be taken for immediate food distribution into Gaza. Be vocal on Purim, we’ll try to update you with any anti-Zionist events that may be happening across the world.

If you live near a Mosque/Masjid or Islamic community centre, you coulf drop off some Halal-safe food packages for Ramadan celebrations; sweets, pre-packaged/cooked foods and pastries. Your local Islamic food stores can definitely offer more guidance, and be sure to look out for the Halal logo! But, importantly, it’s always good to contact the Mosque or Community centre beforehand to see what donations they’re accepting!

If you’re visiting Shul, now more than ever is your time to challenge the narrative. Why must we turn away blind eye to a genocide whilst we celebrate our survival? Why must we allow the pain we have felt, pass to another, in the name of our survival? If you feel it is safe to do so, it is so irrevocably important to challenge the Zionist narratives that use our history, our holidays, our peoplehood to inflict harm that we once felt. As Queen Esther did, we must speak, and we must not be afraid to do so.

Further Purim readings:

The History of Purim

Laws and Customs of Purim

History of Purim costumes

We’re wishing everyone a happy, safe, healthy and beautiful Purim— please share with us how you’ll be celebrating this year, and keep an eye out for tzedekah posts to donate to Palestinians in need!

#purim #anti zionist jews #anti zionist purim #purim 2024 #purim ideas #purim celebrations #what is purim #free palestine #purim for anti zionist jews #jewish holidays #info: purim

[mental-mona]

#purim #israel #jewish holidays #purim celebrations #jumblr

[hilacopter]

istg if you're a dirty dude

#went as grace to my school's purim celebration today :))) #my irl friend was steph #grace chasity #cosplay #(can i tag this as cosplay???) #purim #(can i tag this as purim also) #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #team starkid #hila has spoken

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Tonight through tomorrow is the Jewish holiday Purim. In this picture, kids are celebrating Purim at the Hebrew Institute of Far Rockaway, 1950.

A celebratory event coinciding with the spring, Purim commemorates the salvation of Jewish subjects in the Persian Achaemenid Empire from Haman, a royal vizier who planned to murder the whole population in a single day. The main antagonist in the Book of Esther, Haman had thrown "lots" to determine the date of the slaughter—the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar. Instead, he saw his plans undone by the Jewish leader Mordecai and his cousin and adopted daughter, Esther.⁠

The traditional wearing of costumes and masks at Purim is thought to have been influenced by Roman carnivals of the 15th century. ⁠

Photo: Al Barry via Three Lions/Getty Images Instagram

#vintage New York #1950s #Al Barry #Purim #Jewish holiday #masks #celebration #religious celebration #Haman #Esther #vintage Queens NY #vintage NYC

[omg-i-think-i-like-you]

Steve woke up to a loud noise from downstairs. He jumped out of bed, his heart pounding in his chest. He grabbed his bat, and slowly and quietly went down the stairs, only in his boxers. As he was approaching the end of the staircase, he heard the loud noise again, this time followed by soft humming. He kept walking towards the source, the kitchen, when the noise startled him again, and he jumped into the kitchen, holding the bat high and ready.

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Eddie yelled and ducked behind the kitchen island. Steve lowered the bat, and scanned the very messy kitchen. Mixing bowls and pots were all over the place, along with ingredients that Steve couldn't think of what they can make together.

"Eddie? Did you go to war in my kitchen?" He put the bat on the floor and walked around the island, where Eddie was stretching up and standing again.

"Hi Stevie," Eddie avoided the question and kissed Steve quickly on the lips, who smiled against the kiss but kept his arms crossed on his chest.

"You scared me," He said when Eddie broke the kiss, "I thought someone broke in. Are you trying to cook something?"

"Not trying, sweetheart, I am cooking something. Baking, actually." Eddie smiled cheekily and started picking up pots from the floor.

"Then why are all the pots out?" Steve teased and Eddie stood up and released a nervous laugh, "Well, I... I didn't know exactly where you keep things, so I kinda took everything out?" He rubbed his neck and Steve laughed.

"It's okay," He started putting the pots in place, "What are you making?"

Eddie, relieved that Steve isn't mad, started clapping in excitement, "Hamantashen!"

Steve looked at him, confused, "Bless you..?"

"No!" Eddie slapped Steve's shoulder, "It's food. And it's amazing."

"I want to believe it's food," Steve teased and Eddie crossed his arms and looked at Steve seriously.

"I don't make fun of your traditional cultural food, do I?"

Steve froze in place, "No, you don't. I'm sorry. Wanna tell me what haman... what did you say, tashen, is?"

Eddie smiled, "With pleasure!" He then pulled a chair and pushed Steve onto it, who giggled to himself, knowing Eddie is about to make the explanation into a whole performance.

"It all started in the faraway kingdom of Ahasuerus," Eddie opened and his eyes lit up, "The King of The Persian Empire, who ruled from India to Kush. He was a hedonistic king who had parties and feasts almost every day," He checked on Steve, making sure he was following. Steve nodded and Eddie continued.

"One day, King Ahasuerus was having one of his many parties, when his wife, Vashti, refused to join. Ahasuerus, who had a very fragile ego, took it personally and decided to fire her, and banish her. Silly Ahasuerus, realized soon after that he misses her, and decided to look for a new wife. He sent people around the kingdom and put his eyes on Good Girl Esther, a Jewish sweetheart who was raised by her Jewish cousin, Mordechai," He checked on Steve again, who looked a little lost now, "Are you following?"

"Yes, it's just... Is all of that important for the food?" He asked carefully.

"Yes." Eddie stated, "moving on. Joining the story now, the infamous Haman. Haman was an official in the king's court, and had an order from Ahasuerus himself, that everyone who saw Haman had to bow down to him. They all did, except-" Eddie stopped to see if Steve completes him, but he only tilted his head at him and stayed silent, "Mordechai, Steve! Mordechai didn't bow down to Haman!"

Steve was invested now, "Oh shit, he probably didn't take that well, did he?"

Eddie smiled in delight, "Oh, absolutely not, Stevie, dear. Haman also had a fragile ego, even more fragile than Ahasuerus. He got so upset, that he decided it's required not to only kill Mordechai, but to execute all the Jews in the Persian Empire!"

"What?? How can he do that??" Steve was on the edge of his seat, "Did Ahasuerus agree? Wait! Isn't he married to Mordechai's cousin??"

Eddie held Steve's face, "He is, Stevie, he is." He did a little twirl and continued his lecture, "Ahasuerus is married to Esther, but he doesn't know she's Jewish. Haman came to Ahasuerus and asked him if he can kill all the Jews, and the stupid king agreed. Haman went on with his plan, and even prepared a special tree for Mordechai's hanging," He paused, enjoying Steve's curious face, and proceeded, "The rumour got spread, Haman was gonna kill all the Jews in the Empire and no one was saying a thing," Steve shook his head, "I know, terrible. Mordechai walked around wearing bags, but it didn't do a thing. That until..." He stopped again, teasing Steve.

"Until what??" Steve burst and Eddie laughed.

"Until Ahasuerus found out Mordechai saved his life. You see, Ahasuerus had these two guards who planned to assassinate him, and Mordechai uncovered their plan and saved the king's life."

"And Mordechai didn't want credit for that? How did Ahasuerus find out?" Steve asked quickly.

"He told Esther to tell Ahasuerus. The guards were executed and Mordechai got promoted, but here things get complicated." He paused again.

"How??" Steve stood up and Eddie pushed him back into his seat, giggling.

"Ahasuerus summoned Haman, and asked him, 'what is to be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?'" Eddie finger quoted the sentence, "Haman, who thought Ahasuerus was talking about him, told him to give him a city, dress him in fancy clothes, give him a horse and have him escorted around the capital for everyone to see. Ahasuerus accepted the idea, and told Haman to do all that to Mordechai."

"Yes!" Steve jumped, "Poetic justice!"

Eddie chuckled, "Yes, but Haman was still gonna kill all the Jews. He went around the capital with Mordechai and cursed every step, having his rage and hate fueled more and more."

"So what happened? Didn't Ahasuerus realize Haman wants to kill the person who saved his life?" Steve asked.

"I remind you, Ahasuerus was very dumb," Eddie answered, "He didn't care about Jews or not Jews, and he didn't even know Mordechai and Esther were Jewish themselves. So what happened, is that as the date came close, Esther started to fast -"

"Wait, what date?" Steve cut him mid-sentence.

"Oh, right," Eddie shook his head, "I forgot that part. When Haman decided to kill the Jews, he left it to fate to set the date. He basically rolled dice, and it fell on the thirteenth day of the Hebrew month Adar, so everyone knew when the mass killing was due. We call it Pur."

"That's intense..." Steve almost whispered, "So all the Jews were just waiting for their death?"

"Almost. They all fasted and wore simple clothes and grieved, but Esther, who was the closest to the king, took it a step further. She was having feasts where she wouldn't eat, and Ahasuerus was getting worried. He asked her why she wouldn't eat or drink, and she said an evil man wants to kill her and all her people. Ahasuerus got scared, and asked her who it is, and that he would kill him immediately." Eddie stopped.

"And?? You can't stop here! What happened?! Did all the Jews die??" Steve started pacing around in worry.

"Esther told Ahasuerus it's Haman who wants to kill all the Jews." Eddie said seriously and Steve started jumping in excitement, and Eddie smiled, "Ahasuerus, who finally found some brains, ordered to kill Haman, who was hanged on the same tree he prepared for Mordechai."

Steve clapped and hugged Eddie, "Yes! Amazing!"

Eddie laughed, "It really was. All the Jews were celebrating for days afterwards, partying and drinking, and everything was good." He hugged Steve back.

"This is such a cool story," Steve said with dreamy eyes, "But what does it have to do with the hamantashen? Wait, it has Haman's name in it??"

"Yes, but it's not like that," Eddie assured, "There are a few interpretations of the meaning of the hamantashen. Some say it symbolises his ears, some say it's his hat or his pockets, but the idea behind it is to celebrate his defeat." Eddie smiled in victory, and Steve smiled back.

"As we should!" He laughed, "But what are hamantashen anyway?"

"Oh, they're cookies. Triangular cookies with filling, traditionally it's poppyseed filling, but poppyseed is disgusting, so I'm putting chocolate." Eddie said and Steve chuckled.

"Of course you are. Can I... help you make them?"

Eddie nodded enthusiastically and the boys got to work. They kneaded the dough in turns, and put it to rest in the fridge for a few minutes. They cleaned up the counter and Steve started washing some dishes, and then closed the tap.

"What holiday is this? Like this story, and the cookies, what are we celebrating?"

Eddie beamed, "It's called Purim, from Pur, fate. We celebrate the defeat of Haman, and how we were saved by the Pur, instead of killed."

"It must be a very happy holiday then," Steve smiled, "Are there more traditions, other than eating Haman's ears?"

Eddie laughed, "Of course there are. First of all, we wear costumes. Purim is the holiday of changed fate, so like Haman was killed instead of the Jews, we symbolise that by being someone else for a few days. We also have a big feast and read the Megillah, the story I just told you," He smiled, "We also make gift baskets for each other, and donate food and money for those who need them. Another thing we do, and you're gonna like that, is to get so drunk, that we can't tell between Evil Haman and Good Mordechai," he giggled, "I know I like this one."

"Do you... Wanna do that?" Steve asked shyly and Eddie started laughing.

"I think you know the answer to that." He winked.

They took the dough out of the fridge, rolled it and cut circles into it with a glass. They then put chocolate in the middle of some, after Steve convinced Eddie to make some with strawberry jam too. They folded them into triangles and put them in the oven, and then Steve poured them newly opened wine.

"Happy Purim, Eddie," Steve clinked their glasses together.

"Happy Purim indeed, Stevie, L'Chaim," He clinked back and took a long sip.

"You made that sound again," Steve said, "Like in tuches."

Eddie started laughing so hard, he had to put his glass down, "Steve, god. Yes, it's the same sound," He kissed him wetly on the cheek, "but it's a very different word. L'Chaim means cheers in Hebrew. It translates to 'to life'. We celebrate life." He smiled, a warm feeling set in his chest. "We celebrate life." He said again, quietly, and Steve smiled at him in understanding.

"We celebrate life." Steve repeated and kissed Eddie slowly and deeply.

The oven rang a few minutes later. Eddie pulled the tray out and a warm, sweet smell filled the kitchen. He put the hamantashen on a plate and took it to the living room, and Steve followed with the already half-empty bottle of wine, and another one he found in the fridge.

Steve and Eddie spent the rest of the day feeding each other hamantashen, getting drunk out of their minds and kissing like it was their first time, again and again and again.

They both passed out on the couch, laying on top of each other, full of wine and hamantashen and love.

Celebrating Life.

#Happy Purim! #can you tell it's my favourite holiday #it came out a bit educational lol but i love this story so much and eddie does too #i kinda wanna make hamantashen too now #maybe i will #isn't steve so cute celebrating eddie's holidays with him #and yes it kinda connects to my yiddish speaking eddie fic #im creating a universe of chaotic jewish eddie #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #steve x eddie #eddie x steve #jewish eddie #jewish eddie munson #established steddie #purim #hamantashen #im obsessed with this holiday

[smalliinsaneone]

I’ve seen that post about what if for Halloween the Batfam all dress up as each other and patrol like that, but consider: in a universe with Jewish Bruce Wayne (and Tim Drake, obviously), they do the same thing but for Purim. It has the added benefit of confusing all the people who aren’t up on the Jewish holidays, while being a nice nod to their heritage.

#I’m actively sitting at my temple’s Purim celebration and we have a mom and daughter dressed as Batman and Robin which made me think #also jason (actively on patrol; dressed as Red Robin) reacting to joker’s name like haman’s #just booing and noisemakers #(those noisemakers are actuall explosions but who cares about that chill *out* B) #the funniest part of Jason being dressed as Tim is that everyone looks at Red Robin with a gun and is just like ah he’s finally snapped #(that might be *why* Tim made Jason take RR) #batman #Batfam #Bruce Wayne #jewish bruce wayne

[convolutings]

Happy Purim!

Hey, do Jews remember when our holidays would trend on Tumblr, and that stupid meme wishing a happy "x" to whoever celebrated would pop up starting like the day before? And we were wondering what that would be like after October 7 since this site has found its way to extreme leftism and antisemitism at every corner.

Well, we have our answer. For Hanukkah, it seems like they were still keeping up their facade of supporting Jewish people, but now they've just given up. Because a "Happy Purim" is nowhere to be found.

And if they start tomorrow, then it just proves even more so that it's all for show because why would you make a post towards a specific group of people on the one day a week that they don't use electronics.

#antisemitism #happy purim #happy x to whoever celebrates #anti semitism #jumblr #judaism

[the-magic-mirror]

My brothers yahrzeit is on Purim, and something I realized recently is that a lot of people are going to be like me this year. They’re going to have a hard time with it. Please be kind to people struggling with Purim this year

#Purim #jumblr #some people are grieving #some people are worried #some people are upset #a lot of people will have a hard time celebrating

[hachama]

Two

Weeks

Until

Purim

#purim #Jewish positivity #Jewish joy #Haman has been dead for 2500 slutty slutty years and we will not stop celebrating it

[evilponds]

omg wait tomorrows purim.. happy purim to all who celebrate because i will forget tomorrow

#when i was in college i happened to be in nyc when it was purim and someone asked me if i was jewish #(my ex said this is common on purim in nyc. the intent is to celebrate with you if you say yes as i was given to understand) #and rather than just say 'no' i said 'no sorry' #i think about it often. whyd i apologize.

[n0thingiscool]

Fucking ghouls dressing their children up to celebrate genocide. Themselves, dressing up as mad a racist mass murderer. Wtf is wrong with Israel? Ghouls.

#ghouls #israel #purim #baruch goldstein #parade #celebrating genocide #zionists #evil #palestine #genocide

[sssfrs]

נהפוך הוא

#purim #purim holiday #jewish #jewish holiday #holidays #judaism #jumblr #judaic #art #artist #illustration #creature #festival #celebrate #jew

[kvetchinglyneurotic]

I wish you would write a fic where...

Anything exploring Jewish Roy Kent. How being sent away at such a young age affected his connection to that part of his life, the new ways he’s learned to experience it with his family now, anything

I'm going to Frankenstein this ask together with your one for the fic title game because I got this I was like. good news!

This one is kind of based on personal experience, so allow me to overshare for a moment: I grew up in a city with a fairly small Jewish population in general but especially in my neighbourhood — I'm pretty sure I was the only Jewish kid in my entire year in elementary school, and by the time I got to high school I knew of like. maybe two or three others. (This did produce some funny moments, like when we got to the part in Macbeth where witches call for the liver of a blaspheming Jew and everyone at my table turned to look at me).

And so Jewish Roy is very dear to me but also makes me sad because while I did find that experience kind of difficult and alienating at times, at the end of the day, I came home to my Jewish family. I think when you're in that type of situation, it's incredibly valuable to have someone who shares that experience so you can essentially reaffirm each other — because when you're the only one who has (or doesn't have) a certain experience or is bothered by something that everyone else seems to like, it's very easy to assume that you're being irrational or overreacting (this is also, incidentally, why I appreciate all my fellow aros and aces), and that's not something Roy is likely to have had.

I don't have any snippets for this one yet but the premise of Roy Kent vs the Jewish Experience is that as he's working with Dr. Sharon post-season 3, Roy starts to unpack some of his complicated feelings around growing up the way he did, and part of that is realizing that he resents the fact that he never had the opportunity to grow up in Judaism — and part of that's directed at his family, but it's also directed at the football academy system for not really giving him that opportunity. So he decides that for the first time basically ever, he's going to take time off for his holidays because he's the manager now and no one can stop him. The fic basically follows Roy through a year of Jewish celebrations starting with Rosh Hashanah (new year's) that somehow turns into a full club event because the boys love their coach and have never heard of subtlety, and if they celebrate Christmas at the club despite a bunch of them not being Christian, why not other holidays?

#asks #ask games #roy kent #jewish roy kent #i think roy would probably stick to the major holidays so like rosh hashanah - yom kippur - sukkot - chanukah - purim - pesach #honestly probably not shavuot bc it's more of a religious holiday (commemorates the giving of the torah) but eating cheesecake is an actual #part of the celebration so i'm including it #also roy assigns jamie the part for the simple child during the passover seder and he sulks about it for a week #the wicked child is whoever last fucked up at practice #kvetch

[dustedmagazine]

Airto Moreira & Flora Purim— Airto & Flora - A Celebration: 60 Years - Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories (BBE)

This massive compilation tracks the intertwined careers of two pivotal figures in fusion jazz, offering three hours of music from pioneers Airto Moreira and Flora Purim.

Though both Brazilian, the two came from starkly different backgrounds, Moreira from the rural hinterlands in the country’s far south, Purim from a cultured Jewish family in cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro. Moreira was famously self-taught, drumming for the first time as a young teenager when a travelling samba band was missing a percussionist (he did well). Purim learned music from her pianist mother and a large collection of jazz 78s, then trained on the guitar with bossa nova master Manoel da Conceição. The two met when Moreira’s Sambalanço travelled to Rio and Purim sat in with the band in 1965. The outfit, slightly reconfigured as the Sambrasa Trio, became the pair’s first collaborative project together.

Purim left Brazil in 1968, fleeing a repressive military government. She connected with jazz players—Thelonius Monk, Wayne Shorter, Carmen MacRae, Joe Zawinul, Cannonball Adderly and Stan Getz—soon after her arrival in New York City and by 1969 was touring Europe with Getz. Moreira followed her to the States in 1969, arriving in New York, then flying to join her in Los Angeles. In 1970, he was invited to play with Miles Davis, who was then beginning to incorporate global sounds into his music.

Purim was arrested on drug charges in 1971, in an ill-advised attempt to raise money for a musician friend Hermeto Pascoal. She went to prison in 1974, just as her career was starting to take off. She learned that she had been named Downbeat’s Female Jazz Vocalist of the Year for 1974 while in jail. She was released in 1975. Afterwards she and Moreira connected with Chick Corea and joined Return to Forever.

It’s an extraordinary story, but despite the tumult both artists remained productive. Purim and Moreira released a string of albums together, with Purim often singing on Moreira’s releases and Moreira playing percussion on hers. BBE’s retrospective includes music released from 1964 through 1996, from earthy, percussion-heavy samba to cerebral fusion jazz anthems to airy new age meditations.

What strikes you first is that Purim and Moreira were very different artists. Purim’s high, extraordinarily agile soprano put a cool, sophisticated gloss on everything she touched, while Moreira’s best work was gutsy, visceral and celebratory. Together, though, they had an undeniable chemistry. “Andei” from Moreira’s 1970 debut Natural Feelings, for instance, melds the swaggering, sauntering exuberance of Moreira’s percussion with Purim’s note-perfect buoyancy. “Light as a Feather,” perhaps Purim’s best known song and the title track to the 1970 Return to Forever album, follows silky smooth, nearly disembodied vocals through gnarly thickets of improvised sax, keyboards, bass (that’s Stanley Clarke) and, of course, percussion. “Oh Sonho (Moon Dreams)” incorporates some of Purim’s most angelic, inhuman singing ever (and that’s saying a lot), and it comes from Moreira’s psychedelic samba-jazz masterwork Seeds on the Ground.

Moreira’s latter work turns fractious and lo-fi, and indeed, the 1990s cuts included here—“Musikana,” “The Happy People” and “The Peasant Dance”—are among my favorites. Yet while punk-trained ears may balk at the glassy smoothness of, say, “Open Your Eyes You Can Fly,” there’s a lot of friction even in the interstices. Purim made Moreira’s grooves sound unearthly, and Moreira surrounded her with terrestrial warmth. It was a great partnership, one that has lasted 60 years and counting and that is very well documented here.

Jennifer Kelly

#airto moreira #flora purim #a celebration #bbe #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #bossa nova #jazz #fusion #brazil #miles davis #return to forever #Bandcamp

[supercantaloupe]

also i do appreciate maestro's enthusiasm today in rehearsal introducing l'elisir to us as "one of the greatest operas" and that "it will be difficult for us to not laugh while playing" as if any of us in pit will either 1. Be able to see the stage or 2. Understand Italian

#sasha speaks #oboeposting #actually one (1) other person will be able to understand italian. but not the rest of us lol #elisir should be fun tho. finally: bel canto #although it's less great that we have performances on purim of course but. so it goes ig #not like i was gonna be celebrating much anyway... #and of all the operas i guess the Getting Drunk one is the most thematically appropriate for the occasion lol

[mothocean]

Purim :3

#like technically it'll only be purim on sunday but we're celebrating it at school today #i went as jonathan sims :3 im not gonna post the photos bc im scared but mutuals can dm me if u want to see em #also we're making hamantaschen if anyone wants some #roseflower.txt