“Elijah The Prophet” Descends

Elijah the biblical prophet will return to earth to herald the coming of redemption, of the messiah, according to various versions of various religious traditions.

At the annual Passover seder, while remembering plagues and other threats to communal freedom and existence, Jews open the door to welcome Elijah in. In case he happens to be in the neighborhood. We set aside a cup of wine for him, in case he’s thirsty making his rounds.

We sing a song called ​“Eliyahu Ha Navi.” Translated from Hebrew, that means ​“Elijah the Prophet.”

Like all religious stories and rituals and songs, ​“Eliyahu Ha Navi” has gone through many transformations, different versions, updatings — all of them rooted in preserving tradition.

Local jazz bass player, composer, bandleader, and professor David Chevan has played a part in that. His various ensembles have updated ​“Eliyahu Ha Navi” many times with jazz flavoring. One recorded version, from the Afro-Semitic Experience, is the opening theme of WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

Once Covid-19 sent people indoors, isolated, Chevan decided to update ​“Eliyahu Ha Navi” again. He assembled — remotely — members of Nu Haven Kapelye, a New Haven/Hamden volunteer klezmer orchestra. They produced a new recording and video of ​“Eliyahu Ha Navi” just in time for Passover, which begins Wednesday night.

Chevan described how and why the recording came together, during a pre-seder appearance Wednesday morning on ​“Dateline New Haven.” He spoke of how his son Noah produced the track.

It began with David recording the bassline form his house. Then Dana Astmann recorded an accordion part and Jesse Chevan the drum track.

Noah took those tracks and used them to guide another 29 orchestra members — from 12 years old up into their 80s — to record their parts on other instruments. Then Noah produced the final track, along with the video.

Click above to watch the final product. (The video info box lists the names of all the musicians.) Click here for more information about Nu Haven Kapelye, including how you can support it. Click here for a fuller story about this recording and project by Lucy Gellman.

And click below to watch the full pre-Passover episode of ​“Dateline New Haven” with David Chevan, in which he updates numerous Passover melodies in the quest to define how this night will indeed be different from all other nights — but in some ways the same, as well. And how that has been true since the days of other plagues as well as pogroms and genocide. Messiah or no messiah, our traditions, our values, survive.