Jonathan Barahal

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Teiku: Klang

by Glenn Astarita
June 21, 2026

Teiku is a Talmudic acronym that translates to “unanswered question," a concept the Chicago-Detroit quartet has adopted as a full artistic identity. Co-leaders Josh Harlow (piano) and Jonathan Barahal (percussion) formed the band after discovering a striking coincidence: Both grew up singing Passover melodies unique to their ancestral Ashkenazi-Ukrainian villages. Passed down by ear through generations from communities wiped out by persecutions, these liturgical songs became the raw material for a creative jazz project that registers as deeply spiritual yet ...