Kobi Oz "Mizmorei Nevuchim / Psalms For The Perplexed"
Yesterday, while wandering around the Jewish corner of BandCamp.com, I ran into a recent album from Kobi Oz, lead singer of the popular Israeli group Teapacks. As Yehuda Mirsky notes in his essay in Jewish Ideas Daily"Some mainstream Israeli musicians have recently been turning for material to religious texts; others have become immersed in the musical traditions of Sephardi Jewry. The two trends have come together in a new album, Mizmorei Nevukhim ("Psalms for the Perplexed"), by Kobi Oz." My Hebrew isn't good enough to follow the lyrics, which Mirsky describes as "abound[ing] with riffs on the terrors, longings, and sheer nuttiness of Israeli life, plus a whimsically phrased but dead-earnest questioning of dogmas both religious and secular." Fortunately, all the songs are translated courtesy of "Makom - Israeli Engagement Network."
I love the album's sound which is mixes a capsule history of Israeli pops with mizrachi overtones and archive samples. And the lyrics for the song below, Prayer of the Secular" are priceless. Check it out.
I'm a Conservative Jew living in a Christian farm town in Michigan, USA. For me, Jewish music used to be Adon Olam, Hava Nagila, and Fiddler on the Roof. I started getting a clue a few years ago. Jewish music is Klezmer dances, Sephardic ballads and Chassidic niggun. It's thousand year old hymns, three hundred year old Shabbat table songs and 60 year old partisan resistance songs. It's contemporary hip-hop, punk rock, electronica, jazz, and chamber music. In addition to loving its musical and spiritual qualities, Jewish music helps me connect my family with a much broader and diverse Jewish culture than is available locally. The Teruah blog helps me document my exploration and share it with others. Why the name Teruah? Teruah is a call on the shofar on Rosh Hashanna.
Hear me interviewed on the Israel National Radio show "The Beat with Ben Bresky" Please email me about your band, event, album, blog, podcast, research or favorite Jewish music obsession. I'd love to hear it or about it.
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