Freedom Season's "Along the Way" - the best Jewish folk rock album of the year.

For the last couple of days I've had Freedom Season on heavy heavy rotation. I'm on another work trip and this is exactly the kind of soul music to get me through. Listening to the YouTube video below, you'll definitely get a strong Shlomo Carlebach vibe. Well done, but pretty much everyone with tzizit and a guitar wants to be Carlebach, right?

Ok. Now listen to the tracks from their studio album, Along the Way. Check out Taste of Heaven, Havdalah, or Old Friend. Fantastic harmonies and melodies and bluesy acoustic riffs that echo 1960's and early 1970's Americana folk pop bands like the Byrds. And strong strong well crafted lyrics that pick up some deep ideas without taking easy 'let's do another arrangement of one of the psalms/zimrot/Carlebach/classic niggun' shortcuts*. Their song Havadallah is going to become a camp standard. You wait and see.
Wow. Where did these guys come from? Where have they been all my life? The Cool Jew blog recently compared Freedom Season to 8th Day. I can see the comparison, but I'm not buying it. 8th Day's got a much more straight up modern rock sound. Freedom Season's way more the softer side of folk rock. I will say that if they can get their stage show up to the level of the album, they'll be selling out halls the way that 8th Day does and Blue Fringe did.

In addition to scoring "Along the Way" through Bandcamp, you can grab it from iTunes and Amazon MP3. You can also follow their adventures on Facebook. And you really should.

Freedom Season - Live at Chabad of Basking Ridge (6/10/12) 2/3

* Just to be clear here, I love "psalms/zimrot/Carlebach/classic nigguns" as much as the next Jewish music obsessed guy. I'm just excited to see a couple of songwriters who can really write lyrics and aren't afraid to divert from the traditional Jewish community's standard music formula's.

Yehuda Katz going solo

It's funny. Historically, I've never been a big jam-band, Grateful Dead kind of guy. I'm not sure why I so love Shlomo Carlebach and his psuedo-hippy Chassid protégés so much. But I do. Which is why I was thrilled when I got an email Aryeh Kunstler pointing me to Yehuda Katz new videos and album. Katz was one of the founders of popular Israeli Hassidic music group Reva L’Sheva and in the new album expands on his joyful Shlomo Carlebach / Grateful Dead sound. Love it. Check it out.

Yehudah Katz - Biladecha/Not Without You

For more info on Katz, check out this recent Jerusalem Post article. His other new video, Hudo, is also excellent. You can grab the new album through iTunes and follow Katz on Facebook.

The Chavlog, a niggunim video blog

Shabbat shalom everyone.

I'm really looking forward to Shabbat this week. The crazy storms across the midwest caused me to spend a lot of unnecessary time hanging out at airports (3 failed attempts to get to Huntsville, Al), but that's a minor inconvenience compared to the destruction in Missouri. I think we all need a break.

I'm really excited about this week's 'get in the Shabbos grove' video. As you all know, I love niggunim. For anyone not introduce to them yet, niggunim (the plural of niggun) are wordless or mostly wordless Chassidic songs, typically of a spiritual bent. And they make great drinking songs. But you didn't hear that from me.

Yesterday I ran across a new project from Mendel "the Sheichet." I last checked in with Mendel back in 2008 in a post about his Pittsburgh based Chassidic heavy metal band, Teihu. Right now he's doing a fascinating video blog about niggunim for COLlive.com, a Chassidic community news website.

Chavlog #8: The 63rd Niggun from COLlive.com on Vimeo.

What's fantastic this is that Mendel puts a lot of effort into explaining the history and context of each niggun before singing it. From a Chassidic perspective, this is critical to understanding and properly approaching the niggun. They're not just melodies, each one is a spiritual statement.

The whole series is posted on Vimeo. Enjoy! and Shabbat shalom.

Shabbat Shalom Detroit

Shabbat shalom, everyone.

Yesterday's Detroit Jewish News ran a really nice full page story on me and Teruah. So when got to the Detroit JCC's music fest meeting last night I got copies of DJN thrown at me and a lot of good natured ribbing. C'mon. The picture does NOT make me look like a grumpy rapper. Very funny. If you're a new reader who saw the article... great to meet you and thanks for stopping by. I'll be giving a talk in Detroit on March 24 as part of the Detroit JCC's Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest, so stop by and say hello.

This been a long week of meetings and family stuff, not much time for blogging or anything else, so I'm really looking forward to Shabbat tonight. So, for my 'get in the Shabbat groove' video I thought I'd share this lovely recording of the Yigdal prayer. When I was a kid, at a Conservative synagogue in Connecticut, we usually closed Friday night services with Adon Olam. Yigdal was saved for special occasions. Because of that I've always deeply loved Yigdal. The melody used in this recording isn't the one I grew up with, it's a Sephardic melody sung by the Israeli musician Avraham Perrera. I honestly don't know much about Perrera other than the few of his songs I've heard on the internet. If anyone knows more about him or has a pointer to any biographical information, please drop me a line.

Avraham Perrera - YİGDAL

Hat tip to YouTube user 2751984 for uploading the video. You can find Avraham Perrera recordings at Israel-Music.com.

The Shondes Need You!

Speaking of Jewish women with voices, my favorite Jewish queer radical politics punk band, The Shondes needs help. They've got to get to SXSW in a couple of weeks and their van was stolen. For a young band that's a really bad thing. No van. No go.

So they've started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a new (to them) van to get them on the road to SXSW and beyond. I've put my $$ down. How about you? Even $5 would help. Think of it as gas money for some really great folks.

Donate via Kickstarter.

Here's one of my favorite Shondes tracks, off their first album The Red Sea and the "trailer" for their latest album, "My Dear One." The trailer is a great chance to get to know them. UPDATE: The Shondes have put together a video explaining their situation.

Get The Shondes Back on the Road!

The Shondes - I Watched The Temple Fall

Rinat Gutman: Orthodox Woman with a Voice

There's a minor kerfluffle brewing on the Jew music scene lately. Jewish musician Naomi Less has called out the Jewlicious festival for not featuring enough women artists in her blog Jewish Chicks Rock. She basically called the progressive festival an Orthodox front. She got a response today from David Abitbol, aka Jewlicous, politely telling her she's got it all wrong. I'm not sure what to think. From my experience working on the Detroit JCC's Stephen Gottlieb Music Fest there are some many different voices, opportunities, and constraints involved in getting a festival staged it's amazing they happen at all. It may be that the subtle constraints that come from the individual tastes of the Jewlicious Fest presenters are leading to this outcome? Or maybe Less is just making noise about nothing?

One nice thing about Abitbol's response was the list of female performers that have been featured at the Jewlicious festivals recently. I'm familiar with most of them, but there are some new (to me) names I'll have to track down and some names that I've heard of but haven't featured lately or ever.

One that list is Israeli rapper, Rinat Gutman. According to this great interview in the Yeshiva University Observer, Gutman comes from a Charedi Zionist background with some ties to Breslov and Chabad. Gutman performs some women-only shows within the Orthodox community, but lots of shows for mixed secular crowds (such as the Jewlicious festival), too.

"In my rap I speak about things that come from inside, about thoughts and insights that come to me in response to things that happen to me in life. At this point in my life, the central message that I am trying to convey is about the western culture, which dominates everything. I talk a lot about the ramifications of this on our lives, and in my opinion, the implications for the approaching time periods are destructive.

For example, in my song Shekel v'Chetzi [shekel-and-a-half] I talk about our lives using the metaphor of a shekel v'chetzi store [dollar store]. In my eyes, this is the ultimate representation of western culture - the concept of instant gratification. You can find things almost for free, but you pass up on quality along the way. So I mention in my song all types of things that you can "buy" in this type of store, such as love, a professional degree, friends, etc.

I want to make a difference in the world of Jewish music because, in my opinion, it can still develop more. I want to take commonplace topics and make them humorous and lighthearted. For example, I have a Chassidic short story in a rap that talks about shidduchim in a funny and unusual way - it's about a groom who's too short and bride who's too tall, etc..

Good stuff, too, from what I've heard. I haven't seen her yet, but hope to. Get more info from Gutman's MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

Rinat Gutman - Chassidishe Tale Live at Rashimu

Rinat Gutman: Ooga Ooga Ooga Live ft. Ben Yomen רינת גוטמן- עוגה,עוגה

Yiddish Lazerbass

Math Rosen is a Montreal musician who plays, among other things, lazer bass. Lazer bass isn't an instrument, it's a varient of hip-hop that's heavy on bass and futuristic in tone. The genre name was coined by New Yorker blogger Sasha Frere-Jones. She was specifically describing a mix by Montreal DJ collective Megasoid and more broadly a group of musicians "bounded on the left side by the dyad of Los Angeles and San Francisco, sliced in half by Montreal, and ends on the right side in Glasgow, Scotland."

I don't have much info on Math Rosen other than that he's a Montreal DJ. I've got no idea why he thought to do a Yiddish Lazerbass, but I dig it. I also got no idea what that light/button table is that he's fiddling with. I'm assuming it's a control device for some kind of sequencer, but it's a new one on me. I shot him an email last night and will let y'all know if he get's back to me. Update: My buddy Hasidic Musician from Blog in Dm set me straight (as he often does). It's a monome 128, "a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons" tied to a sequencer app. Gorgeous.

Yiddish Lazerbass from Math Rosen on Vimeo.

Hat tip to the @yiddishkayt twitter feed & website for pointing me to Rosen. "Yiddishkayt strives to ensure the survival of the endangered thousand-year legacy of Yiddish language, culture and history."

Abraham Inc goes "Tweet Tweet"

I'm totally digging the new Abraham Inc. album. It's a full on, head on, collision of klezmer, funk, and hip-hop music. Here's the blurb (I love blurbs.)

"An unprecedented collaboration between three cultural visionaries: DAVID KRAKAUER, champion of klezmer music and world-class clarinetist; legendary funk trombonist and arranger FRED WESLEY, celebrated for his work with James Brown and George Clinton; and hip-hop renegade and beat architect SOCALLED – Abraham Inc"

What underlies that blurb is a real depth of knowledge in each of the music styles, but what makes the album work the way in which Abraham Inc cleverly uses a very contemporary, stuttery, cut & paste, hip-hop oriented approach to the funk and klezmer merger. The hip-hop style breaks help deconstruct the two musical styles and reconstruct them as assembled fragments of the new compositions. In this collage of bouncing and popping fragments, it sounds totally natural to hear Socalled's Yiddish bounce against C-Rayz Walz's English raps or hear Krakuer's clarinet klezmer runs bounce against Wesley's horn sections.

Abraham Inc Tweet Tweet (Official Music Video)

While Tweet Tweet is the first single, and a worthy track, my favorite is the H-Tune, a reconstruction of "Yidlach Anthem" Hava Nagila. It's a great example of their style, Hava Nagila's melody is broken in to phrases all of which are layered on top of each other and over funk horns. What you end up with is NOT Hava Nagila, it takes some work to pull out the Hava Nagila phrases. What it is, is the H-Tune.

The H Tune (Hava Nagila)

For more info and to buy the album, check out the Abraham Inc. website and Facebook pages.

Hat tip to AliciaKraks for posting the H-Tune video (shot back in Feb 2010). AliciaKraks happens to be Alicia Krakauer, H-Tune vocalist and daughter of David Krakauer.

I Am The Sum Total of All My Ancestors: Adam McKinney’s multimedia dance "HaMapah"

Adam McKinney is "a classically trained dancer and former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Béjart Ballet Lausanne, and Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet." McKinney's new multimedia dance "HaMapah/The Map.... traces the intersections of Adam McKinney's multiple [Jewish, African American and Native American] heritages."

"I am the sum total of my maternal ancestors from Russia, Poland, Austria, Galicia and Spain. Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow, the Rama, wrote HaMapah (literally meaning “the tablecloth”) to the Code of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch. I am the sum total of my paternal ancestors from Benin, Arkansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Beatrice Dailey, AKA 'B. Trace' was a revolutionary playwright of her time.

I am the map, the quilt, and the tablecloth of those who have come before me. While rethreading the links, I consider our struggle to stay connected to each other as I uncover resistance of my non-Black, Jewish and Black, non-Jewish families and what it means to be true to all of myself.

HaMapah / המפה weaves contemporary dance with archival material, personal interviews, Yiddish and American songs, and video set to traditional, contemporary, and classical music."

HaMapah/המפה - A DNAWORKS Production

Hat Tip to YouTube users mermlade for uploading the video.

Hanukkah Day 20: Samuel Adler's Flames of Freedom

Ok..so it's December 23. Hanukkah is long done and for varying reasons I never got out my last two Hanukkah posts. I'm not sure if I'll get the last one out, but I really wanted to share this one.

As I've mentioned, I've been listening and researching a lot more Jewish art music lately. One contemporary composer who's name I run into again and again is Samuel Adler. As his Milken Archive biography notes, "With a catalog comprising more than 400 secular and liturgical works, German-born Samuel Adler is a highly prolific American composer, as well as an accomplished conductor and a respected educator." He's the son of the equally famous composer and cantor Chaim Hugo Adler and has had a long and deep involvement in Jewish liturgical music in the US, including a stint heading the Reform movement's Transcontinental Musical Publishers and teaching at School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College. (for more info also see his wikipedia biography.)

Among his Jewish output is an outstanding set of Hanukkah music, The Flames of Freedom (available from the Milken Archive). Flames is "a cantata for three-part treble-voice chorus and piano, based on ten well-known Hanukka songs and hymns together with original music to two other liturgical Hanukka texts. It consists of eight short movements, each representing one of the eight Hanukka lights."

Unlike many art music adaptations of Jewish melodies I've heard, there is no hint of sentimental sweetening and swelling nostalgic orchestrations. Instead, these are wonderful new compositions that use original themes as jumping off points for new explorations. I don't pretend enough knowledge to really review art music pieces, so I'll leave it at that this... They're wonderful.

You can listen to clips online at the Milken Archive to hear the recorded performances. It turns out that Flames has also been arranged and published as sheet music for high-school choral's. Here's "William Floyd High School Women's Choir under the direction of Kristin Cimonetti performing" Flames of Freedom III. Hannerot hallalu (The Lights We Have Kindled) during their Winter concert, January 5, 2010. Lovely.

Flames of Freedom III. Hannerot hallalu (The Lights We Have Kindled)


I actually emailed Adler earlier this week. According to his bio, "His articles on Jewish music have appeared in the Central Conference of American Rabbis journal; Jewish Music; European Judaism; Musica Judaica; Diapason; The American Choral Review; and many others." I was hoping that he might have reprinted them in a book form or have them available somehow. No such luck. I'll have to try to hit the source journals.

Hanukkah Day 6: The Asthmatix...Latkes From Australia

Hanukkah Day 6 comes straight from Australia, courtesy David Brook. I've written about Brook's music adventures before...he and J. Harkham were the pair that put out the Darkcho album, easily one of my favorite Jewish recordings of 2010. This time he sent me the video for the first single from the new band The Asthmatix. It's not clear if Brook is playing on the recording, but I'm guessing he is. And he's not. He's friends with the band and produced the video.

The Asthmatix...Latkes

I really dig this video. It follows nicely after the klezmer meets hip-hop / house bands including Canada's Socalled, Germany's Jewdyssee, and England's Ghettoplotz. I'd love to see these folks spend some time at KlezKamp and improve their klezmer chops. Not quite in Socalled's league yet, but good stuff.

UPDATE 1: I just found another Asthamatix video, VaHAEnu. The video itself isn't as snappy as Brook's video for Latkes and it lacks the clever socalled-esque use of vintage narration cuts, but the violin and turntable are showcased much more effectively. My estimation of the violinist and the DJ jumped up a notch or two. Great stuff.

UPDATE 2: Brooks sent me the band's blurb (I love blurbs).

The Asthmatix have been blending the art of klezmer, hip-hop, middle eastern melodies and traditional turntablism since 2007. Taking to the stage with violin, keyboards, and turntables they have played Sydney venues including the 505, Name This Bar, Opera Bar and festivals including Shir Madness at the Bondi Pavillion. Band members include Mickey Morphingaz(Beats), Daniel Weltlinger (Violin), Dan Pliner (Keyboard), and Asparagus Mlynsky (Turntables) who will release their highly anticipated single, Latkes, in December, just in time for the Jewish festival.

UPDATE 3: You can get your own copy of the track from iTunes, or for the price of your email address at their website.

We Miss You John. (Imagine in Yiddish)

I'm still catching up on my Hanukkah posts but had to take a quick time out. Today's the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. Like pretty much everyone else, Lennon's music has been part of the backdrop of my world. If you actually need evidence his impact and how much he's missed, here's his signature song, Imagine sung in Yiddish at a meeting of a group of (what appear to be) Sephardic Ladino speaking Jews.

IMAGINE en Idish (Imagine, in Yiddish)

The YouTube video contents only credit the performer as Frida and the translator as Moshe. Thanks to both them. This made my morning.

hat tip to YouTube user ironmaik22 for the posting the video.

Hanukkah Day 2: Matisyahu's Miracle on Ice

I'm about to head over to my little wigglers elementary school to talk about Hanukkah to their kindergarten and 3rd grade classes. Should be a hoot. Last time I did this, my wife came too and got a room full of first graders to pound their desks yodeling "sufganiyot! sufganiyot! sufganiyot!" (as we were, of course, handing out sufganiyot).

For my Hanukkah day 2 pick, here's a video my wife and older wiggler were enjoying this morning. It's Matisyahu, showing that he can go head to head with Lipa Schmeltzer for awesome over-the-top Hanukkah silliness. Here's the official blurb. (I love blurbs).

"An uplifting pop gem arriving just in time for the holiday, "Miracle," produced by Dr. Luke protégé Kool Kojak (Flo Rida, Katy Perry, Ke$ha), is drenched in a joyful spirit and features chiming synths, bouncing beats and an irresistible chorus.

Matisyahu says, "There are so many Christmas songs out there. I wanted to give the Jewish kids something to be proud of. We've got Adam Sandler's song, which is hilarious, but I wanted to try to get across some of the depth and spirituality inherent in the holiday in a fun, celebratory song. My boy Kojak was in town so at the last minute we went into the studio in the spirit of miracles and underdogs and this is what we came up with. Happy Hannukah!"

Here we go then....

Miracle: Matisyahu on Ice


Sigh. If you click through to the video page at YouTube scroll down through the comments you'll see a lot of cranky antisemitic and anti-Israeli diatribes. Hanukkah is, in part, about the need to stand up for the right to believe as you choose. It's sad to see how current that need still is.

Oh...and it's worth pointing out that you can buy a copy of the Miracle track and pre-order Matisyahu's new album & DVD set "Live at Stubbs II" at his website. If you're on the East Coast, you can also check out his Festival of Lights tour schedule.

Hanukkah Day 1: Maccabeats vs Six13 & NCSY in Hanukkah A Capella throwdown

Woot!!! Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah! My kids are spazzing out and I am too. I've been listening to Hanukkah music for a couple of weeks now and am ready to roll with a ton of great Hanukkah music. To kick this off, here's a battle of the bands between the Maccabeats and Six13, two great Jewish a capella groups. Both are whooping it up with a pair of fun Hanukkah rewrites of recent pop tunes.

First, here's The Maccabeats with Candelight, a redo of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" (inspired by Mike Tompkins' a cappella version.) The video's been getting a lot of distribution, including a shout out from the Huffington Post.


Candlelight - The Maccabeats



Second, here's Six13 with I Light It, their redo of Justin Beiber's "Baby," Kanye West's "Heartless," and "I Like It" by Enrique Inglesias. The song was written in collaboration with NCSY, the Orthodox youth organization, as a Hanukkah howdy. Check the video website for full lyrics.


I Light It - NCSY Chanukah Musical Remix 2010


Hat Tip to Immanuel for emailing me about the Maccabeats video and Duvi Stahler of NCSY for emailing me about the NCSY/Six13 video.

Jewish liturgical work debutes...at the Vatican

Cantor Erik Contzius recently debuted his lovely new composition, "Mah Ashiv Ladonai - quid retribuam Domino" on November 16, 2010 at, off all places, the Vatican. According to the New York Jewish Week, "Twenty cantors of the American Conference of Cantors(ACC) will present for the first time a concert of Jewish music at the Basilica of Santa Marie degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome on Nov. 16 before Vatican officials, hoping to use music as another way to achieve closer relations between Catholics and Jews." The composition is a setting of Psalm 116. I find Mah Ashiv Ladonai, like Contzius' compositions, to be quite moving. Check out his website and, in particular, his recording "Teach My Lips a Blessing." I'm a fan.

Mah Ashiv Ladonai - quid retribuam Domino Premiere

Update: I just got a note from Ruth Ellen Gruber pointing me to her article in the JTA on the concert. It's a great read and provides a lot more detail and context for the concert. On of the elements of the story that she picks up on is dynamics of Jewish movements (denominations) and how they played out. While Italy has a Jewish community, their cantors have never sung for the Vatican. Why? Because they're Orthodox and wouldn't sing in a church. The ACC is Reform and didn't have an issue with it. Also, while Italy has a chief Rabbi, he didn't attend the show. Why? Because the ACC group included women cantors, which violates the Orthodox kol isha rules about women singing in public. Again, the ACC is Reform and have no such restrictions. What makes this double fascinating is that, in the four or five different articles on the even I read, only Gruber's draws out this critical detail.

Beyond the Pale nominated for the 6th Annual Canadian Folk Music Awards

Just a quick pre-shabbat shout out to the Canadian klezmer band Beyond The Pale. As reported by the Vancouver Sun, they received the most nominations of any Canadian folk band in this years Canadian Folk Music Awards. They were nominated in four categories... instrumental group, world group, ensemble and pushing the boundaries. Way to go guys!

According to the CFMA website, the awards are going to be handed out on Saturday, Nov 20, so I'll report back soon with how BTP did.

Here's a recent video of BTP at the legendary Freight and Salvage folk club in Berkley California. None other than the also legendary Theodore Bikel came out to see them play, and then got coaxed on stage to sit in.

Beyond the Pale and Theodore Bikel at the Freight and Salvage

Hat tip to YouTube user ellyrocs for uploading the video

Israel's Yemin Orde Youth Choir on PRI's The World

On Monday, PRI's The World did a feature on Israel's Yemin Orde Youth Choir. Most of the kids at Yemin Order, are Jewish, but not all. All are immigrants, some from Ethiopia, some from Sudan, some from Poland and Russia. The school is not a boarding school, but "a village, a community" that gives stability and grounding to "more than 500 immigrant, disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth from 20 countries around the world."

Here's the 5 minute program, hosted by Matthew Bell. (Download MP3)



The Youth Choir is on Tour right now. Here's a link to their tour schedule, which includes LA, NYC, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Here's a video of the choir singing a medley. If you enjoy it and can't make it to a show, consider clicking through to the YouTube page and making a donation.



There are a number of additional videos about Yemin Orde on Youtube, including "Yemin Orde Youth Village" a 10 minute clip from the PBS documentary "The Visionaries."

Shana Tova, Amazing Grace, and Adi Cohen

Apropos of yesterday's post about Jewish gospel, this video surfaced this morning on one of my mailing lists. It's Israeli vocalist Adi Cohen singing the song Shana Tova to the tune of the gospel classic Amazing Grace.

שנה טובה

Jospel?

The idea of Jewish approaches to Gospel music isn't brand new. Anyone who's following contemporary Jewish music has been exposed to Jewish Gospel music through Joshua Nelson's "Kosher Gospel" project. Nelson's been making a big stir with a string of well received performances and is becoming a regular on the summer festival circuit. The basic idea is that Gospel music is an African American form of spiritual music that predates the African Christian experience. So why not bring it's power and energy to the Jewish experience as well?

It turns out that Nelson isn't the only one to make this connection. Sharon Alexander has been working this area for years, quietly developing a popular workshop series and working on a PhD through the University of Bern. Here's Alexander's blurb and a video that gives a taste of her workshop and approach...

"Many non-Christians are attracted to gospel singing but feel uncomfortable by the songs' Christian themes. However, the actual secrets to the techniques of gospel originate from much older African wisdom, which invokes the power of song to raise energy, build spiritual community, and affirm its goals.

In addition, gospel reintegrates fundamental Judeo-Christian metaphysical techniques back into the prayer service. Gospel uses the conscious praising of God to help a congregation ascend upwards into personal conversation with the divine, and then higher still, into a state of absolute ecstasy. These techniques--like the secrets of Eastern meditation and yoga, recently discovered by western spiritual seekers--are available and teachable; potent tools, which can and should be added to the repertoire of all spiritual communities.

Sharon Alexander offers gospel choir workshops to the general community, teaching the theories and techniques of gospel singing and leading communities in ascending together to meet God. "

Jospel Workshop with Sharon Alexander

Interesting stuff. Alexander doesn't come close to Nelson's performance chops, but her workshops seem like they'd be interesting and a lot of fun. Particularly to the folks looking for novel and energetic Jewish music to add to their communities repertoire. I'm thinking Jewish Renewal groups and folks drawn to Hebrew Kirtan in particular, but any Reform group with a choir might want to give it a go. At least on the right occasion.

I will kvetch a bit and say that I'm not fond of the term "Judeo-Christian" and find Alexander's talk of "the secrets ...gospel and ... of Eastern meditation" a bit much....but I understand very clearly where she's coming from. There area lot of Jews out there that found Jewish liturgical practice very dry, formulaic, and lacking in any spiritual content. And this is for good reason...the latter half of the 20'th century wasn't kind on synagogue practice in a lot of places. One of the results of this was the rise of the "Jew Bu" Jewish Buddhist as well as the introduction of the folk song liturgy now becoming common in a lot of liberal temples and synagogues. Jewish Gospel is another thread in this weave.

For more info on Sharon Alexander or to book her workshop, check out her website Shir Ecstasy.

Kol Nidre

Tonight's Erev Yom Kippur and I'll be attending Kol Nidre. To get in the vibe, I've been listening to a variety of recordings of Kol Nidre on You Tube. Here are a few favorites

Johnny Mathis


For more on Johnny Mathis singing Jewish music, see the new recording and website Black Sabbath

Moishe Oysher


Shlomo Carlebach


Other great ones include...Mordechai Ben David, Perry Como, and Richard Tucker

Hat tip to youtube users cybernautev, fivnten, and EdmundStAustell respectively.