tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60658600572304173872024-03-12T19:00:57.923-07:00RebbeSoul Backstage BlogBruce Burger, RebbeSoul BlogRebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-72980040821656768512020-06-14T00:36:00.000-07:002020-06-14T00:36:22.443-07:00"Eshal Elohai," the song for the time of Corona Virus!I first heard this Yemenite folk song in Jerusalem. "Eshal Elohai" is asking Gd to free those in captivity. Well, I don't know about you, but after sheltering at home this long, I feel like I am in captivity! So here is the perfect song for this time, the time of the Corona virus...<br />
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Stay happy and healthy, everyone.</div>
RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-89770149472226092532020-05-13T23:30:00.000-07:002020-05-13T23:30:06.478-07:00Kadesh Urchatz from the Jews of CalcuttaI was fortunate enough to receive some excellent books of Jewish music from the late, Velvel Pasternack. For more on this knowledgeable and influential musicologist, please see my blog from July 2019.<br />
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There were books he gave me of Sephardic music, Hassidic music, and others. I perused these and found many songs containing the same liturgy but different melodies, depending on which communities the songs came from. Not so surprising, considering the vast Jewish diaspora.<br />
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The holiday of Pesach (Passover) was approaching and I began searching for some good songs for that holiday as I am frequently called to lead musical seders. "Kadesh Urchatz" is the seder, itself, the order of things in that ritual meal and "seder" means order. I found a few different versions but the one that caught my attention was the "Kadesh Urchatz" from the Jews of Calcutta. It flowed beautifully and set the seder up in a way that felt ideal for a symposium. I took a few liberties with the melody and chords but did my best to remain faithful to the essence of it.<br />
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For Pesach Sheni (second Passover) on zoom, in addition to having several, talented guests do what they do, I played a few tunes having to do with the Pesach. One of them was "Kadesh Urchatz." So many people wrote in about it that I decided to play it again by itself and here is my video of it from home. It is my way of extending my hand to the Jews of Calcutta from this Jew of the Ashkenaz.<br />
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RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-14048442153670897272019-07-11T01:43:00.000-07:002019-07-12T19:35:17.999-07:00The sage of Jewish music: Velvel Pasternak<div style="text-align: center;">
A month ago today, June 11th, a great authority on Jewish music, died. His name was Velvel Pasternak and among other things, he founded Tara Publications which provided numerous manuscripts of Jewish music, the music of my people.</div>
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When I began to record my first pieces of music under the name RebbeSoul, I only had a nodding acquaintance with Jewish music. The music I knew as such consisted merely of tunes I heard in synagogue and in Hebrew school on the rare occasions that I actually attended, usually at the painful insistence of my parents dragging me in by my ear.</div>
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So I recorded "Avinu" (Avinu Malkienu, אבנו מלכנו) and "Bim Bam," songs which made it on my first RebbeSoul album entitled <i>Rebbe/RebbeSoul</i>. This soon led to a record deal with world music label, Global Pacific Records and my next album. Because of my new fascination with my newly discovered, traditional music - the music of the Jewish people, the album was to comprise entirely Jewish music and henceforth its title, <i>Fringe Of Blue,</i> pertaining to the <i>tzitzit</i> worn from an important quote in a biblical passage.</div>
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Because I was now their signed artist, the record company wisely introduced me to Velvel Pasternak. I remember our first phone call. Velvel in New York and I, in California speaking about Jewish music. I knew nothing about it. He knew everything about it. He became a fountain of knowledge, exposing me to material I never even knew existed. There was a wealth of it as I was soon to find out because several days after that first conversation, a package arrived in the mail of several of his books of Jewish music and with his compliments.</div>
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It was a tremendous and meaningful gift. Soon, I went on to purchase even more from his vast catalogue and then had manuscripts which included music from Morocco, Spain, Lubavitch, even Calcutta.</div>
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Nowadays, it's a simple matter to search for even obscure music online and be able to actually listen to it instantly. Not back then. All I can say is I'm so glad I did not have that option. Had I heard those songs the way they are so often played, I probably would have just shrugged and never bothered to record them. But I didn't hear them, however, thanks to Velvel's foresight, I had them on paper. With great curiosity, I opened the books and started playing. I was true to the notes but instinctively put my own mojo on them. I made them my own. This to me, was the real beginning of the sound of RebbeSoul. In these traditional melodies, there were treasures just waiting to be heard.</div>
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"<a href="https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rebbesoul5" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Kol Dodi</span></a>" and "<a href="https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/rebbesoul2" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Et Dodim Kalah</span></a>," two songs of <i>Shir Hashirim</i>, <i>The Song Of Songs</i>, started this way. I never heard a note until I played it myself and thank the good Lord for that.</div>
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Velvel Pasternak was largely responsible for helping me find my way and by providing me with some of the necessary tools, became a co-conspirator in creating what Reb Shlomo Carlebach called "the future of Jewish music." I am eternally grateful to him for that. Many thanks, Mr. Pasternak. <i>Todah rabah</i>.</div>
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Here is an entertaining and informative interview with Velevel Pasternak, conducted in 2016.</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE1zPS4BDII&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank"><span style="color: cyan;">Click here</span>.</a></div>
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<b><span style="color: yellow;">If there is sufficient interest, I'll write more blogs. So please comment and sign up. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: yellow;">There are many stories to tell!</span></b></div>
RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-242387118654927382016-01-28T09:48:00.001-08:002016-01-28T09:48:15.357-08:00Rebbe Soul: How You Gonna Know If You Don't Try?<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RxgeZMv1CmI" width="459"></iframe><br /><br />
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At the Center For Spiritual Living with the great Andy Howe on piano. From "RebbeSoul-O." Also, the Minister Stephen Rambo at the end.RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-1794278237676752342014-09-14T09:25:00.001-07:002014-09-14T09:25:32.686-07:00RebbeSoul OnStage: Love Live Forgive<a href="http://rebbesoulonstage.blogspot.com/2014/07/love-live-forgive.html?spref=bl">RebbeSoul OnStage: Love Live Forgive</a>: I am quite privileged and grateful to be one of the artists featured in this excellent book by Justine St. Vincent. Wonderful vision!RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-29584524144841777512014-07-20T03:11:00.001-07:002014-07-20T03:19:49.860-07:00Love Live Forgive by Justine St. Vincent features RebbeSoul<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/IdCDUVWMOs8" width="480"></iframe><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am quite privileged and grateful to be one of the artists featured in this excellent book by Justine St. Vincent.</span></span><br />
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</span></span><span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Wonderful vision! Wonderful work!</span><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"> <a href="http://www.loveliveforgive.org/" target="_blank">Check it out.</a></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-RebbeSoul</span></span>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-13263402991573255012013-07-21T04:18:00.002-07:002023-08-16T15:13:03.616-07:00Tzena Tzena, Issachar Miron, and our new video<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-align: center;"></span></span><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Tzena Tzena" was written in 1941 by Issachar Miron and Yehiel Chagiz. They were both in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army. The song became a hit here (Palestine, at the time) Pete Seeger heard it and brought it to his band, The Weavers who recorded and released it in 1950. It reached #2 on the Billboard charts and then nearly every major recording artist in America at the time, recorded it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The surviving songwriter out of the two is Issachar Miron, who just celebrated his 93rd birthday. I was introduced to him by singer/songwriter and good friend, Rahel Limor. Issachar invited me to visit him in his home in NYC and while there, he showed me his recording studio in his home, complete with keyboards, Mac computer system, ProTools, Waves, etc. He is amazingly active, sending files to me using Dropbox, while engineers and musicians are busy recording in his studio, ... all this at age 93!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is Issachar in 1950 (below), when "Tzena Tzena" was released by the Weavers. Within a short time, the song would be recorded by all the stars in America including Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Pearl Bailey, the Smothers Brothers, just to name a few. This is Issachar at the beginning of his rise to fame.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here he is today (below) with his wife Tsipora, also still alive and a renown concert pianist.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I extracted the following from Issachar's website and made this edited version for you. The new video of the new, RebbeSoul remake of "Tzena Tzena" follows this story.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Issachar Miron was born in Kutno, Poland, in 1920. Miron’s mother, Haya Helen Elbaum-Michrowski, an accomplished pianist, died in 1927 at the age of thirty-six, when Issachar was 7 years old. </span>His father, Shlomo Michrowski, a shopkeeper and an ordained rabbi was a gifted violin virtuoso. He and his family along with some 7000 Kutno Jews lived and suffered between 1941 and 1942 in the Kutno Ghetto, officially named by the Nazis, “Judenlager Konstancja."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">In March 1942, virtually all the Jews of Kutno perished in Chelmno, on the river Ner—the very first Nazi death camp of the “final solution for the Jewish question.” They were buried in ditches they were forced to dig in the nearby Rzurzowski Forest, prior to being shoved into the poison gas vans.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ICaNvVtvEzU/Ueu9eXdHb9I/AAAAAAAAATc/qVDaB5LO1sA/s1600/mironfamily550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ICaNvVtvEzU/Ueu9eXdHb9I/AAAAAAAAATc/qVDaB5LO1sA/s320/mironfamily550.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Issachar Miron's father, Rabbi and concert-violinist</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Shlomo Michrowski</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span">(right), his sister,</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Lusia-Tsipora Michrowski</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, and his brother,</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Moshe Pinchas Michrowski</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, who all perished in the Holocaust, pictured with</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> Issachar Miron</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span">(standing) who remains the sole survivor of his entire family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Issachar settled in Palestine, after serving in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army where he wrote the music to "Tzena Tzena," during the Second World War. </span>When the State of Israel was established, he was named the National Deputy Director of Music, assisting Frank Peleg, the world-renowned piano virtuoso, who served as the National Music Director for Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture. He was also appointed as the National Officer-in-Chief of Art and Music Programs for the IDF.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the United States, as a professor, he served as the Dean of the Music Faculty at the Jewish Teachers Seminary and the Herzliah Teachers Institute, both in New York City. </span>He is a recipient of ASCAP’s<i> Deems Taylor Award</i> for creative writing, and a winner of the <i>Israel Engel Prize for Music.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">His songs, film scores, and instrumental works are many and include "Tzena Tzena" with Hebrew lyrics by Yehiel Hagiz, English lyrics by Gordon Jenkins and Mitchell Parish. The song was popularized in the United States by <i>The Weavers</i> and other major artists who subsequently performed and recorded "Tzena Tzena" include Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Arlo Guthrie, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Pearl Bailey, Frank Sinatra, Vic Damone, Connie Francis, Chubby Checker, Dusty Springfield, Eartha Kitt, the Smothers Brothers, Neil Sedaka, Barry Sisters, Chet Atkins, Metropolitan Opera singers, including: Richard Tucker, Jan Peerce, Misha Raitzin, Roberta Peters, The London Symphony, Mantovani Symphonic Strings, and others. "Tzena Tzena" has been covered over 600 times.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Issachar Miron lives in New York, N.Y. with his wife of 67 years, Tsipora, a concert pianist, who served on the faculty of the Music Academy in Tel Aviv, Israel. They have three daughters, seven grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Issachar Miron is listed in Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem), Who’s Who in the East (U.S.A.), Who’s Who in Israel, Who’s Who in ASCAP, Who’s Who in ACUM, AGAC Directory, Who’s Who in World Jewry, the International Platform Association Directory USA, and The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">The night before meeting Issachar Miron, I was at my friend Dan Gil's recording studio in Sharon, Massachusetts. I played a few African guitar parts to a click which seemed to fit the song and took it in different direction, away from the "boom chick" rhythm that all the earlier versions had. Later, I played a "4 on the floor" African groove called</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> </span>kawiato<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">, which is used a lot from Township music to Trance. Speaking of Township music, I called my good friend Keith Hutchinson in Johannesburg, South Africa who played in Johnny Clegg and Savuka among many other amazing projects and he contributed some excellent tracks. I then added some of my favorite musicians and singers in Israel to participate. So there is Amharic from Zemene Melesse and Mulu, Spanish from Argentinian/Cuban singer Jaime Granco, Hebrew from Shlomit Levi, Roi Levy, and Dvir Cohen, and so on.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;">Check it out. Just click below on the picture...</span></div>
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<i>or copy and paste this link: </i>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7cegxmRvMM</div>
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RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-56774821058554658062012-12-25T16:17:00.001-08:002012-12-25T16:17:41.611-08:00Every Song Has A Story<div class='posterous_autopost'>I'm at the University of Warwick in England, getting ready for a presentation on the stories behind the RebbeSoul songs and other world music. This is for the Limmud conference here which attracts 2500 participants from all over the world, learning about various elements of Judaica. Some of the best people in their fields are here and I was even able to attend some of the sessions, all of which were superb. Shlomit gave one today and dazzled and charmed everyone with her singing and dancing as well as with her storytelling about Yemenite life. It went so well, we sold out of all our CDs!<p /><div>My session tomorrow is called "Stories Behind The Songs." I don't think there is a single song that does not have some interesting story or background behind it. Often though, we just don't pay attention or simply take for granted that they are little miracles. There are so many things that go unnoticed. While in the UK now, it rains every day. Here I am, from Israel, where we pray for even a little rain. The change in my environment allows me to see this little miracle where people who live here may be so accustomed to it that it's not noticed. So with our own creations and music is no exception.</div><p /><div>So now, I'm reviewing the songs I have done over the years and wonder which "little wonders" will be of interest to people.</div><p /><div><ul class="MailOutline"><li>There's a beautiful melody that came from a <i>Pesach</i> (Passover) seder from Calcutta. It even works on guitar and sounds best when a group of people are singing it together, as in a seder meal. There are still Jews in India but although never persecuted there, at least, as far as I know, most have moved either to the UK or to Israel. I also wonder how many Jews from Calcutta still remember or are aware of this song of theirs.</li><li>On a Friday night in LA, I attended a Shabbat dinner at a Lubavitch home and all the men began singing this song, <i>Tzamah L'Cha Nafshi</i>, pounding out a steady beat on the big, wooden table. I imagined this same scene at the tables of my ancestors from Eastern Europe. Men, sitting around the dinner table, speaking words of Torah and singing and banging on the table late into the night. The melody was infectious and I went back to record the rabbi, singing it, to make sure I got it right. I've always made sure to do my homework on traditional material so if I do make a change, it's an artistic choice and not one of error or simply lazy research. I recorded <i>Tzamah L'Cha Nafshi</i>, for my <i>Fringe of Blue</i> album, and even asked the rabbi to sing part of it. That sound bite wound up as the opening track for the album. I remember, I was living in an apartment in LA and did much of my recording there. My bedroom closet shared no walls with anyone and was the most soundproof spot in my place. So there was the rabbi, Chaim Dalfin, singing it wonderfully, yes, you guessed it, in my closet. I loved his vocal - so honest and with that intense, Ashkenazi musical personality, so fitting for the song. <i>Tzamah L'Cha Nafshi</i> is from <i>Tehillim</i>, the Psalms and in English, roughly translates as "my soul thirsts for You." For <i>Fringe Of Blue</i>, I recorded it instrumentally but as we started playing it live, it became apparent that the singing made it even better. I did a vocal version on <i>Change The World With A Sound</i> and the song eventually became the opener for our concerts, bring people to their feet from the very first note. Neeyah and Lena K sang on it, along with me on the recording and really brought it to life.</li><li>Shlomo Carlebach's <i>V'Shamru</i>. It might be interesting to present the version with the singing and all and then play it the way it is on the <i>From Another World</i> album, which is entirely the music of Reb Shlomo but done instrumentally. This is the track that opens up the album and was fun for me to play more of a bluey, the way I used to play before I embarked on RebbeSoul with the more ethnic style. It was a return to my musical roots, which are American while still playing with my Jewish roots. I wrote a blog in February of 2012 on the meaning of the song. I even wrote a blog about the recording of the song which is here: <a href="http://brucespeaks-rebbesoul.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/recording-vshamru.html">http://brucespeaks-rebbesoul.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/recording-vshamru.html</a>. That was an interesting experience which occurred shortly after I made aliyah to Israel.</li><li>On my very first album, the first song to enjoy radio airplay was <i>Sister Sarah</i>. It was also my first attempt at writing lyrics. I had played with enough talented songwriters to know what a good song lyric was supposed to be like but wasn't sure if I could really do it. I decided to write lines that sung well and rhymed and hoped that they would make some sense. <i>Sister Sarah</i> wrote itself. The words just flowed off the pen and there were only a few parts I even had to think about and I managed to fill them in over the course of a few days. I remember one moment, arriving early at a rehearsal for a blond, bombshell LA singer and sitting in my car, writing a few phrases to fill in the empty gaps in the lyrics. Somehow the song just worked, even though I didn't know what it meant. It just sounded good. Once it got on the radio, I was invited over to a rabbi's house for Purim and while quite inebriated in the holiday tradition, he sat me down and proceeded to explain to me, the meaning of the lyrics that had written themselves and how they alluded to lofty, Kabbalistic and Torah concepts that were, and probably still are, way beyond my comprehension.</li><li>There's always <i>Avinu</i>. I first thought of recording it while at Yom Kippur services with friends in Berkeley CA. I had heard the melody all my life but this time I could not get it out of my head and thought it would be a nice project, especially since I had just assembled my first recording studio and was looking for a song to start off with. There is a different version of <i>Avinu</i> on each RebbeSoul album. I've got plenty of stories about them and this could easily be a blog on its own.</li><li><i>Kaddish</i> is one of my favorites and took 2 years to complete. It comprises field recordings or samples of Kaddish prayers from Israel, the United States, and Europe. I wrote a blog about it, particularly the very first field recording I did which was at Amuka in Israel and featured an Ethiopian reciting Kaddish. The others to follow were the Sephardim at Abu Hav in Tzfat, Yemenites in Ashkelon, Hungarians at the <i>yahrzeit</i> of the Ramban at his grave in Tiberias, an Ashkenazi at the <i>kotel</i>, singers from India, Moroccans and Persians in Los Angeles, and me on my balalaika, caxixi from Brasil, bendir from Morocco, and so on. The original blog is here: <a href="http://brucespeaks-rebbesoul.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/visit-to-amuka-and-making-of-kaddish.html">http://brucespeaks-rebbesoul.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/visit-to-amuka-and-making-of-kaddish.html</a>.</li></ul><p /><div>There are a few more to consider but right now, <i>dyenu</i>!</div><p /><p /></div></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-51931295922792706352012-08-29T18:29:00.001-07:002012-08-29T18:29:23.130-07:00The Remaking of Tzena Tzena<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff;"><strong>Click here to watch the video/blog</strong>: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viMSloK6RT0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viMSloK6RT0</a></span></p> <p>Or here: <iframe allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/viMSloK6RT0" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe></p> <p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>To listen to Tzena Tzena</strong>, click here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7cegxmRvMM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7cegxmRvMM</a></span></p></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-80986663712174786602012-05-27T11:40:00.001-07:002015-01-09T03:20:36.561-08:00Shlomit hits the stage...<div class="posterous_autopost">
For those of you celebrating it, I hope you had a beautiful and meaningful Shavuot!<br />
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This is what happens in Israel when Shlomit Levi hits the stage and opens her mouth. It takes only seconds and you get the reaction, especially with a Yemenite audience. I managed to get only about 20 seconds of this using my iphone and it's certainly worth seeing and hearing. Notice there is not even a band. It's only her.<br />
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I am honored to be working with Shlomit and doing the music of her Yemenite tradition. It's also lots of fun for me, taking this music that I did not grow up with myself, but is related and on some higher level, way beyond me. Putting my "mojo" on something like this is something I am grateful for. I will be sharing some of the background on these songs as we proceed in this project and hope you find the "backstage" scene interesting. Tomorrow morning is the first rehearsal with the band assembled, consisting of some of the finest players in the country. I'm a little nervous, as this traditional music is sacred and must be treated respectfully.</div>
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The "Shlomit & RebbeSoul" project debuts in Israel on June 19th in Tel Aviv at Levontin 7. The new show is called the <i>Seal of Solomon.</i> Those of you, here in Israel - I hope to see you. It will be a great show. If you're not in Israel, feel free to tell others about it. It will be something special, not to be missed.</div>
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I will be sending out an announcement to RebbeSoulmates but wanted to share this little video with all of you first, on my blog.</div>
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<b>Tickets and information: </b><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://misterticket.co.il/he/show/shlomit-rebeesoul" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://misterticket.co.il/<span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>he/show/shlomit-rebeesoul</a></span></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.rebbesoul.com/">www.rebbesoul.com</a></i></div>
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RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-12629642003457626702012-02-15T02:56:00.000-08:002012-02-15T03:00:24.608-08:00The making of Aishet Chayil<div class="body" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;">The recording of Reb Shlomo Carlebach's "Aishet Chayil", "Woman of Valor" on the RebbeSoul "From Another World" album.</span></div><div class="body" style="color: #444444; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;"><br />
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</div><div class="body" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;">The video was taken at my studio with my iphone. Maybe I should get a camera!</span></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-68838432884277830492012-01-14T11:02:00.000-08:002012-01-14T11:06:03.474-08:00new music, new tourWorking on tracks with Yemenite singer, Shlomit Levi and planning to tour in Europe and the USA later this year as "Shlomit & The Rebbe." It's Yemenite and world music, a tasty combination and very new.<br />
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Here's the first track we worked on, featuring some special guests from Orphaned Land and Gaya in Israel. It's called "Ruchi" in Yemenite which means My Spirit. Click Shlomit's picture below and it will take you to the track.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If clicking on the photo doesn't work, try this link:</div><div><a href="http://soundcloud.com/shlomit-levi/spirit-shlomit-the-rebbe">http://soundcloud.com/shlomit-levi/spirit-shlomit-the-rebbe</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Wanna' invite us to your town or venue? Just <a href="http://www.rebbesoul.com/contact.html">contact us here</a>.</div><div>There's more information on this unique project my blog and a <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/shlomittherebbe" target="_blank">ReverbNation page</a> for <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/shlomittherebbe" target="_blank">Shlomit & The Rebbe</a> which has more tracks, photos, and an impromptu video, live in the studio.</div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-33017421395371791162012-01-07T16:19:00.000-08:002012-01-07T16:19:39.197-08:00Moishele's NigunThis is the story behind "Moishele's Nigun,"the song which first appeared on the album, <i>Fringe Of Blue</i> and most recently on <i>From Another World.</i> It is a true story from Vienna during WW2. Moishele is the affectionate term for the name Moshe.<br />
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The video of the story was taken in my studio in Israel on my iPhone.<br />
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<a href="http://snd.sc/yS2Een">Click here for the song</a>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-11469874762480415852011-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:002011-07-02T14:38:45.037-07:00New Yemenite music with Shlomit Levi<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"></div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--gKSwl213vg/Tg-FMCt2mqI/AAAAAAAAAIE/uCFp91kzcCs/s1600/With-Shlomit-backstage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--gKSwl213vg/Tg-FMCt2mqI/AAAAAAAAAIE/uCFp91kzcCs/s1600/With-Shlomit-backstage.jpg" /></a>I'm working with a wonderful, Yemenite singer in Israel, Shlomit Levi, pictured left. These songs are not in Hebrew but in Yemenite, occasionally with some other language thrown in. Yemenite is kind of a dialect of Arabic, spoken by the Jews of Yemen, most of whom are here in Israel now.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">The first song "<span style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal 'Lucida Grande';">רוחי</span>"pronounced "Ruchi" meaning "my spirit," was written by Aharon Amram, the father of Yemenite music in Israel. Shlomit added some sections to the original. It's usually done to a "Dasa" rhythm which is in 7/8. I added an extra beat to put it into a more symmetrical 4/4 and as the song is very emotional, dealing with lost love and eventually a suicide, I began it with a heartbeat-sounding groove. It's the first thing you hear. The song ends with it, stopping.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Shlomit sang lots of vocals at my studio. She had many ideas and we got them all. At last count, I had something like 25 vocal tracks. I laid down a balalaika part, which functioned as a sort of a drone with a groove and later added some rock guitar, anticipating a big, rock drum performance to build the song.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h2-aB38AiUo/Tg-LwHjW3WI/AAAAAAAAAIM/8Vk0HOUjaw4/s1600/Matan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h2-aB38AiUo/Tg-LwHjW3WI/AAAAAAAAAIM/8Vk0HOUjaw4/s1600/Matan.jpg" /></a>The excellent drumming you hear is Matan Shmuely, from the Israeli, metal band <a href="http://www.orphaned-land.com/">Orphaned Land</a>, whom Shlomit also sings with. I arrived at the studio with a chart which was more like a rough sketch, really. I gave it to Matan and he went through a take. Shlomit and I suggested a few changes and he walked back in and nailed it on the next take- punches, breaks, groove, and all. Matan is pictured on the left.<br />
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Powerful performance, perfectly complemented by the creative, bass playing of Moran Baron whom I recorded later at my own studio. Moran also played bass on my "<a href="http://rebbesoul.com/FromAnotherworld.html">From Another World</a>" album, including the song, "Adir Hu," which I wrote about in an earlier blog.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
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The solo in the song features my good friend Gili Liber on ney. Gili has a <a href="http://www.ayeletgili.co.il/">restaurant</a> in town with his wife Ayelet and I love to go there to sample Ayelet's unique and tasty cooking and hang out with Gili. He has nice touch with ethnic flutes and it seemed to fit the song so we agreed to meet over at his studio where I recorded him. I love the warm sound he gets, very breathy and moody. That's Gili on the right, playing his ney. He's also the founder of the famed, Israeli world music group, <a href="http://www.gaya-group.co.il/">Gaya</a>.</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Here is a <a href="http://soundcloud.com/shlomit-levi/spirit-shlomit-the-rebbe"><span style="color: #001fe8; text-decoration: underline;">link to the song</span></a> which is only a few tweaks away from being finished. Go to: http://soundcloud.com/shlomit-levi/spirit-shlomit-the-rebbe</div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-44645503217555913422011-05-01T12:45:00.000-07:002011-06-10T07:48:02.004-07:00Visit to Amuka and the Making of Kaddish<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">Amuka, in northern Israel, is the gravesite of Rabbi Yonathan ben Uziel, one of the greatest students of Rabbi Hillel from 2000 years ago. I was there with three friends</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">. An Ashkena</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">zi, an Ethiopian, and</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"> Pincus, d</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';">ressed in a dusty, black coat and kippah, covered with soot from head to foot and wreaking of pure kindness. He was a total <i>tzaddik</i>, or holy man, reminding me of Eliyahu ha Navi, the angel and prophet, frequently disguised as a beggar.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Except for us, the place was completely deserted. It was dusk, time for <i>arvit</i> or <i>mincha</i>, evening prayers, and my companions complained about being short six men for a minyan. We were only four and ten is the necessary quorum in our tradition. Pincus leapt upon a rock and began, “If you have faith, then we will have our minyan!” he exclaimed. "<i>Emunah</i>!" he cried. I looked up at the road leading to Amuka and saw a desolate site among the trees. There was nothing… nothing, only trees. Where this minyan was going to appear from was certainly a mystery to me. We went inside the small building there in the wilderness, which housed the tomb of the great sage and began our prayers.</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Somewhere in the middle of what we were doing, I heard a noise outside and poked my head out the door. I saw a car gradually winding its way down the hill through the trees. When it got to the parking lot, completely empty except for our car of course, the doors opened and one by one, six guys piled out and headed our way. We were four, combined with their six, there was our minyan!</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">Pincus lost all control. He started jumping up and down and dancing, singing. He was the happiest man on the planet. “See? I told you to have faith!” Moments later, another car appeared with more men. And then another. Lots of minyans. In fact, by the end of all this, three busloads had shown up, full of people visiting Amuka, the women lighting candles, so many that it turned into a bonfire.</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5p9Gkc-uDgs/Tb3K4l3doOI/AAAAAAAAAHs/l1r-ycZcu68/s1600/amuka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5p9Gkc-uDgs/Tb3K4l3doOI/AAAAAAAAAHs/l1r-ycZcu68/s1600/amuka.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">The acoustics sounded so good in that little stone building that I whipped out my trusty recorder and got the Ethiopian guy reciting <i>Kaddish</i>. It turned out to be the first of many sound samples I was to use in the track I ultimately called <i>Kaddish.</i> Eventually I was to gather many other samples of this prayer but this was the first and would be followed by Hungarians, Moroccans, Persians, Yemenites, the Sephardim from the Abu Hav synagogue in T<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica;">z</span>fat, all recorded over a two-year period. Miraculously, when I assembled the recorded samples I was to use in the song, they were all in the same key, only one of them being off by mere semitones! What are the chances of that?</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">I spent a month in the studio, putting all the pieces together and adding caxixi (basket shaker), balalaika, beats, and more percussion from Tim Bolling.</div><div style="font: 14.0px Times New Roman; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-51vYWI84g24/Tb3K8oPvdnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/lovc29ooswY/s1600/Caxixi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-51vYWI84g24/Tb3K8oPvdnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/lovc29ooswY/s1600/Caxixi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-51vYWI84g24/Tb3K8oPvdnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/lovc29ooswY/s1600/Caxixi.jpg" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-51vYWI84g24/Tb3K8oPvdnI/AAAAAAAAAHw/lovc29ooswY/s1600/Caxixi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><br />
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</i></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Kaddish</b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b> is on the "Change The World With A Sound" album and is still one of my favorites. </b></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/RebbeSoul/61964823500"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b>Listen to it here.</b></span></a></span></i></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-17738320585530374232011-03-24T13:05:00.000-07:002011-03-24T13:08:12.540-07:00Recording Adir Hu<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">When I got to Israel, I played a lot of weddings as a guitarist/sideman, particularly in Jerusalem. Often the material consisted of Reb Shlomo's songs and that's how I learned many of them. One of the most popular was "Adir Hu." It's from the holiday of "Pesach" or Passover. Oddly enough, it's very un'Shlomo sounding as it has a distinct Sephardi or Mizrachi sound to it. The section that sounds most like Reb Shlomo is where everyone yells, "Kel Bnai!"</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I was recording at the studio of Dan Gil, the Gearer Rebbe. Dan is called the Gearer Rebbe because he knows a lot about musical gear and is infatuated with it. He had just acquired a Turkish saz, sometimes called a baglama. I was at the studio for a few days and Dan kept telling me about the saz and how I should play it on the new album. "I don't know how to play saz. I don't even know the tuning," I replied. He persisted and as soon as he handed it to me, I strummed it and knew it would be perfect for something. The Gearer Rebbe is a wise man. I loved the sound of that saz.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><img src="webkit-fake-url://05788CC3-D950-4B88-AED8-8F450A728AC8/250px-Baglama_turc_manche_long.jpg" alt="250px-Baglama_turc_manche_long.jpg" /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Adir Hu," at least for a westerner, is exotic to begin with so that seemed like the right tune to choose for the saz. I used some of the strings as drones and although I have no idea whether or not that's part of the method of playing, it sounded good. I played a track. I even laid down a 2nd track and both sounded really good together. On the recording you can hear the second saz enter after a verse.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Eventually I went back to Israel and was listening to the tracks. Although they stood well on their own, I wanted to add a few more things. I was just having too much fun with the song and didn't want to stop. I had made a stop in San Francisco on the tour before returning to Israel and went to one of my favorite music stores, Clarion Music. It's a wonderful place in San Francisco's Chinatown to explore non-Western instruments. I first discovered it in the mid-90s, with our percussionist, Cassio Duarte. We were in San Francisco to play Great American Music Hall and Cassio heard about this store so we went there and emerged hours later. Both of us were like kids in a candy store. I got a dolak from Pakistan and used it shortly afterward on "A Narrow Bridge" or "Kol Ha Olam Kulo" in Hebrew, on my Fringe of Blue album.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">On this visit, in 2009, I was in Clarion Music with my brother, Scott and his son Steven being tourists. I left with a jaw harp and some hand percussion from Viet Nam and China. When it came time to record the additional material for the song. I used my mobile recording studio in Israel and pulled out these new toys of mine and rolled a few tracks. It certainly had an unusual sound and to smooth things out I added some finger cymbals which kind of fused the east with the middle east. The only thing missing was a deep sounding drum for the bottom end. All the drums I had to fit the bill were in the United States and I wasn't there. It was so hot in Israel, I was drinking bottles of water constantly and just polished one off. I gave it a bang and it sounded pretty good so I played a "four on the floor" pattern on the water bottle and that's what you hear on the track. It comes in toward the end and sounds like a big drum.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I had so much fun with "Adir Hu," I decided to do another take on it with a different feel. I jumped on the computer and came up with a drum loop, some synth sounds and created a nice bed for the the melody. I took out my nylon string and it sounded divine, so soothing. I spotted my balalaika, sitting in the corner so I picked it up and played a track which I also liked. I used both, the balalaika at the beginning and the nylon string afterwards. I added distortion to the balalaika and gradually brought it in, creating a morphing effect as the song progressed.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I wanted an intense, groove-oriented bass part so I called up one of my very favorite bassists, Moran Baron from a kibbutz just minutes away from me and he came over slammed a killer bass part. Moran has lots of ideas and usually lays them all down which requires editing afterwards. It's difficult to discard anything he plays because it's always so musical. In fact, I loved what he played so much that I lengthened the song by a few minutes with a long ride-out at the end to accommodate his many ideas. The long ride-out also allowed me to indulge myself at the end, playing one of my new toys, the jaw harp I got in San Francisco.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I called this track, "Adir Hu Revisited" and it's at the end of the album, just before the radio mixes. I liked the way it finished off the album, providing a long, late-night, college dorm, hang out kind of mood.</p>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-38253242925471327912011-02-05T17:13:00.000-08:002011-02-06T16:13:50.949-08:00Skverer Hasidim at the Wall in Jerusalem<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TU4CpfR7EZI/AAAAAAAAAGs/El5_KnDVTcg/s1600/Square%2BRebbe%2Bcrowd.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TU4CpfR7EZI/AAAAAAAAAGs/El5_KnDVTcg/s200/Square%2BRebbe%2Bcrowd.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570392700898447762" border="0" /></a><br /></div>I played in Jerusalem Wednesday night at my CD release party. Wonderful night and I'll write about that another time. What I want to relate now is what happened afterward in the "wee hours of morn!" I went to the Kotel. It must have been 1am or so and I was with a few friends. When we got there, there was a huge group of hasidim and we found out it was the Skverer Rebbe (also Square Rebbe) and his followers. A Twersky, his dynasty began in the 1700s in Chernobyl, as followers of the Baal Shem Tov. At one point their synagogue was located in Skverer in the Ukraine, hence the name of his title, the Skverer Rebbe. Now it's based in New Square in New York and the current Rebbe, whom I saw at the Kotel, has over 20,000 followers.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TU4CpJhM6eI/AAAAAAAAAGk/4oWcX7sEUZ0/s1600/Square%2BRebbe.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TU4CpJhM6eI/AAAAAAAAAGk/4oWcX7sEUZ0/s200/Square%2BRebbe.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570392695056951778" border="0" /></a><br />How they hung on to every word their Rebbe said. There were a few hundred of them, all singing and praying together. I grabbed by cell phone and took this little video.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p8nyMK77Rss?hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p8nyMK77Rss?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-11842946334966555792011-01-11T13:53:00.000-08:002011-01-11T14:40:56.019-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TSzX3SnECzI/AAAAAAAAAGY/MhrZ533H_zQ/s1600/Jerusalem.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TSzX3SnECzI/AAAAAAAAAGY/MhrZ533H_zQ/s200/Jerusalem.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561056984784177970" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TSzXlCzwzMI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/XGrewskVyJ4/s1600/Kotel.jpg"></a><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I first heard <i>Im Eshkachech</i> in Jerusalem on <i>Tisha B'Av</i>. There were a group of people sitting on the floor singing it slowly, nigun style - with no words. It sounded hauntingly beautiful. Years later, I was at a friend's house for Shabbat and was sitting on the couch, reading something. Suddenly I heard the melody again and saw my friend, sitting at the table at the other end of the room, singing it. Neither of us knew what it was or who wrote it but it's one of those melodies that's hard to forget. I asked around and found out it was <i>Im Eshkachech</i> by Reb Shlomo Carlebach.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Despite that it was usually sung quietly, I pictured it as an anthem, a rock anthem, but still maintaining its devotional quality. A few chord substitutions I took the liberty of making added more passion to the overall feeling of the song and I arranged the structure so it builds from the mellow beginning to the end where it gets intense. I wrote out the charts and went into the studio with Rotem Az-Ogen playing drums and Moran Baron on bass. My amp was in California and I was in IsraeI, so I played the rhythm guitar part through a Fender Deluxe, borrowed from my friend, Joel Abramson. The Deluxe sounded great with a Jenson speaker, vintage style. Just enough grit but not too much to make it sound unnatural.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Using my mobile studio later, I added keyboard and guitars playing melody and the solo as well as the intro which I inserted it at the beginning. Amit Golan mixed it at Super Sonic Studios in Jerusalem, the perfect place for this song which says...</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">"If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth..." These are the words of <i>Im Eshkachech</i>. They are about our devotion to Jerusalem, our holy city.</p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TSzXlCzwzMI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/XGrewskVyJ4/s200/Kotel.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561056671304830146" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 138px; " /></span></p>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-34001528828239950202010-12-12T14:27:00.000-08:002010-12-12T15:09:14.654-08:00Poland - in Lodz<div style="text-align: left;">One of my recent concerts in Poland included Lodz (pronounced "Woodj"). As it was during the holiday of Chanukah, there was a candle lighting ceremony prior to my performance. The Rabbi of Lodz sang the blessings and Ma Oz Tzur. I captured part of it with my camera and wanted to share it with you. Notice the familiar melody but with the probably very unfamiliar Polish pronunciations of the Hebrew words in this classic song.</div><div><br /></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwjd0Qg34rap9gPfBCm8uBOfHMTnvWSD4DB5jy5XXDGZFPfzeh8YzYoqpuSECak9LtWOw9oe3cMAFGgpL0ktw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Here are a few shots of my performance too, taken by a French film student, doing a project in Poland for her school in Belgium.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQVUXmooP_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/EmNNtZX6UlU/s200/IMG_0342.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549934880288686066" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 152px; " /></span><div><div><br /></div><div>These were taken while I played one of my favorite Ladino songs, "Cuando el rey Nimrod" which is a song about the birth of Abraham. I hope to release a recording of this song with the RebbeSoul Power Percussion Trio sometime in the near future.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQVVic5lcsI/AAAAAAAAAFg/yw8A4QhQRTU/s200/IMG_0345.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549936166165639874" style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 158px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-39247314463069077202010-12-09T13:31:00.001-08:002010-12-20T05:42:30.732-08:00Poland December 9, 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFpdNy7AlI/AAAAAAAAAEw/u3nuXp3gH4c/s1600/Lublin%2B-%2BPinchas1.JPG"></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">I just played my final concert in Poland on this tour last night, December 9th, the last night of Chanukah at the famous, old yeshiva in Lublin. Here's an old photo of it which is displayed in the yeshiva's museum.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFLvMgZUvI/AAAAAAAAACw/hrua7wD9ixA/s1600/Lublin%2B20102.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFLvMgZUvI/AAAAAAAAACw/hrua7wD9ixA/s200/Lublin%2B20102.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548799490080199410" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Before Me'ah Sharim, there was Lublin! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';">There is a history of Jewish life in Lublin since the 1300s.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"> In 1939, there were over 42,000 Jews in Lublin. This is yeshiva was the center of Jewish learning. The renown Rabbi Majera Szapira, originator of "Daf Yomi" a page a day of Talmud, was one of the main figureheads at this yeshiva, in the early 1900s.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFmUoNQtUI/AAAAAAAAAEg/zomiL7KK9-k/s200/Lublin%2B20103.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548828720473617730" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 156px; height: 200px; " /></span></span></div><div>Rabbi Szapira's picture is on the right.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'trebuchet ms';">There were nearly 100 synagogues in this city. Now there is one and I understand, getting a minyan is almost impossible. There are something like 50 Jews in Lublin now. This yeshiva has been beautifully reconstructed. Now, all they need is people. It's empty.</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">After the war (a phrase I hear several times a day in Poland) there were between 2000 to 3000 Jews, depending on the exact year, who returned to live in Lublin. Jews came to the city from the liberation of central Poland and also from the Soviet Union. This ended with the Kielce pogrom of 1946. Many survivors of the death camps were murdered in this pogrom, as if the Nazis had finished the job yet. The Jewish population dwindled to 1000 and then lower still in the early 1950s. 1968 saw another anti-Semitic campaign and more Jews left Lublin. Jewish sites in the city have experienced some reconstruction since the mid-1980s, thanks to Dr. Symcha Wajs, an earlier resident of Lublin, before the war, although most Jewish residents will confess that Lublin is still not a particularly friendly city for them.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">I played at the yeshiva which has a fascinating museum upstairs and was taken on a tour of the building. This is the "bet knesset" or synagogue of the yeshiva, restored with its original windows and everything else. The only new items in this room are the benches.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFQ4rMJpRI/AAAAAAAAAC4/8Pjq6fS7Bkk/s1600/Lublin%2B20101.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFQ4rMJpRI/AAAAAAAAAC4/8Pjq6fS7Bkk/s200/Lublin%2B20101.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548805150493746450" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">During the war, the Gestapo took the building and used it for their headquarters. The yeshiva library contained over 20,000 books and all were burned by the Nazis. When the war ended, the yeshiva was turned into a medical school. Eventually, the medical school moved and the yeshiva began to be reconstructed, a process that continues now and hopefully will be complete by the summer of 2010. The plans are for it to be turned into a hotel, still maintaining the historical sites and memorabilia as well as the museum.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Here is a shot of my concert at the yeshiva, taken by the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">very talented Polish photographer, Jurek Liniewicz. He wrote me this which brought me to tears, "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Thank you for your very beautiful and energetic performance. We can be proud to be Jews."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFVr6BTXcI/AAAAAAAAADA/0VsoVD8heIw/s1600/Lublin%2B2010.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFVr6BTXcI/AAAAAAAAADA/0VsoVD8heIw/s200/Lublin%2B2010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548810428694617538" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">I'm so glad I did this concert as well all the others in Poland. There was the little community of Legnica, beautiful Wroclaw (prononced Breslov) originally Prussian with its amazing architecture, Warsaw of course, Kracow a city I wish I could spend more time in, Poznan (originally Posner in German), Lodz, Czestochowa with it's great school of art for young people where I played, another tiny community - Katowice, and Lublin. I deeply appreciate Rabbi Michael Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, for bringing me to his country. This has been an experience I shall never forget.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">Being a musician and playing cultural, even religious music affords me the opportunity to do things like this. How grateful I am for what I do. Whatever gifts we have, whatever skills we have, were somehow given to us by G-d and to return the favor is one of the most significant, important, and meaningful things we can do with our lives.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';">When I finished the concert at the yeshiva in Lublin I was invited to the old shtiebel (little synagogue) in town and was taken around by Luba Matrazek who now manages it. It is still in disrepair but they managed to have a little Chanukah party there a few night before and it is constantly being worked on. This is Luba, pointing to her picture as a young girl in Jewish school just after the war.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFdJrKDmGI/AAAAAAAAADI/5MwLtnVJThk/s1600/Lublin%2B201014.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFdJrKDmGI/AAAAAAAAADI/5MwLtnVJThk/s200/Lublin%2B201014.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548818636682270818" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></a></span></span></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFdosQlUfI/AAAAAAAAADQ/ZnR_5xHjegY/s1600/Lublin%2B201013.JPG"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFdosQlUfI/AAAAAAAAADQ/ZnR_5xHjegY/s200/Lublin%2B201013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548819169554026994" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Notice that Luba is all bundled up. This is because there is no heat in the place save for a small space heater, during winter in Poland.</div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFfbnPbKlI/AAAAAAAAADg/e05QGdJUyoE/s200/Lublin%2B201012.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548821143891946066" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 171px; height: 200px; " /></span><div>The date on this photo to the left reads 1938 and I have a feeling this happy, smiling girl had no idea what would soon be in store for her and her people in a year and a half's time. How life would change. It would soon be horrific.</div><div><br /></div><div>Most people ended up in the camps and some fled to the woods and joined the partisans. Even after it was all over, pogroms continued where the holocaust left off.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Below is a handmade afikomen cover for the holiday of Pesach (Passover), on display at the shtiebel.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFhkSkuIBI/AAAAAAAAAD4/RrH5-Kzztss/s1600/Lublin%2B20108.JPG"></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFh-Er1ZPI/AAAAAAAAAEA/mNpf5uwepfw/s1600/Lublin%2B201011.JPG"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFh-Er1ZPI/AAAAAAAAAEA/mNpf5uwepfw/s200/Lublin%2B201011.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548823934934541554" style="cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>There was a mikvah, a ritual bath at the yeshiva which is being restored. Here is what it looks like now, still being remodeled.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFkzzWxDGI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/xTMzt4NdE8I/s1600/Lublin%2B20104.JPG"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFkzzWxDGI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/xTMzt4NdE8I/s200/Lublin%2B20104.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548827057018965090" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the items were replaced, like the original tile on the floor of the mikvah itself. Below is one of those original tiles from the mikvah. Notice the "Magen David," the star of David.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFk75IHoiI/AAAAAAAAAEY/RsbCE-zmJ5I/s1600/Lublin%2B201010.JPG"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFk75IHoiI/AAAAAAAAAEY/RsbCE-zmJ5I/s200/Lublin%2B201010.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548827196007096866" style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TQFpdNy7AlI/AAAAAAAAAEw/u3nuXp3gH4c/s200/Lublin%2B-%2BPinchas1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548832166537527890" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></span></div><div>After the concert and visiting the shtiebel, I was invited to attend a theatre performance of Pinchas Passini, one of the finest directors in Poland, now living in Lublin. It was an outstanding performance from the directing, to the set design, to the acting, to the music. The story is an adaption of Russian fairy tales. Here is what the empty set looked like before the performance began. On each one of the clouds, a video was projected reflecting a certain aspect of the story, featuring the very actors in the play but in real life. I couldn't understand a word but was mesmerized the whole time. The art in Poland and indeed, in much of Eastern Europe is excellent, often far beyond what even exists in the West.</div><div><br /></div><div>Originally from Warsaw, Pinchas Passini was brought to Lublin as part of a government effort to emancipate their country through the arts and Lublin, as musicians in the States would say, is a good "shake down town." It's out-of-the-way and not expensive and less distracting than the major cities. In short, it's a good place to develop something. Being a Jew there is more difficult than in Warsaw or even Kracow which are places that are more emancipated already and therefor have far less anti-Semitism. Generally, the more remote the location, the harder it is to be a Jew. We went to a little restaurant to have a little nosh while we were talking and to my surprise, in Lublin, there were no kosher restaurants! Where ended up was the closest thing to being kosher as it was considered Jewish style; it is owned by some people in the Jewish community. I saw kosher Israeli wine - Gamla, Yarden, Golan, saw pictures of Jewish life on the walls, ... and of course there was Slivovitz, plum liquor which was so high proof, I gagged, startling Pinchas who nonchalantly polished off his glass in one gulp and ordered another. I'm a wimp with alcohol.</div><div><br /></div><div>It does appear as Poland is progressing. It's starting in the cities and the government seems to promote a modern, accepting culture. The younger generation does not have the bias of anti-Semitism and is interested in Jewish culture. I met more and more young people who also had Jewish blood in their family histories and were only discovering it now. They are interested, enthusiastic, and intrigued.</div><div><br /></div><div>I spend Shabbat in Warsaw, courtesy of the Rabbi and then go to Germany.</div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-91593140019604530572010-12-05T16:08:00.000-08:002011-01-02T16:06:16.941-08:00Poland December 5, 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPwwcupiDpI/AAAAAAAAACQ/awU3kDR5MFM/s1600/Klez15.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPwwcupiDpI/AAAAAAAAACQ/awU3kDR5MFM/s200/Klez15.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547362111130308242" /></a><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">I spent Shabbat in Kracow. Historic sites, cafes, etc. Went to services in a 2 different, old and now restored synagogues, one being the famous Roma synagogue and the other, the main temple next to the brand new JCC. The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich led the services and we all celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of Mizrachi Pash, the son of Boaz Pash who is the rabbi of Kracow.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">The people of Kracow are genuinely interested and respectful of the Jewish history there. It's everywhere and they are proud of it. I stayed in the Klezmer Hotel which had an old world personality to it and featured a great Klezmer band in the evening. It's also the major hang of klezmer music icon Leopold <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Kozlowski (The Last Klezmer), </span>whom I met and sat with in the hotel restaurant where there are pictures of him with celebrities all over the walls. He gave me a DVD of one of his concerts and I gave him "Fringe Of Blue."</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Last night I played in Warsaw at a big Chanukah event. DJs, VJs,... cool space... actually freezing space! Shared the stage with DJ Krzaku (pronounced "Kshak") from Warsaw who composed some of the most clever and innovative arrangements of music I have heard anywhere. These days, I'm finding more and more musical talent in the DJ world than in the traditional musician world. Years ago, DJs mainly spun records. Now many are like musicians and often, just as creative. DJ Krzaku from last night mixed vocal tracks, grooves, horn lines, and sound effects to create his own material and this is something DJs have been doing for a while now. I'm amazing at how good some of them are. The accessibility and manipulation of digital audio on computers has made it possible for more people to be creative in a recording environment and DJs, many of whom have a musical ear to begin, are now quite inventive, creating their own music.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Every now and then, something small, out of left field brings about a major change. Before Hendrix, electric guitar players avoided distortion from their amps. With Hendrix in the 60s, it was "damn the torpedoes, let's turn everything up and have some fun with it." It revolutionized the guitar world and with that, pop music. The evolution of the instrument at that moment took a jump.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica">Sometimes it takes some fresh creativity without the bias of what has come before to bring about real change. That's one of the reasons why DJs are making a such a substantial, creative contribution to music now. Their perspective is totally different and therefor can have a fresh outlook on creating music.</p>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-57874530835894773552010-12-05T16:02:00.000-08:002010-12-06T02:51:01.603-08:00Poland December 3, 2010<div style="text-align: justify;"><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">The war and the holocaust are more than just old memories here in Poland. People talk about them all the time and how both shaped life here today. One hears things like, "This building has a new facade because the bombings destroyed the old one. The worst pogrom took place in this town square where dozens of Jews were killed."</p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">So far I have visited 2 synagogues in Poland, one in Warsaw and the other in Wroclaw, where I played Thursday night. Both are from before the war, and have been reconstructed. All the synagogues here were destroyed during Kristalnacht. except the one in Wroclaw because it was part of a complex of buildings off a courtyard and it was feared that it's destruction would also ruin the nearby buildings in the process. The Wroclaw synagogue was in terrible repair until several years ago when it was finally rebuilt.</p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Then...</p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPy_bcHCAGI/AAAAAAAAACo/cucrp0YG_IQ/s1600/125307-150x150.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPy_bcHCAGI/AAAAAAAAACo/cucrp0YG_IQ/s200/125307-150x150.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547519319136665698" /></a><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Now...</p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPy-N053ddI/AAAAAAAAACg/L1afSQOFPGQ/s1600/Wroclaw-Synagogue.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 162px; height: 151px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6NQax9GREs0/TPy-N053ddI/AAAAAAAAACg/L1afSQOFPGQ/s200/Wroclaw-Synagogue.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547517985762538962" /></a></div> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br /></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Both synagogues have breathtaking acoustics. I could have played all night. In fact when I arrived in Warsaw, which was my first stop on this tour, I went inside the synagogue, heard what it sounded like and grabbed my nylon string. I took a seat near the bima in the center and played there most of the afternoon while people were preparing for a Chanukah party. I couldn't have been more content.</p>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-70908266596294744812010-11-28T08:58:00.000-08:002010-11-28T09:19:44.542-08:00The Name RebbeSoul<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:36.0pt 72.0pt 108.0pt 144.0pt 180.0pt 216.0pt 252.0pt 288.0pt 324.0pt 360.0pt 396.0pt 432.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;">I'm about to play a series of concerts in Europe. As I prepare, I thought of a question often asked and that is where the name, RebbeSoul comes from.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:36.0pt 72.0pt 108.0pt 144.0pt 180.0pt 216.0pt 252.0pt 288.0pt 324.0pt 360.0pt 396.0pt 432.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;">In the early 90s, I was just getting acquainted Jewish lore<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">. </span>I went to my first Orthodox Shabbat dinners, attended some minyans, started listening to our music from all over the Diaspora, and plunged into our stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I read that the Rebbes were, and still are the mystics, the shamans of the Jewish people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I had already started recording the music for my first album and as it began to reveal itself and take on a life of its own, I knew that I would put a band together around this music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would call it "Rebbe" in honor of these great, spiritual leaders and because music itself is spiritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It alludes to something beyond us, if we only get out of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The name of the album became "RebbeSoul" because the soul which connects us all, can reflect these same spiritual things, again, if we only get out of the way.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:36.0pt 72.0pt 108.0pt 144.0pt 180.0pt 216.0pt 252.0pt 288.0pt 324.0pt 360.0pt 396.0pt 432.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Helvetica;">I released independently and when it came out, the press and reviewers invariably called me or the band, RebbeSoul not Rebbe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>RebbeSoul was supposed to be the name of the album but It happened so much that I figured I had better get out of the way, myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So I accepted my fate and was dubbed RebbeSoul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It's also the name of my band and it seems to have stuck.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;tab-stops:36.0pt 72.0pt 108.0pt 144.0pt 180.0pt 216.0pt 252.0pt 288.0pt 324.0pt 360.0pt 396.0pt 432.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;">That first album, "RebbeSoul" contained all original material and only a couple of Jewish songs. I wasn't even thinking of going in a Jewish direction but just wanted to show my roots. My initial version of "Avinu" was on this album and that was about to change everything for me - my music, my career, my religious and spiritual life,... everything. I had no idea then what was about to happen and that's another story I'll get to another time.</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-62304904997453707572010-09-30T13:50:00.000-07:002010-09-30T13:56:50.395-07:00Lenny Solomon from Shlock RockThis is at the Bet Shemesh Festival in Israel, September 27, 2010. Lenny Solomon from Shlock Rock has something to say.<div><br /></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzqEK-jrXibuw0UfUZSYgDOttQUaTtrtzRY3iNowDEWpwkwigqWF8KHT4MUaldiJh3F_I2VWuJ5QeTlpWNSFQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6065860057230417387.post-32387844642379082152010-09-23T17:22:00.000-07:002010-09-24T00:33:58.176-07:00Recording V'Shamru<p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">I had just moved to Israel. Roi Levi from a band called "Shotay N'vua" called me up and asked me if I would be interested in playing with a new Israeli artist who had a tune on the radio. That was Assi Zigdon and his hit was a song called "Cham Li Ba'Lev." Being a great songwriter, Assi would soon have more hits in Israel.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">I played with him and his band regularly. They were all "sabra" Israelis so it was a great experience for me, getting thrown into the culture of my new country, playing guitar. I also got to know Assi's family, the Zigdons. Guy was his youngest brother and was also a musician but of the production persuasion. He was not a player but sang and produced music on his computer. Guy was 19-years-old and had won a prestigious Israeli competition for electronic music and was awarded lots of studio gear which he set up in the Zigdon house. I told Guy I would help him with guitar parts on his material and played a few, which he recorded. He was really pleased and turned to me and commented, "Now I see what everyone is talking about!" That's always nice to hear I was glad to be of service.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">Afterwards, we talked about my upcoming project, an album of Reb Shlomo Carlebach material and he offered to return the favor by recording something for it. I didn't yet know what songs I would record, in fact, I hadn't even started to research and learn Reb Shlomo's songs yet so here I was in a studio with a good producer willing to help, and I had nothing to record!</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">Recently I had played a wedding on guitar for Nachman Solomon who knew tons of Carlebach songs. I didn't play any of the melodies. Nachman sang them all but they were so catchy, I hoped I would remember one well enough to figure it out on the spot and play it well. I thought of "V'Shamru," a medium tempo, minor key, soulful composition of Reb Shlomo's. I picked a key, came up with the chords, and Guy programmed them in. I was amazed at how quickly Guy, a non-player, wrote in the chords. He had a great ear and filled in things intuitively. Another talented Zigdon!</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">I set the tempo and worked with him on a half-time groove which he put together in minutes. Now, I had to play the melody to a song I didn't yet really know too well!</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">I took a deep breathe and started noodling around while he was plugging me in. "Did it go like this? Like that?" My mind was scrambling. "Heaven help me," I thought. Well, Heaven did help me. In a few passes, I had played the melody and it was close enough to what I remembered from that wedding gig. I didn't have time to over-intellectualize and it came out kind of bluesy which was very true to my musical roots. I had learned how to play guitar listening to rock and blues players, so it felt right.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">The song had a verse and a bridge but it needed another section to keep it interesting so I asked Guy to set aside 8 bars for a solo and I came up with some chords to play over. He hit record and I burned a solo over the progression. Now I just needed an ending.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">I arranged a vamp which slowly faded out on the tonic chord and I played very sparingly over it, ending up with a little octave lick. Very simple. Listening back, we did a few edits like a breakdown after the solo and Guy put in sound effects which were perfect for the "chill" music vibe. Later on at home, I did my own intro and a synth bass part which I sent him over the internet.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">Many of the songs of Reb Shlomo Carlebach are are traditional prayers put to his own melodies. "V'Shamru" is about observing the Sabbath and how it commemorates G-d's covenant with "Bnai Yisrael," the people of Israel. It reflects that G-d worked in creating the world in 6 days and then stopped and rested on the 7th, which is the Sabbath day. It is a bond between G-d and us, between the metaphysical and the physical, the connection between the world beyond and the world here.</span></p><p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;">"V'Shamru" the opening track of the "From Another World" album and is still one I enjoy most playing, live.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 13px Lucida Grande; COLOR: #333333"><span style="color:#cccccc;"><br /></span></p><span style="color:#cccccc;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxg4NtD4AF4oZN9FFwP8ml7Dio1CmHpYlMCE1ApjbuTkzED9iOfbi8SLv8sr94knylnD9h6a6s_FdU1cCF4tA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span>RebbeSoulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18063836956818152191noreply@blogger.com2