c. 1998 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ Musician Bruce Burger was raised in a Conservative Jewish home in upstate New York, but the indoctrination didn’t stick.”I got thrown out of Hebrew school more often than I was there,”he says.”I was fairly agnostic.” Then in 1992, Burger attended a Sabbath dinner in Los Angeles hosted by Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz, a well-known Hollywood Jewish mainstay affectionately called”Schwartzie.”The camaraderie, singing and spiritual energy Burger experienced there changed his life and gave him a unique new musical voice.”When you want to have a religious experience, you hang out with the fanatics,”he says of his exposure to these ardent Jews, who brought Jewish mysticism and cultural identity to life.”I suddenly realized all of us around the table were part of the same 12 tribes.” Burger, a talented guitarist who had played for the fusion band Jazzburger as well as Los Angeles recording sessions, began hanging out at Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious functions, talking to Hassidic rebbes (or teachers) and listening to their songs.
By early 1993, he had adapted the persona RebbeSoul and released the first of his Jewish-tinged albums.
You don’t have to be Irish to appreciate Celtic music. Plenty of non-Catholics like Gregorian chant. And it’s not just Buddhists who enjoy the deep chanting of Tibetan monks.
Likewise, Burger and other contemporary Jewish artists are taking their music to those outside the synagogue.”Any art form that is done with a certain degree of honesty and integrity is a reflection of the artist’s essence, but the thing that makes Jewish music different is that it is older, and goes farther back,”says Burger, who has released three albums under the RebbeSoul name.
His 1995 album,”Fringe of Blue”(Global Pacific Records), mixed old and new in dizzying, dazzling ways.”My Soul Thirsts for You”combines King David’s 3,000-year-old lyrics with a Near Eastern-melody and a churning, jazzy beat.
The moving”Avinu”features a 2,000-year-old prayer and a melody that’s been around eight centuries. Most of the time, Burger is playing acoustic guitar, balalaika, or mandolin. But”The Hope,”his rousing version of the Israeli national anthem”HaTikvah,”features a blistering electric guitar solo some have compared to Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock version of”The Star Spangled Banner.” Record stores carrying Burger’s albums stock them in the World Music section _ which is where they belong, their hints of Yemenite and North African melodies serving as a soundtrack for the Jewish Diaspora.
As for radio, it’s been jazz and instrumental stations that have played RebbeSoul’s music, often to rapturous listener response. Burger and his band _ which features non-Jewish session musicians _ have just finished their fourth album, which should be available later this year. Meanwhile, they play concerts at clubs and synagogues, where Jews and Gentiles compete with each other to give the loudest, most enthusiastic applause.”There’s something about the collective psyche of the Jewish people that when they see other people looking at their stuff, listening to their music, and appreciating their culture, they find that a very exciting thing,”says Burger.
But Burger isn’t the only Jewish musician bringing about a renaissance for Jewish music. Groups like Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band, which was founded in 1980, and solo artists like Peter Himmelman, show that their music’s mixture of joy and sorrow connects with many people on a deep,subconscious level.
Beginning in medieval Europe, klezmer music was created by itinerant Jewish musicians who performed at festivals and religious events. In the early 20th century, klezmer orchestras flourished in America and elsewhere, writing a rowdy repertoire of music as rich and varied as the Yiddish language and contained equal parts Polish shtetl, Tin Pan Alley, and jazzy ragtime.
The 11-member Klezmer Conservatory Band resurrects this vibrant music in its energetic concerts, and on eight albums, including 1997’s”Dancing in the Aisles,”which contains Jewish jigs and ballads, wildly undulating clarinet solos, and evocative Yiddish vocals.
Like Bruce Burger, Himmelman is a Jew who has been deeply influenced by the deeply traditional and mystical Hassidic sect. Unlike Burger, he happens to be Bob Dylan’s son-in-law.
That may have helped Himmelman land a contract with Epic Records, for whom he recorded 1991’s”From Strength to Strength”and other critically acclaimed albums. Epic dropped him after 1994’s”Skin,”but that hasn’t stopped him from recording a live album and a children’s album, or from contributing a Hanukkah dance song called”Lighting up the World”to a Jewish artists compilation project called”Festival of Light.””I may never go on any of the big tours,”says Himmelman, whose faith informs his music without always being explicit,”but I’m in a place where I know I can’t be bought, and it feels good to me.”
Eds: Bruce Burger’s three RebbeSoul albums are available through Burger’s web site (http://www.rebbesoul.com), Tara Publications (phone 1-800-TARA-400, or http://www.jewishmusic.com).
The Klezmer Conservatory Band albums are also available from Tara Publications. Their last five albums were released by Rounder Records and can also be ordered from Rounder Mail Order (phone 1-800-443-4727)).
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