We've introduced you to Jewish Reggae with Matisyahu. Now, in the realm of "cool folks you should know," I present Joshua Nelson - Jewish Gospel singer. I had no idea this even existed:
"Like Thomas Dorsey, Joshua has taken the dull melodies of Jewish liturgical music and added the sounds of soul. But Joshua does not take full credit for this phenomenon. He acknowledges that the black synagogues organized in the late 1800's and particularly The Commandment Keeper's Synagogue organized by Rabbi Wentworth Matthew in the early 1900’s has had a long tradition of soul Jewish music. Located at 1, 123rd street in Harlem, NY, It is still a functioning synagogue. Like Mahalia Jackson did in the Christian world of gospel music, Joshua has taken the sounds of soul in Jewish liturgical music to the broader community. SO... Hashem is the soul and nefesh in our Jewish Gospel Music. The soul of suffering speckled with joy from Hashem above. Jews of European background are no stranger to suffering, as well as Jews from around the world. And although we shall never forget Slavery, the Holocaust, prejudice, or injustice, we cannot continue singing sad songs. As it is said in the book of Psalms: "Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning." So let the singing begin... Gospel style!"
Amen, brother. Amen!
I've heard the samples on his web site, and wish we all did it his way here in North America (ideally, with some Hasidic reggae thrown in as an Amidah devotionals counterpart). Love my synagogue, but if I there was a synagogue anywhere near me that did "kosher gospel/Jewush soul music," I'd be in there almost every day. At least my synagogue will be hosting him in early December, and I'll finally get to fulfil a private dream and participate in some genuine Jewish Gospel. Can't wait!
Wow, thanks-- ordered one. This is going to be one of my better gifts this season.
"Joshua has taken the dull melodies of Jewish liturgical music and added the sounds of soul."
Ahem. My experience of Jewish liturgy is NOT dull. Sorry you and the reviewer have had such bad experiences, and I know what many mainstream synagogues are like, so no blame. But traditional Jewish liturgy is melodically very spirited and melodic and I hate to see this kind of canard perpetuated.
Any Schlomo Carlebach recording will suffice, or something like this or this or this. (I had the privilege of participating in Ebn Leader's slichot services for the past three years and Brian's article makes it sound gimmicky, but it is truly soulful. Come to NYC for High Holy Days next year!)
You might be interested in the recordings of Abayudaya: The Music of the Jews of Uganda -it's prayers set to African polyrhythmic drumming (if I recall the NPR story correctly, they're a pretty isolated people, and when the tribe mass converted to Judaism they had a prayer book, but no music to set it to, so they just sort of went for it).
http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=3005
Sorry you and the reviewer have had such bad experiences, and I know what many mainstream synagogues are like, so no blame.
From what I've heard (from conservative friends.. heh), the music at Reform synagogues has been heading in the same direction that a lot of (white) churches has-- i.e. syrupy, therapeutic crud; songs where "G-d" could easily be exchanged with "girlfriend" and still make sense.
Ewww.. I'll take the hymns, please. Thanks.
The syrupy crud movement is strong and I've no doubt that it has seized more than a few synagogues. Relevance purchased at the price of meaning and/or of authentic belief is a bad trade; like fashion, it adopts a kind of 'relevance' that does not and cannot last.
Worship should be about joy, connection, participation, meaning, and authentic belief. There are lots of approaches to get people there in different religious traditions - but I have yet to see anything that can match Gospel for its ability to consistently realize these qualities with a mass audience. Every time I watch or listen to the genre, I think to myself, simply: "they got it right."
Re: synagogue experiences...
In my case, moving to a Reform synagogue substantially improved the liturgy over the conservative synagogue I grew up in. Prayer was no longer a mix between rapidly mumbled and hence meaningless drivel, with outbursts of solo performance by the cantor. Actual audience involvement during either scenario had been low overall, as one might predict. Under those conditions, the 3-hour services produced "mental check out" in well over 70% of the congregation at various times, resulting in a continuous buzz of conversation that was sometimes masked but never stopped at any point.
Friends. House. Glass. Etc.
Prayers in my Reform synagogue are condensed, but traditional, and involvement is higher. I strongly suspect that more of the people actually know something about the prayers underway than was the case at my Conservative synagogue. There's also a core there for whom the prayer really is about connection, participation, meaning, and authentic belief - but there's still a lot of room to improve in those areas.
Better does not equal fixed... and fixing the 'worship as spiritual experience' issue requires a whole different mental starting point. Gospel incorporates most of that required starting point, so it will be interesting to see how this event goes over.
My guess is that it will go over incredibly well, after which the obvious lesson will promptly be ignored. But we'll see.
Check out the CD samples on this website from my Reconstructionist shul in Chciago burbs. We have more but it's not recorded yet. This is the stuff from our services. www.shir-hadash.org
I can relate to the "syrupy, therapeutic crud" description. I'd love to hear Rabbi Nelson, he sounds awesome, but my pessimistic side tells me that all the efforts in all directions won't help because Diaspora Jews don't know Hebrew, and if you don't know Hebrew, all the soul, gospel, or "relevance" in the world won't help.
The WORST is subbing with (bad translations into) English. Once you're praying in English, you might as well join the Protestant church down the street, because they'd accept anything you'd be singin' anyway. Whether or not you understand the words, Hebrew has a cadence all its own, and woe be unto s/he who trivializes its effect.
I attended shul at a Conservative cong. that featured an ensemble called Tefilla 2000. The musicians were superb. But guess who the only ones were in the room who were having a spiritual experience? You got it: Tefilla 2000. Everyone else was trying...hard...to. Get. It. Up...it was almost painful to witness.
Sorry to be a downer, but my conclusion: If you understand Hebrew, the connection, participation, meaning, and authentic-belief-o-meter needle jumps in practically any prayer setting.
Please provide e-mail address of Rabbi Nelson. I promised to provide him some interesting information when he was here in Norfolk, Va this past Jan 6th but have lost his address.
Enjoyed his presentation tremendeously.
thank you,
R.Tajovsky
RTajo@aol.com