Jewish Music I Love

Great music should be shared, so here are recommendations of a some of my favorite artists and CDs.   ENJOY!                  --Cantor Lisa B. Segal

You can always contact me directly if you need more information on how to find these special selections!

We especially note the amazing music of Kolot members and friends:

• • Marc Ribot
  • Marty Ehrlich
  • Raul Rothblatt
  • Donald Berman

  Plus music from great friends of Kolot (and stars of Off the Bimah):

  • Alicia Jo Rabins
  • Benjy Fox Rosen
  • Rob Burger
  • Roy Nathanson
  • Eve Sicular
  • Zoe B. Zak
     

  (In alpha order of artist)

  • Chava Alberstein—any of her CDs, but I love Foreign Letters, Crazy Flower
  • Fran Avni—Israel World Beat: Eretz and great music for kids
  • Rabbi Joe Black—Sabbatical; also has great children’s CDs
  • Mark Bloom
  • Marty Ehrlich—Sojourn (and every other CD!)
  • Robert Michael Esformes—Mystery of the Sabbath (Ladino songs)
  • Osvaldo Golijov—Ayre with Dawn Upshaw
  • Woody Guthrie / Klezmatics—Happy Joyous Hanukkah, and The Wonder Wheel
  • Robyn Helzner— Hearts Awaken, Signs and Wonders
  • Natasha J. Hirschhorn—They Call Me
  • Richard Kaplan—Life of the Worlds ,Tuning the Soul
  • Frank London and Loren Sklamberg—The Zmiros Project (and many other CDs by Klezmatics—see above)
  • Danny Maseng—Soul on Fire, Labor of Love
  • Rahel Musleah—Hodu: Jewish Rhythms from Baghdad to India
  • Roy Nathanson—Sotte Voce and many others, including Fire at Keaton’s Bar & Grill
  • Charles D. Osborne—Souls on Fire, narrated by Leonard Nimoy with the Bulgarian National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
  • Putumayo label—A Jewish Odyssey, and Putamayo presents Israel
  • Septeto Rodriguez—Baila! Gitano Baila!(Jewish Gypsy music)
  • The Rough Guide to the music of Israel
  • Peri Smilow—Freedom Music ProjectLife of the Worlds ,Tuning the Soul
  • Tim Sparks—Tanz, Neshama, At the Rebbe’s Table, and Masada Guitars
  • Andy Statman and Dave Grisman—Songs of our Fathers, New Shabbas Waltz, Life of the Worlds, Tuning the Soul
  • Michael Strassfeld—Songs to Open the Heart: Contemplative Niggunim
  • Ramón Tasat—Kantikas di amor i vida, Teshuva, and many more
  • Craig Taubman—Celebrate Series—Celebrate Shabbat, Festival of Light (I and II), two great Chanukah compilations on the Six Degrees label
  • Vocolot—Becoming, Behold, and Heartbeat
  • Zoe B. Zak—Sister Z
  • Rabbi David Zeller—Let Go
  • Emil Zrihan—Ashkelon (Moroccan Cantor)

   To find these CDs and more, useful websites to search for Jewish music include:

• www.jewishmusic.com
• www.tzadik.com
• www.etranscon.com

Many of these CD’s are also available on:

• www.amazon.com
• http://www.cdbaby.com/
• http://www.womencantors.net/

PLEASE NOTE: If you want to join or attend concerts of a wonderful Jewish choir, check out the Brooklyn Jewish Community Chorus  http://shir-chadash.cfsites.org/

There are places inside us only song can reach.  Words can do all sorts of things; obviously I’m a big fan of words, of speech, of language.  Words can say what words can’t say; the apt description can describe the indescribable.

But as someone who has spent his adult lifetime trying to move audiences with words alone, I have advice to offer any playwright who cares about such things: try a musical.  Words betray the arduousness of the struggle to express, to interpret, to understand.  Music offers up emotion and idea with an organicity and shapeliness and spontaneity that must be what we mean when we say that something possesses grace.  Words can be graceful, but music is grace itself. Music is a blessing that enters the soul through the ear.

From Tony Kushner in his introduction to Caroline, or Change