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Category: Music

Ever since my sophomore year of college, when I first picked up a guitar and started to strum, I’ve been making music. The first band I got to play with, Mamma’s Groove gigged at many of Madison, Wisconsin’s dive bars of the 1980s and early 90s – Club DeWash, O’Cayz Corral, The Willy Bear – and at the infamous Mifflin Street Block Party. In rabbinical school, I started playing klezmer and chassidic music, and my year in Jerusalem I was part of a band called Elisheva Jones that played a weekly gig at Cafe Magritte. Nowadays I mostly write songs and play them with local musicians and friends whenever I have an opportunity. Between 2012-2013, I began a song cycle eventually entitled Lunar Tunes in which I wrote a song for each Jewish festival. And for the last five years I have been part of the band Midnight Nosh.

The Yedid Nefesh Project

The Yedid Nefesh Project

What is the Yedid Nefesh Project?  A collective of musicians who are singer/songwriters/composers who will study together and create new music that is inspired by the 15th century mystical poem known as Yedid Nefesh – “Beloved of My Soul” Who came up with this idea?  This project was born from a conversation between two rabbis (Daniel Brenner and Elliot Tepperman) that happened in a Thai restaurant.  The conversation was inspired, in part, by the work of Hazmana L’piyut (www.piyut.org.il) an…

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80s Klezmer Aerobics? YES! 80s Klezmer Aerobics

80s Klezmer Aerobics? YES! 80s Klezmer Aerobics

In Jewish life, where a typical birthday wish is “Ad meah v’esrim” – “May you live to 120!” it is a little early for me to have a mid-life crisis. So I’m not sure what to call my artistic project, 80s Klezmer Aerobics. It is part storytelling/part dance performance/part aerobics class/part Jewish wedding/part theater show/and one hundred percent joy. Here are some classic Klezmer Aerobics moments:

Honeysuckle & Dogwood

Honeysuckle & Dogwood

Sharing a rough demo track from a musical project some 25 years in the making. The lyrics I wrote back in college, but playing with a group of folks here in Montclair has taken this song to an entirely new level. Special thanks to Nick for sitting in on the drums and to Dave for wrangling uncooperative recording robots. Thank you both! You make us sound groovy. Deep gratitude to Ben and to Debra for your musical talent and general…

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Dream Come True by The Halftime Show

Dream Come True by The Halftime Show

Dream Come True – a love song of sorts – is something I wrote especially for my beloved of almost 20 years. Our anniversary is next month! My band, the Halftime Show, is a project with my friends Ben and Craig and occasionally Dave – who helps out big time on this number both producing and banging the drums in a reggae style. So far we played one benefit event and one birthday party, but we’ve got our eyes set…

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