In Honor of Rosh HaShanah- Some Funky Jewish Music

For all of you Hebrew hipsters who want to spice up your Jewish new year with something a little funkier than the Malavsky Sweet Singers of Israel Family Choir (more on them and their ramshakle charm another time), check out these cool, funky, obscure, and yes, Jewish LP's that will sweeten your holiday while keeping yourself firmly within your cool, Pitchfork reading, indie image.

Herbie Hancock Sextet- Hear O' Israel: A Prayer Ceremony in Jazz
The title really says it all; this classic period "lost" Herbie Hancock album (only a couple hundred copies were initially pressed) is a Jewish prayer service set to jazz tunes commission by Rabbi David Davis and written by 17 year old Jonathan Klein. The work was preformed at Friday night prayer concerts, and recorded in 1968 with the absolutley stellar lineup of Herbie Hancock, Thad Jones, Ron Carter, Jerome Richardson, Grady Tate, Jonathan Klein , soprano

and contralto vocalists and Rabbi Richard Davis as reader. Much of the album is made up of Coltrane style spiritual jazz, hard boppin' Blue Note-style tunes or Herbie Hancock piano explorations, yet the Hebrew singing gives it a whole different twist. Indeed, the vocal charts are pretty out there and are an aquired taste that can occasionally grate on the listener, but not enough to scare them away from this swinging and beautiful peice of Jewish soul Jazz. A really unique and spiritually moving record, "Matovu- Borchu", "Sh'ma", "Sanctification" and "Torah Service- Adoration" are among the highlights of this interesting, surprising and often beautiful record. Never thought you'd hear a Herbie Hacock song called Kiddush, right?

Various Artist-Soul Messages From Dimona

The musicians on this extraordinary compilation first worked together as part of a group of session musicians from Chicago called the Metrotones. After becoming involved with Ben Ammi Carter's Black-Hebrew Zionist vision, these musician moved to West Africa, where they encountered many a hardship (including the abduction of band members Shevat Boyd and Yehuda Whitfield). Re-christened the Soul Messengers, the group moved to the settlement of Dimona in Southern Israel's Negev Desert.

Augmented by female singers Spirit of Israel, teen group the Tonistics (the black Jewish Jackson 5), and male singers Sons of the Kingdom, the musically collective became popular for their free shows during the Yom Kippur War.

The music included on this collection is diverse; songs range from Jewish psychedelic gospel to spiritual soul Jazz to disco infused funk. Most songs have religious subject matter and all are ridiculously funky. For all of you Hebraic Fela Kuti worshipers, this is the album for you. I am hesitant to peg this one with the "Jewish" tag; this is simply one of the best soul releases of any sort I have heard recently. And come on, where else can you hear a Hebrew rewrite of Steam's "Na Na Na (Kiss Him Goodbye)" ?

Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles- La Mar Enfortuna

Sephardic indie rock? What, what? Yes, you heard right. The masterminds of the indie rock group Elysian Fields explore the music of the Spanish Jews on this 2001 release as part of avant-garde jazzer John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture imprint of the Tzadik record label. The reinterpretations can be radical; "La Rosa" is transformed from sultry love ballad to a menacing and sexy blues workout while "Ayyu-Ha S-Saqi" becomes an avant garde Arabic drone workout, complete with requisite backwards tapes, oud and saz. The 10 minute "Porke Yorach" is slow, jazzy and sexy in a way that few music is. These reinterpretations are alternately edgy, dark and creepy or sultry and passionate; although respectful of the music's spirit, this is, as the label suggests, radical Jewish music. Jennifer Charles is a very sultry and passionate singer, and approaches these songs with heart. Embracing jazz, funk, avant-garde, rock and Latin, this indie-Sephardic record is a unique jem.

More on Jewish grooviness another time, peeps. So, Jewish folk, happy new year.

Additional Jewish Grooviness: anything on John Zorn's Tzadik label