Jewish Music Recommendations

In the past six months or so, I've acquired a reasonably-sized library of Jewish music (184 songs and counting!), so I thought I'd start a thread for us to post some of our favorite songs/artists/albums. I buy/download most of my music from Amazon or CD Baby (Look in the Jewish Folk, Chassidic, Hebrew, and Judaica sections. CD Baby is great for independent music from people not famous enough to get on Amazon. My only caveat would be to watch out for Messianic music because I HAVE seen it mixed into the Jewish genre sections.)

Religious Music:

Hazzan Joanna Selznick Dulkin's Sing*Dance*Bless Hazzan Dulkin happens to be the cantor at Jewish-boy-I-met-at-Latin-convention's synagogue (see my intro post). Her connection to him is the reason I found her -- but she probably has some of my favorite music. She blends traditional and modern styles well and seems to love niggunim. The link above is to her CD. She partnered with another cantor on this but she still sings almost all of the songs. It's supposed geared toward kids, but most of the tracks don't give that vibe at all, and I even enjoy that ones that do. She used to have some free downloads (different songs than what's on this CD) on her synagogue's website, which I was lucky to snatch up many months ago, but the website was redone a while back and they're no longer there.

Craig Taubman's
Jewels and Lights Craig Taubman is reasonably well-known in the Jewish music scene -- many know him from his "Jewels of Elul" blog where he has Jewish leaders and celebrities write short inspirational pieces -- and this year the matching "Jewels" music collection was released on Amazon as a free download. In December, "Lights," a similar Hanukkah collection, was released as well. Many of the songs are a bit too modern-sounding for me, but both CDs have several songs that I love, and since they're free, what have you got to lose?

Songs of the Spirit: Debbie Friedman Anthology Some of Debbie Friedman's music is a little modern-sounding for me (though I have several favorite DF songs) -- but she is a legend and Amazon will let you download 45 of her songs for only nine dollars.

Dan Nichols and E18teen's 18 on 18 -- Like Debbie Friedman, normally a bit modern for me, but I saw him in concert and briefly met him soooo he deserves a mention. My favorites are Kehillah Kedoshah, Hoshia, and B'tzelem Elohim. Fun fact: he's also a convert.

Aaannnddd I don't feel like writing explanations for every single thing on here, so I'll post some links to some other albums, from which I have downloaded a few songs here and there. (I seldom download entire albums -- I'm a listen to the 30-second-preview-and-decide girl.)

Bat Kol's Prayersongs -- for when you're in a contemplative mood

Susan Colin's Shabbat Favorites

Yosef Karduner's Breslever Melave Malka

Elana Jagoda's Zum Gali Gali -- many of the songs are geared towards kids (and Elana Jagoda sure does love using the phrase "Shabbat Shalom" ) but still fun.

...and I might as well mention the famous Maccabeats. Here's their full-length album.

More "Cultural" Jewish Music that often includes religious references nonetheless:


Itzhak Perlman's In the Fiddler's House Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli violin virtuoso who does a lot of classical music, but for this CD he partnered with some well-known klezmer bands to make an awesome klezmer CD. There's a sequel to this, "Live in the Fiddler's House," which I plan on downloading in the near future.

The Burning Bush's Folksongs from Israel I first found this CD at my local bookstore. Many of the songs are fun to sing along along with, particularly the upbeat ones such as "Hafinjan," "Hava Netze Bemachol," and "Rad Halaila."


Okay, those are my recommendations! Let's hear yours!

Pharaoh's Daughter / Basya Schechter
Moshe Ben Ari
Debbie Friedman
Nava Tehilah
Moshav
Sholomo Artzi
Idan Raichel Project

Does anyone have some more . . . dance-beat type stuff? I went to this amazing Kosher restaurant in San Jose last night and it was awesome, but the waitress had no idea who it was.

Moshav is pretty awesome. My husband used to live next to them in Monsey.

tamar wrote:

Idan Raichel Project

Commenting on the reference to a kosher restaurant:

"maculated": Did you go to The Kitchen Table which is actually in nearby Mt. View? (But I don't know of any strictly kosher restaurants in San Jose proper.) If not, and you are still in the Bay Area, check it out---it got an award when it opened for best new restaurant in the Bay Area where the fact that it is kosher was not even considered. Fantastic Jewish deli food (meat). Further north in San Francisco, is a great kosher, vegetarian Chinese restaurant with a very extensive menu: Shangri-La. Very authentic, complete with bad English and interesting Buddhist philosophy in the front pages of the menu.

Oh, Shangri-La is one of my favorite places to go, period. This is a newly opened restaurant, actually. Will have to look into "Kitchen Table." I miss pastrami sandwiches.

What is the name of the restaurant you went to and what kind of food? I get back to the Bay Area most years, and often meet friends down in the San Jose area. I'd love to know about another kosher restaurant in the area.

The Kitchen Table has delicious pastrami. It has a nice upscale atmosphere too.

I like pastrami too. We were sad when the kosher Subway sandwiches place close to my house closed this year. In addition to the more standard part of its menu (minus the treif Subway items and with pareve cheese), it carried "Jewish meats" like pastrami and corned beef. Those Jewish meat sandwiches cost about $11, but they were piled high with a good half inch plus thick stack of meat. So twice the cost, but 3-4 times the meat. We still have another kosher sandwich place in the area, but it is more expensive and they don't put as much meat in their sandwiches. The Subway closed in part due to losing its lease because a nearby Walgreens wants to tear down that bunch of stores to build a bigger Walgreens. There was a buyer for the franchise and the owners didn't want to go through the hassle of finding another place to move to.

Can you mix meats? I thought you can't mix meats with other meats? poultry with beef basically or beef and lamb, dont know if deli sub places mix meats..its been a long time since i had one.

You can definitely mix meats. :) Heck, poultry was parve for a while. :)

Best pastrami sandwich = the Kosher Experience in Ralphs in La Jolla (San Diego). Bar none. Having sample the goodies in Skokie, I have to say that in California, there are more choice eateries, just not in the general "Jewberhood" as one called it. We even have a gourmet restaurant in Oxnard: http://www.tierrasuratherzog.com/

Here's a link to the restaurant: http://jerusalemgrillbar.com/index.html

maculated wrote:

Does anyone have some more . . . dance-beat type stuff? I went to this amazing Kosher restaurant in San Jose last night and it was awesome, but the waitress had no idea who it was.

Moshav is pretty awesome. My husband used to live next to them in Monsey.

What do you mean by dance-beat (sorry for my ignorance)?

Do you consider Moshav in that category? I consider them more of a rock/folk type band. I have 3 of their CD's.

I also like Blue Fringe, and Yaakov Chesed which are more on the comtemporary rock side.

I have seen all 3 (Moshav, Blue Fringe and Yaakov Chesed) in concert a few times.

How about Aryeh Kunstler, Dov Hoschander, Stacey Beyer or the Josh Nelson Project?

I am a big music fan as you can see and like to seek out all different types of Jewsih music!

It is certainly kosher to mix meats. The best sandwich at our now-defunct kosher Subway was "The Feast" which was a combination of all of their "premium meats": pastrami, corned beef, kosher salami, and roast beef.

Some strictly observant Jews hold by the "minhag" (custom) [or IMHO, stringency ("chumra")] of not eating meat and fish on the same plate, although since fish is pareve, those same people are fine with eating fish and meat at the same meal. That's why Lea and Perrins worchestershire sauce is labelled "OU-fish" since it contains anchovies. (So it's a "steak sauce" that some folks won't put on steak!)

I agree that Chicago lacks gourmet or even simply "up-scale" kosher restaurants Shallots Bistro used to be pretty good, but the last time we went, it was overpriced (even for kosher meat) for non-exceptional food and had bad service. We aren't planning to go back. But Chicago is not a foodie place (even for the non-kosher population) compared to most of California. Notwithstanding the incredible meal I once had at Charlie Trotter's [vegetable menu]*, a typical Chicagoan's choice meal is still a basic prime steak.

(*Charlie Trotter's is not kosher and you have to tell them if you want the "vegetable menu" to be truly "vegetarian". I ate there before I tightened up my kashrut observance, but I do still eat vegetarian plus fish at non-kosher restaurants.)

Sorry, this topic is about music and I'm talking about food...I always have food on my mind. Especially now that I'm dieting. I will do more research on the mix meat subject now that it interests me

I forgot about one I had saved. Electro Morocco.

I'm a big fan of Idan Raichel and his projects.
I also looked into Putumayo's collections recently. Basically, they compile music with a particular focus from around the world and they have two collections with Jewish/Israeli themes. The one is just Putumayo Present Israel and it features different contemporary Israeli artists. I don't speak Hebrew yet so I can't vouch for the content of the lyrics but the melodies and voices are beautiful. The other is A Jewish Odyssey which features specifically Jewish songs from around the globe, and feature several different languages, including Yiddish and Hebrew.
Anyway, they're both really great.

These days I'm listening to Shira u'tfila. They play Sephardic music from the Balkans, which is, generally speaking, a mixture of Judeo-Spanish, Ottoman, South Slavic musical and cultural layers, although they combine it with Sephardic music motifs form a broader territory. As far as I know, they are also researching and collecting old Sephardic songs, arranging them and presenting them to nowadays audience, trying to keep the Sephardic music alive in its richness.

They are using many traditional instruments, so it is a great pleasure to hear them both on the record and live. :)

Really awesome rock version of the Israeli National Anthem. I just wish you could download it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ4wEackUsk&feature=youtu.be

You can rip it of youtube, if you want. Just google "youtube to mp3" and there are tons of links :)

Awesome!

(I did have to convert it on high quality; there was a squeal in it on the low quality--probably because it was a live recording, so not the greatest to begin with.)

One thing I find exciting about my conversion is that it's also opened up a huge new world of music I never knew existed.

Here's a song from Eviatar Banay I've recently discovered which I'd like to share. It's a beautiful song which I find really uplifting. (He says that not knowing the lyrics.)

That's a lovely song!

Dena wrote:

That's a lovely song!

Absolutely agree. It's a beautiful tune, I always find myself coming back to it.

I find it so uplifting which is probably dangerous to say because I recognise about 5, maybe 6 words haha. Really look forward to the day when I can actually understand the lyrics.

Linn Lorkin is a local artist who I think is fantastic. She is incredibly talented with great sense of humour.