Everyone once in a while I think I’ve got this Jewish music thing, and then the rug get’s pulled out from under me again. My buddy Noah did that to me when he introduced me to a strand of Orthodox pop music that I didn’t know anything about. It includes bands like Kol Achai, Abie Rotenberg & D’veykus. Let me start by saying I’m practically clueless about these bands and will be trying to piece it together over the next few months. What I know is that these bands were primarily active in the 80′s, played a lot of NCSY camp events, and had a very (for the time) contemporary pop sound. They’re connected, I think, with the Israeli scene that produced seminal Jewish rock pioneers Diaspora Yeshiva band and their repertoire includes Israeli tunes as well as original. But I’m really not sure about any of this yet. These bands have little presence on the web other than discographies on some of the Orthodox Jewish music catalog sites. What I do know is that I’m a fan. They’re some great material in these discs and they’re a pointer to a part of Orthodox Jewish culture that I was completely unaware of.
As I said there’s precious little material on these bands on the web, but here’s a great clip. It’s Kol Achai singing The Star Spangled Banner at Shea Stadium on Sept 13, 1993. Spoiler alert…the Cubs lost.
Hopefully I’ll be back with more info on this scene. If you were part of it, as a musician or audience, please get in touch with me.
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