Music from the Faculty of Hadar’s Rising Song Intensive 2024

jewish

Simcha L'artzekha (Tigay)

Adon HaSelichot (Traditional Mizrahi Melody)

Simple recording of an old melody, collected by Moyshe Beregovsky (Moisei Iakovlevich Beregovskii) in the early 1900s in Ukraine, later rediscovered in Kyiv, and subsequently adapted by Joey Weisenberg as the "Kane Street Nigun."

May the joyous energy of this nigun be a source of hope in a time of needless destruction and wanton violence now plaguing the region where it originated. 

Learn more about Beregovsky: https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Beregovskii_Moisei_Iakovlevich

Check out Joey's master classes in Jewish song and prayer, where he teaches this melody, explains its history and structure, and includes sheet music: https://bit.ly/jewish-song-masterclasses

Beregovsky Nigun (Kane Street Nigun) - Joey Weisenberg

Min Hametzar, Psalm 118

מין המצר קראתי יה ענני במרחב יה 
Min hametzar karati Yah, Anani va'merchav Yah 

(From the narrows I call Yah, Answer me from the expanses, Yah!)

The Narrow and the Expanse

Nisan 5783: Min Hameitzar by R' Deborah Sacks Mintz

Min Hametzar

שִׂימוּ לֵב עַל הַנְּשָׁמָה לֶשֶׁם שְׁבוֹ וְאַחְלָמָה
וְאוֹרָה כְּאוֹר הַחַמָּה שִׁבְעָתַיִם כְּאוֹר בֹּקֶר
“Take heart. Pay heed to your own soul. Opal, amethyst, and gold, 
As bright as is the sun's warm glow, far brighter than the morning.”
—“Odeh La-El” by R. Shma’ya Kosson

Simu Lev by Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project

Yoni Avi Battat - oud, violin, viola, vocals, music director, producer
Rabbi Yosef Goldman - vocals, rabbinic and literary director, producer
Joey Weisenberg - fretless electric bass, producer
Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer - vocals
Anat Halevy Hochberg - vocals
Yahala Lachmish - guest vocalist
April Centrone - guest percussionist

Produced by Rising Song Records
risingsongrecords.bandcamp.com
Recorded November, 2023 at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, PA

Don Godwin - audio engineer, mixing, and mastering
Shmulie Lowenstein - video
Josh Fleet - production manager

A project of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute, cultivating Jewish spiritual life through song: www.risingsong.org

***

Simu Lev is a collection of traditional Middle Eastern and North African piyyutim (liturgical poems), centered around the theme of our inner spiritual lives and our relationship with the divine. As stated in the above excerpt from “Odeh La-El,” the music in this album calls its listeners to nourish the neshamah, the soul, and to tend the holy and precious inner workings of the human heart and consciousness. Literally meaning “place your heart,” Simu Lev also means, “pay attention” in modern Hebrew. By curating and presenting Mizrahi cultural heritage, which has often sat at the margins of American Jewish society, this album is indeed a call to pay attention – to recognize the diversity amongst our communities, and to embrace the deeply rooted, ornate, and beautiful Arab musical traditions that are so essential to the landscape of Jewish expression at large.

This album is the first release from Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project. Led by Rabbi Yosef Goldman (vocals) and Yoni Avi Battat (oud, violin, viola, vocals), Kedmah honors the artists’ Iraqi, Syrian, and Yemenite ancestry in conversation with their intersecting musical influences. Their interactive performances, workshops, and recordings allow listeners to experience the spiritual and emotional depth of Mizrahi piyyutim and the ages-old tradition of Arab melodies that adorn them. Building on the fragments of the Mizrahi musical traditions that they grew up with, Yoni and Yosef have made a concerted effort to reclaim the texts and melodies that brought meaning to the lives of their ancestors. 

After years of musical hevruta and study with their cherished teacher Roni Ishran, Yoni and Yosef founded Kedmah as a part of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute. Part educational initiative, part performance group, the social and pedagogical impact of this project is strengthened by a commitment to musical creativity, historical accuracy, spirituality, and public performance at the highest level.

This recording features the Rising Song Institute’s founder and artistic director, Joey Weisenberg, on electric fretless bass along with Arabic percussion expert, April Centrone, on darbuka, riq, bendir, and drum kit. Yahala Lachmish, Anat Halevy Hochberg, and Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer contribute stunning vocal performances inspired by their own personal connection to this music and their Yemenite and Libyan ancestry.

Agadelkha אגדלך

Yismechu v'malchuscha shomrei shabbos v'korei oneg

They will delight in your all empowering sovereignty - those who tend and care for shabbos and call it a joyous celebration
(translation by batya)

Vocals - Batya Levine
Percussion - Simcha Halpert-Hanson

Yismechu - Batya Levine

"Open My Heart"
Words: Rami Shapiro, Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika

Open My Heart is an album of original Jewish devotional world music. 

The eclectic soundscape of this album reflects my mixed Ashkenazi, Yemenite, and Syrian-Turkish heritage, and my own diverse influence. On the album you’ll hear echoes of Chassidic devotional songs; the microtonal scales and instrumentation of Arab classical music; colors of jazz, funk, and Klezmer; Ashkenazi prayer modes; Sufi chanting; and rhythms that I learned playing in my hometown of New York with musicians from around the world. 

I combine these diverse elements into a unique Jewish World Music that is deep and prayerful, filled with aspiration and yearning, heartache and joy. This is music for listening, for singing together, and for praying.

This album was recorded live off the floor (with minimal overdubbing) in the sanctuary of the Germantown Jewish Centre, in Philadelphia, bringing together some of my favorite musicians/ spiritual artists for a 3-day immersive session and capturing the energy that can only from playing together live.

There’s an old Jewish saying that words expressed from the heart are received wholeheartedly. The songs on this album are the prayerful expressions of my heart. I hope that it will move you, and maybe even open your heart, as it has mine.

TRACKS: 

LECHU (“Come, Let Us Sing Joyously”) 
Words: Kabbalat Shabbat Liturgy, Psalms 95:1-3
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika, Yosef Goldman

SEFIRAT HA'OMER NIGGUN
Words: Liturgy for Counting the Omer
Music: Shir Yaakov Feit, Zach Fredman, Yosef Goldman
Musical Direction: Yosef Goldman, Joey Weisenberg

GESHER (“The Bridge”) 
Hebrew Words: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; English Words: Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika

EIN OD (“There is No Other”)
Words: Aleinu prayer (Deuteronomy  4:39, Zechariah 14:9)


YEDID NEFESH (“Soul Mate”)
Words: Elazar Azikri, Shabbat Liturgy
Music: Traditional Sepharadi-Yerushalmi (Maqam Sigah)
Musical Direction: Zach Fredman

OPEN MY HEART
Words: Rami Shapiro, Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika


ELIYAHU HANAVI (“Elijah the Prophet”)
	Words: Liturgy for Havdalah
	Music: Annie Lewis & Yosef Goldman
(written for the bris of Shir Emet Goldman)

Shalom Aleichem ("Welcoming the Angels")
Words: Liturgy for Shabbat Evening Meal
Music Direction: Yosef Goldman & Joey Weisenberg

Ki Lo Na’eh ("To You All Praise is Due")
	Words: Passover Haggadah 


OPEN MY HEART WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD DECEMBER 3, FROM RISING SONG RECORDS
risingsong.org/buy

Produced by Yosef Goldman & Joey Weisenberg 
Music Composed by Yosef Goldman* 
Musical Direction by Yosef Goldman*
Engineered, Mixed, and Mastered by Don Godwin
CD Design/Layout: Lisa Weinberger, Masters Group Design

*Except where noted.


PERSONNEL: 
Yosef Goldman—Lead Vocals
Chava Mirel—Vocals
Deborah Sacks Mintz—Vocals
Megan Gould—Violin
Joey Weisenberg—Electric Guitar, Mandolin
Zach Fredman—Guitar, Oud
Uri Sharlin—Piano, Keyboards, Accordion
Daniel Ori—Double Bass, Electric Bass
Rich Stein—Percussion
Arturo Stable—Drums, Percussion

Special Guests: 
Dan Blacksberg—Trombone (#8)
Ertuğrul Erkişi—Tambur (#4,# 9) 
Aslıhan Erkişi—Classical Kemençe (#4,# 9) 
Don Godwin—Tuba (#8)
Annie Lewis—Lead Vocals (#7)
Micah Shapiro—Backing Vocals (#7)


Recorded live off the floor at Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, April 2019

Filmed versions of some of these songs will be available on YouTube and at www.yosefgoldman.com, filmed by Shmulie Lowenstein.

Open My Heart

Gesher (“The Bridge”) 
Hebrew Words: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; English Words: Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika

Open My Heart is an album of original Jewish devotional world music. 

The eclectic soundscape of this album reflects my mixed Ashkenazi, Yemenite, and Syrian-Turkish heritage, and my own diverse influence. On the album you’ll hear echoes of Chassidic devotional songs; the microtonal scales and instrumentation of Arab classical music; colors of jazz, funk, and Klezmer; Ashkenazi prayer modes; Sufi chanting; and rhythms that I learned playing in my hometown of New York with musicians from around the world. 

I combine these diverse elements into a unique Jewish World Music that is deep and prayerful, filled with aspiration and yearning, heartache and joy. This is music for listening, for singing together, and for praying.

This album was recorded live off the floor (with minimal overdubbing) in the sanctuary of the Germantown Jewish Centre, in Philadelphia, bringing together some of my favorite musicians/ spiritual artists for a 3-day immersive session and capturing the energy that can only from playing together live.

There’s an old Jewish saying that words expressed from the heart are received wholeheartedly. The songs on this album are the prayerful expressions of my heart. I hope that it will move you, and maybe even open your heart, as it has mine.

TRACKS: 

LECHU (“Come, Let Us Sing Joyously”) 
Words: Kabbalat Shabbat Liturgy, Psalms 95:1-3
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika, Yosef Goldman

SEFIRAT HA'OMER NIGGUN
Words: Liturgy for Counting the Omer
Music: Shir Yaakov Feit, Zach Fredman, Yosef Goldman
Musical Direction: Yosef Goldman, Joey Weisenberg

GESHER (“The Bridge”) 
Hebrew Words: Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; English Words: Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika

EIN OD (“There is No Other”)
Words: Aleinu prayer (Deuteronomy  4:39, Zechariah 14:9)


YEDID NEFESH (“Soul Mate”)
Words: Elazar Azikri, Shabbat Liturgy
Music: Traditional Sepharadi-Yerushalmi (Maqam Sigah)
Musical Direction: Zach Fredman

OPEN MY HEART
Words: Rami Shapiro, Yosef Goldman
Vocal Arrangement: Ayo Awosika


ELIYAHU HANAVI (“Elijah the Prophet”)
	Words: Liturgy for Havdalah
	Music: Annie Lewis & Yosef Goldman
(written for the bris of Shir Emet Goldman)

Shalom Aleichem ("Welcoming the Angels")
Words: Liturgy for Shabbat Evening Meal
Music Direction: Yosef Goldman & Joey Weisenberg

Ki Lo Na’eh ("To You All Praise is Due")
	Words: Passover Haggadah 


OPEN MY HEART WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD DECEMBER 3, FROM RISING SONG RECORDS
risingsong.org/buy

Produced by Yosef Goldman & Joey Weisenberg 
Music Composed by Yosef Goldman* 
Musical Direction by Yosef Goldman*
Engineered, Mixed, and Mastered by Don Godwin
CD Design/Layout: Lisa Weinberger, Masters Group Design

*Except where noted.


PERSONNEL: 
Yosef Goldman—Lead Vocals
Chava Mirel—Vocals
Deborah Sacks Mintz—Vocals
Megan Gould—Violin
Joey Weisenberg—Electric Guitar, Mandolin
Zach Fredman—Guitar, Oud
Uri Sharlin—Piano, Keyboards, Accordion
Daniel Ori—Double Bass, Electric Bass
Rich Stein—Percussion
Arturo Stable—Drums, Percussion

Special Guests: 
Dan Blacksberg—Trombone (#8)
Ertuğrul Erkişi—Tambur (#4,# 9) 
Aslıhan Erkişi—Classical Kemençe (#4,# 9) 
Don Godwin—Tuba (#8)
Annie Lewis—Lead Vocals (#7)
Micah Shapiro—Backing Vocals (#7)


Recorded live off the floor at Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia, April 2019

Filmed versions of some of these songs will be available on YouTube and at www.yosefgoldman.com, filmed by Shmulie Lowenstein.

Gesher

A collaboration of three musical clergy, including local Rabbi David Fainsilber of the Jewish Community of Greater Stowe (JCOGS), launched a new album entitled Hashkiveinu. Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg of Minneapolis, Micah Shapiro of Philadelphia, and David Fainsilber of Morrisville began their musical collaboration back in rabbinical school. Since then, they have encouraged and inspired each other in their musical pursuits, including the culmination of this album release. The album was recorded in the JCOGS sanctuary, with JCOGS musicians alongside the clergy.

6. Nasu (Psalm 93), Micah Shapiro

Hadar's Rising Song Institute cultivates Jewish spiritual life through song. Through Rising Song Records we produce excellent original Jewish music that is sung and played in communities worldwide.