Veteran subway-performing Blues singer Jeremiah Lockwood teams up with an all-star cast of NY underground greats (musicians who have graced the records of Tom Waits, Arcade Fire and Antibalas, to name a few) to summon voices from beneath the concrete streets. Calling upon the sounds of Malian guitars, Saharan beats, Afro-pop horns and the B-L-U-E-S, The Sway Machinery goes knocking at the gates of prayer with muscles swollen and eyes clenched.

Son of composer Larry Lockwood and the grandson of the legendary Cantor Jacob Konigsberg, Jeremiah Lockwood began his musical career playing on the streets of Manhattan. He soon struck up a relationship with Piedmont Blues master Carolina Slim, with whom he still performs. Jeremiah and Carolina Slim have appeared together in Avery Fisher Hall, the New School Blues Festival, and have been profiled in The New York Times Magazine and TimeOut NY. Jeremiah has worked for years as the front man for The Sway Machinery, a blues/world beat/Chazzanus ensemble that taking New York by storm

In recent years, Jeremiah has also been appearing with J-Dub recording artists Balkan Beat Box. He is joined by drummer Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the horn section of the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra to break down all barriers between mythic past and a future rich in the senses. Rejoicing in the season of the lunar New Year and taking the spiritual language of Ashkenazic Jewish cantorial traditions as its point of departure, a new creation will be embarked upon. Hidden Melodies Revealed will combine music, animated film, storytelling and the historically charged space of the Angel Orensanz Foundation towards the goal of shaping a context in which the musical traditions of the season can be absorbed by a modern audience. On this night, rich in feeling and sanctified by memory, ancient lore will blossom forth into an all-out party!

Ahavas Olam
Ivdu et HaShem
I Shall Chant Praises

“Lockwood’s arrangements of Jewish cantorial songs whip up a frenzy wherein all the world’s music can do that which music does best: celebrate. Such joyful synthesis is what music is all about, not to mention what New York is all about.” Buzz Poole – The Village Voice (Sep 13, 2006)

It was a night of multiculti mashups at Brooklyn’s best mid-sized concert venue. First up was Sway Machinery, led by Jeremiah Lockwood. His contributions are singing (in Hebrew) influenced by the classic Jewish cantors – his grandfather Jacob Konigsberg among them – and guitar playing that mixes Afropop and the blues (at times inevitably recalling the late, great Ali Farka Toure). Throw in bass saxophone, tenor sax, and trumpet by members of Antibalas and powerhouse drummer Tomer Tzur and the result mixes the above influences with klezmer, free jazz, and soul. Steve Holtje – CultureCatch.com (Sep 17, 2006)

A late night excursion out into the cold that was last weekend revealed a sweet surprise as we entered into Zebulon Cafe Concert on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg. We went on the promise that there would be some good music from the band The Sway Machinery which featured musicians who had played with Tom Waits and The Wu-Tang Clan, so I was expecting some deeply driven blues beats and earthy guitar. What I was not expecting was a full-fledged klezmer band. As sincere as their ancestors, yet twisted with modern grit and irony, horns were blaring, ancient Yiddish yarns were being spun by turns mumbled and screeched into the microphone, and a fanatical beat master was holding the whole thing together – just barely. I especially loved to see the dinosaur of the brass family, the bass saxophone, in action. I had heard rumors of this beast whispered in my small middle-school band rehearsals, where I myself cherished the soggy reeds of my alto sax, but I definitely had to see it to believe it. Bree Apperley – Until Monday (Jan 26, 2007)

Jeremiah Lockwood’s remarkably accomplished, frankly fascinating guitar work and Tomer Tzur’s limber syncopations combine with influences from the Sahara to the shtetl to the Delta (believe it) to make Sway Machinery consistently exciting and emotionally rewarding as well. Here they team up with friends from Antibalas for an exploration of a genre perhaps best labeled Jewish soul. Pamela Grossman – The Village Voice (Feb 28, 2006)

Last Sunday I went to see Jeremiah Lockwood’s new project: Sway Machinery with the horn section of Antibalas. This was their second show together. I will not exaggerate one bit if I tell you that this was the best Jewish music gig that I’ve ever been to, in my whole life. They played at The Stone, and at the end of the performance, every single person in the audience stood up and clapped, stomped, yelled for a long, long time. Jake Marmer – Mimaamakim (Jan 31, 2006)

I decided to watch some foot traffic for awhile, and was just kickin’ it on a plaza when I heard horns playing at a sound check coming from somewhere behind me. Yesterday I told you I’m a sucker for the harmonica, today I’m telling you I’m also a sucker for horns. I followed the sound and ended up at an outdoor stage, the Habana Calle Annex. Sway Machinery, a New York band that plays Jewish soul music, started the set by solemnly walking from outside the gate through the small crowd and on stage, playing all the while. The trumpet, tenor sax, and bass sax players also play in Antibalas, who I missed the other night but Chuck saw and was super pumped about. Stuart Bogie, the tenor saxophonist, has performed with everyone from the Wu-Tang Clan to TV On the Radio to Sinead O’Connor. The drums and guitar gave this liturgical music a bluesy rock beat. It was great to stumble into a performance of that caliber. Megan Wiley – About Town (Mar 18, 2007)

klezmer -tinged blues band…sounds like Muddy Waters – The New York Times Magazine (Feb 28, 2002)
klezmer -rock with a provocative attitude. – Luc Delannoy – Vibrations Magazine

Hey!

The twenty-something musicians, all accomplished on the Israeli scene through different projects, have performed with Zehava Ben, Tomer Yosef (Balkan Beat Box), Israel Dub Foundation, and many others. In a society that often wants to put the past behind it, these former Kibbutzniks, religious musicians and Music School graduates come together to play a progressive evolution of a timeless music that instantly connects with Jewish people of all ages, and everyone together to the One.

Hey!
HaShem Melech

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Rising on the jam band scene is Merkavah (a mystical kabbalistic chariot), a project  lending of grooves, improvisation and melodies from the Lubavitch Chabad movement.

A nature loving phish fan, guitarist Yerechmiel Altizio’s musical and spiritual journey got a kick start when he discovered his faith in a national park, setting him on a path that took him from cross country from California to New Orleans, then to Brooklyn, where after an inspiring Birthright Israel trip, he found a home in the Lubavitch community- a gig as guitarist for Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu.With one foot firmly in the post-Phish jam band world and another in Crown Heights, he now performs electrifying extended jams of Chabad niggunim in clubs, festivals and has released its debut album on Sony/JMG.

Al HaNisim
Nigun Simcho

Altizio received an Ibanez six-string as a 13th birthday present; back then, he was neither known as Yerachmiel nor interested in Judaism. Rather than study Torah, he studied the guitar riffs of Nuno Bettencourt and the improvisations of Trey Anastasio. He worshipped at the alter of ‘guitar gods,’ not the synagogue.

But two years into college, Yerachmiel set out on a journey. He crossed the country in a VW Bus to live on the beaches of Santa Cruz, ascended the mountain town of Boulder Creek to play his guitar amidst the redwood forests. While playing music in Big Basin National Park, he made the connection between G-d, the creator of the universe, and the G-d of Torah.

The revelation precipitated a friendship with a local Rabbi with a shared his pashion for Phish and guitar. The resulting confluence of Shabbat meals and rigorous musical study culminated in degree in Jazz Guitar Performance from the University of New Orleans, but also religious observance. The rich musical heritage of the Big Easy provided infectious grooves, syncopated rhythms, and increased observance an introduction to the mysticism and music of Lubavitch Chabad Hasidism. The combination of music and spirituality that moved him.

It was a 2001 Birthright Israel experience that solidified not only Yerachmiel’s religious observance, but also its connection to his music. Now living in Crown Heights, home of the Lubavitch movement, he leads Merkavah as it navigates the sonic straights linking Chabadniks and Phish-heads, playing festivals, Chabad houses and clubs to the delight of all. Their common appreciation is likely spiritual, and that’s by design. In the Kabbalistic tradition, the band’s namesake is the metaphoric meditational chariot used journey inward to the soul and greater understanding and the revelation of the glory of G-d. Aptly named, Merkavah is the soundtrack of that journey.

A rock guitarist and studio session musician, Bruce Burger (RebbeSoul) was inspired by the haunting beauty of a prayer heed heard one night in synagogue. From memory, he reconstructed the melody and lyrics, and so began a spiritual and musical journey that brought him back to his Jewish heritage. That song tapped something inside Burger, who recorded the song and submitted it to local radio stations.

Months later his acoustic rendition of Avinu Malkenu garnered record high listener call-ins when maverick San Francisco station aired it. Now, Burger leads his percussion trio, bringing a new voice to the sometimes-stagnant realm of Jewish music, blending rock sensibilities, world fusion stylings and traditional Hebrew melodies for an ageless yet progressive sound. RebbeSoul mixes Mizrahi chant and electronic beats with the funk/ethnic rock style, layerng balalaika, guitar and mandolin over of a percussion trio using darbouka, djembes, riq and cajon. Having toured Israel repeatedly, he made Aliyah in 2006.

He returns to the US for periodic tours to teaching about Israel and the Jewish people through music that reflects its melodies and those of Jewish Diaspora communities. A Rebbesoul performance is a musical ingathering, mirroring the diverse Israeli society. The sound of the Jewish journey home is at the heart of a RebbeSoul performance.

Kol Dodi
Esa Enai
Shmelke’s Nign
Maoz Tzur

“This is about us, as in the big ‘us,’ not about individuals, biases, cultural clashes or any of that other clutter that junks up our daily lives. This album is about how we are more alike than different.” – Cat Delaney, Lucid Forge “RebbeSoul crafts an energetic sound… packs an eclectic armament… for Jewish and Arabic music… RebbeSoul forges a danceable fusion.” – Popmatters

“Soulful mission: RebbeSoul dedicates his long-awaited CD, Change the World With a Sound, to peace in the Middle East and throughout the world.”- Halifax Herald

“From the dub feel of “Kaddish” to the folk-rocky “Shalom” and “Rock of Ages,” perhaps my favorite is “Eliyahu,” with a stripped-down funk groove, soulful Hebrew vocals by Lynn Rose, and some tasty hand drumming.” KAOS/Spin The Globe

“A thick and soupy blend of Middle-Eastern percussion, growling rock guitar, plucked balalaika and funk bass that builds to a perfect simmer.” – Splendid“[RebbeSoul] blends melody and electricity… there’s a depth of soul that sucks you in.” – Kent Zimmerman, Gavin Report

“His compositions take acoustic rock into a mystical realm” – Charles M. Young, Playboy

“Multi-talented RebbeSoul seamlessly mixes international musical influences into his own unique sound. Rhythms from Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East are evident as they weave and wind through rock, pop, and jazz tones.” – Joey Alkes, Music Biz Magazine face

For both klezmer and jazz fans Paul Brody’s Sadawi is one of the most exciting new groups in today’s music scene. A healthy mix of traditional klezmer and fantasyful improvisations by some of the best klezmer-jazz muscians out of New York and Berlin.

The sound of the group is unmistakably unique: a bass clarinet jamming with a banjo on a blues hora, a growling Ellingtonish trumpet battling through tribal bulgar beats, a hasidic folk song woven around impressionistic trance beats and prayer loops squeezed though the the sondboard of a guitar. Paul Brody’s Sadiwi is full of suprises for both traditionalist and modernists.

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Aharit HaYamim is an Israeli reggae, dub and ska sensation whose groove and sensibility is rooted in a Messianic longing and a love of Zion they share with their Rastafarian brethren. With a post-Carlebach Jewish folk flavor, they proclain their love for “Yerushalayim” and “Holy Mount Zion” with tight four-part harmonies, layered over thumping basslines, lush arrangements and extended play instrumentals.

Their brand of world-beat reggae focuses on messiah and redemption, “but it’s a redemption with everybody else; it’s about bringing the nation of Israel together.” Famed perfomer Matisyahu, hearing their music as he walked by a Jerusalem cafe performance, jumped onstage and performed an impropmtu set. Aharit HaYamim (Hebrew for End of Days) is far more than a band “it is a full-fledged grassroots movement” made up of disillusioned children of Oslo looking for an out, post-Carlebach jam band fans, Phisheads and the Haredi/Hippie Hilltop youth.

How does one join this movement? “You don’t need to,” says Leuchter. “Everyone is already a member. Aharit Hayamim is just here to wake you up and spread the message of unity, love and Israel.” Wearing brightly colored, home-sewn, hemp clothing, replete with tzitzit, ritual fringes, Aharit HaYamim delivers a heady musical mix perfect for party people or spiritual seekers. Their hope is that during their concert- these become one in the same as they hasten and celebrate the coming of Moshiach.

Ein Yeosh
Kum Lach Adam
Aharit Hayamim
Areyut Yehuda
Yerushalayim
Lo Lefached

Lions of Zion, thriving in the studio By BEN JACOBSON

The mainstream hit machine focuses on selling three-minute singles and glamour-shot imagery, an approach that doesn’t have much to do with traditional jam bands. With rare exceptions like the Grateful Dead, the songs are too long and the faces too homely, with improvised concerts considered much more important than albums. Record labels don’t have a clue how to market such acts, but the best jam bands have always found their own ways to build communities of fans. Probably the closest thing Israel has to a proper hippie jam band, Aharit Hayamim rocks on its own terms. In the band’s four years of existence, the world-groove collective has played hundreds of shows, also hosting eight incarnations of its own Gush Etzion-based Aharit Hayamim Festival and selling thousands of copies of its self-published demo EP.

The band spent over two years creating this eponymous studio debut, which was first sold at the Aharit Hayamim Festival this past fall.

The title track introduces the band with a vengeance, hinting at Aharit Hayamim’s capabilities in its live performances. The disc’s lead-off reggae-flavored single, “Ein Ye’ush,” is concise and funked-up. With its “Oh yeah!” refrain, “Bnei Tzion” is an upbeat, straightforward rock piece, while “Min Hametzar” sports some driving percussion work. “Lo Lefahed” is a rare new ballad making use of Rebbe Nahman’s famous “The world is a very narrow bridge” parable, shifting gears part way through to become an Afro-beat chant mixed with breezy jazz parts. The closer, “Yerushalayim,” builds on messianic prophecies to paint a reggae-infused picture of the Jerusalem to come, complete with an orchestra of shofar blasts.

As with all studio projects from bands that live on the stage, this album’s energy is a mere hint of Aharit Hayamim’s live power. But the collection still proves these guys know how to energize their listeners – even when the band is confined to a format that by definition repels spontaneity.

October – November 2007 US Tour Dates TBA

“World Fusion Beat Scientists” Zohar are led by composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erran Baron Cohen, whose credits also  include of the popular Da Ali G and Borat movie sountracks.  ZOHAR weave together the beats and textures of modern club culture with hareem, hip-hop, electronica, dub and future grooves.  It is a deconstruction of past, present and future, spanning Jewish Cantors, Arab Muezzins, Byzantine chants, meets today’s modern jazz and experimental musicians. Their approach is resolutely experimental and uncompromising with an instinctive feel for lush cinematic arrangements and intelligent melodies.  Their acclaimed debut, One.Three.Seven.m was produced by Miles Copeland’s Ark 21 label.

The new album Do You Have any Faith? builds on ZOHAR’s previous reputation as underground pioneers of the oriental inspired jazzical influenced dance scene, that produced the legendry Buddha Bar compilations, Thievery Corporation, Dhizan and Kamien, Gotan Project and many others.   This new album features many exciting collaborations. Godfather of folk inspired jazz funk Terry Callier adds his spiritual presence to Roots in Jerusalem. The amazing voice of Tunisian Paris based singer Amina Annabi(who also starred in the epic”The Sheltering Sky”) sings beautifully on Une Ange en Paix, which also features the haunting oud playing of Nabil. Legendry Buddha Bar DJ Claude Challe features on Survival, and the powerful kawali voice of Riffat Sallamat make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on the haunting Raga.

London-based ZOHAR have already picked up a dedicated body of fans through their performances both in the UK and internationally-USA, Bali, France, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Hungary, Latvia, and at UK festivals Glastonbury, Womad, The Essential Festival, Bracknell, and Homelands. Regular appearances at the trendy Momo’s Moroccan eaterie in Central London and other firing nightclubs like Cargo, Whirl-y-gig, China White and Heaven have added to their London presence.

Ehad
Elokeinu
The Merciful One

Zohar tracks have been licensed to a multitude of compilations including the legendary Buddha Bar by Claude Challe, Arabica, Deep Roots and Future Grooves, Whirl-Y-Waves Vol 2, Arabica I & II, World Chill by Martin Morales, Acoustic Chill by Chris Coco, Zen And The Art Of Chill, and Pathaan’s Small World and many others. ZOHAR have also DJ ‘d internationally, and at some of London’s most trendy club nights including Momos, China White and Bartok.

“spiritually moving, crossover brilliance” BBC Radio 4
“enchanting…an eclectic musical mix” Billboard
“a strange but addictive brew” fROOTS Magazine
“the cutting edge of the ethno-ambient scene” Evening Standard

Coming Soon.

Mid-July 2007 US Tour

The Rabbinical School Dropouts are Sun Ra, the Hampton Grease Band, Frank Zappa and the Klezmatics all rolled into one. The music of the Friedmann brothers is fresh, imaginative and the future of Klezmer music. Their big band (featuring oboe, mandolin, bassoon, theremin, toy piano, tablas, etc.) storms through a dozen creative originals touching upon klezmer, jazz, funk, Latin, rock, and varied mishegoss along the way. Jewish garage jazz with a sick sense of humor from Long Beach, California. It’s been called Esoteric Space Klezmer, but mostly its just wild musical fun.

Mesquitto from Meggido
Counterfeit Gelt
Dung Gate
Solarium Khosdil
Pillow Rock
Yanatan HaKatan II

“The old, old, old school of Hebrew-aligned Klezmer music is mostly a relic — its reed-heavy sounds performed mainly at weddings and at unlucky kids’ bar mitzvahs. But California’s Rabbinical School Dropouts have taken Klezmer into new, spacey, Sun Ra-influenced territory. Key instruments like the oboe are still part of the RBD’s act, but it’s the addition of theremins, bassoons, mandolins, and other sub-kosher sounds that give their jazz-leaning performances a Zappa-inspired zip.” Read on.

“Recalling Zappa at his giddiest and least scatological, the Dropouts seem to have developed a klezmerist form of Sun Ra worship, decked out in kabbalah references and bad Yiddish puns. Vehicles Behind Comets (Ethnic Warrior), released last year, takes their irreverent Semitic space fusion well past the asteroid belt: it’s Exodus as Star Trek, with manna in the form of Guru Guru records. No matter how many metaphors I pile up, though, they won’t capture the band’s exuberant energy, heard clearly in both the dizzy instrumental pivoting of “Yeshiva School Fallout” (at five and a half minutes, it’s the longest song here; they’re jumpy spacey, not epic spacey) and the gusty grace of “Anne Frank’s Ghost.” Read on.

“Trying to categorize the Rabbinical School Dropouts is no easy task. The 10-piece klezmer, funk and rock band finds its inspiration from such diverse sources as Frank Zappa, Raymond Scott, Martin Denny, Charles Mingus, Bernard Herrmann, Shostakovich, They Might Be Giants, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan.” Read on

“The Rabbinical School Dropouts give a modern spin to an age-old sound, mixing klezmer with jazz and injecting a heaping dose of humor that includes their name.” Read on.

  “Unless the words ‘esoteric space’ precede it, calling the Rabbinical School Dropouts a klezmer band is a misnomer. Though they have familiarized themselves with its motifs and forms, a cacophony of bassoon, Indian tablas, theremin, bass, clarinet, oboe, trombone, saxophone, electric guitar and jazz drum kit indicates that they are more accurately an experimental music collective that draws on, nods to, and perhaps only because of our prior experience with that peculiar Ashkenazi musical form is described as, klezmer… The overall sound is akin to the whacked-out Cantina Band in the first Star Wars movie and they’re about as catchy. This is klezmer hijacked by the Animaniacs; intelligent, humorous and done to the extreme. You’ll be hard pressed not to get up and dance, and after all, that was the point of klezmer in the first place: dance music for parties.” Read on