Re: (at last!) my new CD!

[music <music...>]

Dear friends,

I'm pleased to be able to share with you (at last!) news of the long-
delayed, long-in-the-gestation release of my new compilation CD OPEN THE
GATES!  NEW AMERICAN-JEWISH MUSIC FOR PRAYER.

OPEN THE GATES! is a representative sampling (or as representative as one
CD can be)--18 selections, by 18 different composers and performers--of
contemporary American-Jewish religious folk music, reflecting the
inclusive, intimate, and lyrical style of contemporary Jewish prayer music--
and incorporating various American folk and popular styles
(bluegrass/country/world music/a cappella/"light" jazz; guitars and
fiddles, pianos and flutes) in the characteristic manner of Jewish musical
fusion.

It is unusual--and perhaps unique--for including under one virtual roof the
music of almost every segment of the American Jewish community--from the
more-or-less yeshiva world to Jewish Renewal, and many in between.

I've written an extended essay for the CD on the influences and controversy
surrounding contemporary American-Jewish music for prayer--its inspiration
in the Hassidic (earlier pietistic/spiritual renewal) movement; its
cultural roots in American folk music; its reflection of the "spirit of the
age"--along with tracks notes on the meaning and (where relevant) the
history and significance of each of the (liturgical, para-liturgical, or
original, quasi-liturgical) selections--and, of course, on each of the
performers and composers.

The essay cites sources as diverse as Pete Seeger and Theodore Bikel;
contemporary musicologists and cantors; Hassidic rebbes and "New Age"
theologians; Leonard Bernstein and Geroge Jessel (!) to illuminate why, in
my view, post-60s American Jews needed a new Jewish music to open their
gates of prayer.

It is my hope that virtually every listener will find something enchanting
(and perhaps many such) on this CD (though, no doubt, every listener--or
every *Jewish* listener, anyway, we being we--will find _something_ [but
surely only one such?] that they _don't_ like!).  But my deeper hope in
releasing this CD is that it will open the hearts of its listeners.

I welcome and invite further inquiries--to this originating address or to

openthegates (at) sterlingmp(dot)org

Those wishing to order the CD can send $18 (ppd) to me at

18 Wiltshire Road
Brighton, MA  02135

I am sure that I have your good wishes for the CD and I thank you in
advance for them.

--Robert Cohen



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