The 50-year History of "A Concert Service in Jazz"
March 12, 2018
Tablet Magazine's feature story today details the 50-year history of a jazz sacred service titled Hear O Israel, the definitive recording of which is part of the Milken Archive's permanent collection. It appears alongside seminal works by Dave Brubeck, Gershon Kingsley, and others in Volume 15, Swing His Praises: Jazz, Blues, and Rock in the Service of God.
From the Tablet story:
During winter break of his sophomore year at Brown in 1967, Jonathan Klein traveled to New York with his French horn, baritone sax, and an unusual score he’d written several years earlier.
An aspiring composer and son of a Reform rabbi from Worcester, Massachusetts, Klein had taken a traditional Jewish prayer service—complete with candle blessing, Kiddush, psalmist meditation and the Sh’ma—and set it to jazz tunes, from snappy to bluesy to bossa nova and even modal. Congregations around New England—including his father’s—enjoyed his adaptation, and now Klein was getting a chance to record the work, as part of a recruiting effort by the National Federation of Temple Youth to attract new members.
Explore more on Hear O Israel via the links below. Or, read the full story at Tablet.com»
More Hear O Israel on the Milken Archive
