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Kosher Gospel
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Examiner, Kosher Gospel >>
At first take, Joshua Nelson seems a walking example of the mental straightjacket that accompanies social categories: Black and Jewish (he grew up attending Sephardic synagogues in Newark), he sings Jewish religious music in the tradition of Christian Gospel music. [And be sure not to confuse him with Josh Nelson who leads a Jewish rock band (like Christian rock)]. At eight years old, he discovered his love for music through his grandparents’ recordings of Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson records. It wasn’t until after he graduated from Newark's Performing Arts High School and attended a college and kibbutz program in Israel that he brought his faith and love of Gospel music together. While attending the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he began placing Hebrew texts to gospel melodies and creating gospel arrangements of Jewish hymns. “Kosher Gospel” was born; Nelson hopes it will create a revolution in Jewish liturgical music.
Nelson is the face of the 24th Annual Jewish Music Festival – just look at the festival’s poster or mailer, his image is the first thing that catches your eye. Eleanor Shapiro, director of the festival, states that they chose Nelson as one of their opening night acts to celebrate the dawning of a new era in this country “because his kosher gospel represents a new orientation towards being in the world that’s not based on your past or what you were born into, but what you are becoming and what you can become in this country.” Whether or not, the event is indicative of that level of change, Saturday should prove to be an interesting and entertaining musical event: Nelson will be backed by “Austin’s king of the Jewish bluegrass tuba” Mark Rubin (who knew?) , and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, which includes member of a dozen different faiths.
-- Jeffrey Callen 03/19/09 >> go there
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