Sacred Sounds in Secular Styles

As the number of Ashkenazi Jews in America increased in the 19th century, many began to yearn for a modern American synagogue music of their own – music that would be distinct from the Western Sephardi tradition, and would reflect the tastes and aspirations of a rapidly changing community. The eclecticism of this fresh repertoire, fashioned here in the New World by a diverse group of Jews and non-Jews, immigrants and native-born Americans, epitomizes the inclusive nature of the American Jewish experience – a musical melting pot if ever there was one.
https://www.milkenarchive.org/news/press-releases/view/volume-1-jewish-voices-in-the-new-world/

A great religious leader is a 'master of ecstasy.' He evokes emotions that move beyond the rational onto the mystical. A jazz musician does something the same.

—Ralph Ellison

Charles Davidson

In fashioning a complete kabbalat shabbat and Sabbath eve service on a foundation of combined jazz and blues idioms—in tandem with traditional Hebrew liturgical and biblical chant motifs—Davidson trailblazed new territory in 1966 with the completion of ... And David Danced Before the Lord. The work was a watershed event in the progressive development of American synagogue music and became yet another document of intercultural threads in the American Jewish experience.

Jonathon Klein

"When 17-year-old Jonathan Klein was asked to compose a contemporary sacred service he wasn’t thinking beyond his Massachusetts youth federation for which it would be performed. He was thinking about jazz—the primary focus of his musical studies. And he was thinking about the common link between jazz and Jewish liturgical music: improvisation."
https://www.milkenarchive.org/articles/virtual-exhibits/view/sacred-jewish-jazz

Jack Gottlieb

Gates of Justice - Dave Brubeck

Jazz icon, pianist and composer Dave Brubeck wrote this cantata in an attempt to heal the rift between the Jewish people and American blacks that emerged after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Based on biblical and Hebrew liturgical texts, together with quotations from Dr. King's speeches, Negro spirituals and the Jewish sage Hillel, with lyrics by Brubeck's wife Iola, it was intended to underscore and resurrect the spiritual parallels between Jews and blacks. The work draws on their shared history of enslavement and dispersion, their ongoing quest for social justice, and similarities in their forms of musical expression.
https://www.milkenarchive.org/music/albums/view/brubeck-dave
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15:08-18:14

The structure of the piece somewhat resembles a bridge; the interlacing of the improvisations, solos and choral responses are like the interweaving cables that span from anchoring piers. The piers are in the form of three related choral pieces (Parts II, VII, XII) based primarily upon texts from the Union Prayer Book and the Psalms. The first of these choruses, O Come Let Us Sing (II), written in rather traditional style with hints of the present in its harmonies and rhythms, is a call to worship. A complex of musical styles (jazz, rock, spirituals, traditional), just as a congregation is a mixture of individuals, Shout unto the Lord (VII) is a celebration. It expresses the ecstasy and release of communal joy. However, at its core is the sobering message from Martin Luther King, Jr., our contemporary prophet: “If we don’t live together as brothers, we will die together as fools.” In Part XII, Oh, Come Let Us Sing a New Song, the enumeration of the attributes of God in whose image we are created, is a reminder of man’s potential.

Brubeck liner notes, Milken Archives.

Gershon Kingsley

"[Kingsley's music] was typical of the desire to radically differentiate the 60’s from the lethargic, comfortable, mainstream 50’s."

- Cantor Howard M. Stahl

In the late 1960s and during the 1970s, some progressive people within the American Reform movement, especially some of its younger rabbis, were attracted to the new sounds of electronically synthesized music. They were admittedly in the minority; and at first breaking ranks with the rabbinical establishment, if not inviting its ire, they were willing to entertain the notion of introducing that medium into the synagogue in connection with what they perceived as necessary innovative approaches to worship. And, at least on an experimental basis, a few such adventurous clergymen were also receptive to music influences from the world of “rock operas,” rock and folk- rock media, trendy and often politically-socially motivated “contemporary folk” styles, and the fashionable and sometimes quasi-psychedelic multimedia rage.
Composed in 1968, Kingsley’s Shabbat for Today emerged at a time when youth culture had become extremely powerful, and when synagogues were becoming increasingly concerned about attrition rates among young Jews. But it was also a time when musical experimentation was not wholly unwelcome within synagogue

"This, in turn, led to some expressions of considerable artistic merit by composers such as Kingsley. Among the first Reform rabbis to put that kind of legitimate imagination into practice was Rabbi Charles Akiva Annes, at Temple Sharey Tefilo- Israel, then in East Orange, New Jersey. Already familiar with some of Kingsley’s music and with his predilection for contemporary sounds, Rabbi Annes invited him to compose a new Friday evening Sabbath eve service specifically geared “to the younger generation.” The result of that invitation was Shabbat for Today (subtitled on the original score Sing a New Song unto the Lord), written for cantor, mixed choir, and rock rhythm ensemble. It was premiered at that synagogue in 1968 by Cantor Theodore L. Aronson and an all-black choir, with electric guitar, double bass, rhythm section, and organ."
Kingsley liner notes, Milken Archives.

Raymond Smolover

“SHIRU LADONAI…Sing Unto the Lord a New Song.”

I realized that we had been asking our children to accept our God and the God of our fathers, and what He sounds like. I realized after almost twenty years of teaching them the sound of my God, that I must listen to the sound of theirs. I dared enter their world aware that I may be respectfully tolerated, amusingly indulged or murmuringly ignored. They welcome me.

It may be that the Folk/Rock service is not completely their sound nor my own. It may be what happened when their God met mine.

- Raymond Smolover