by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

February 26, 2009

When Neshama Carlebach takes the stage at Congregation Beth El in South Orange on March 7, she promises “an evening filled with surprises in a fusion of worlds that is very infectious.”

Joining her and her four-piece band will be 40 members of the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir from the Bronx — a world unexpectedly close to her own heritage. She is the daughter of Shlomo Carlebach, the late Orthodox folksinger who was often called the “Singing Rabbi.”

“That I am involved with a Baptist choir is not a very strange thing in my family,” she told NJ Jewish News in a phone interview. “When my father made his first recording in 1958, the background singers were from the Baptist church around the corner from where he worked in Atlantic City. He went to the church and was very touched by their singing,” she said.

“My father embraced people of all religions and all backgrounds and invited them in.”

Neshama Carlebach began singing with the choir and its dynamic leader, the Rev. Roger Hambrick, four years ago at a Martin Luther King Day observance at her synagogue, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx.

She advises her audience to expect “a lot of tambourine-playing and hand-clapping,” in a style one might anticipate hearing any Sunday in many African-American Baptist churches.

“Some songs have the gospel vibe, the gospel groove. It is very eclectic.” But, she noted quickly, “There is no church music in this show; it is all Carlebach.”

Backed by piano, bass, drums, and guitar, she said, her band “takes the most incredible music and gives it the most unbelievable sounds. It is not a predictable show. When the reverend sings in Hebrew it is very cool.”

With 40 gospel-powered voices behind them, Carlebach said, she feels “a certain intensity that is incomparable. It takes me to a different place. My drummer said it best: ‘When we are on stage, we are levitating.’”

Even though her lyrics include some Jewish prayers, Carlebach does not consider her music “necessarily religious. But I definitely would say it is spiritual. It speaks to the soul. It is not specifically about Shabbat. It is not specifically about what God is. It is about connecting with something that is meaningful and precious in your life and feeling something. Sadly, most of the time people in this world don’t feel much,” she lamented.

Carrying on her father’s legacy, Carlebach said she views her mission as one of connecting people with their inner spirits, whether they are religious or otherwise.

“From my perspective as an artist, when I am singing with the choir it is a way for us to share music that is life-changing. That is what my father’s music is: boundary-breaking and life-changing beyond any other music, in my opinion.”

Other musical genres have deeply influenced her style as well. “Jazz is my favorite music,” she said, citing Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Joni Mitchell as “my greatest vocal inspirations beside my father.”

As for religious inspiration, Carlebach said, “I see myself as Orthodox — Modern Orthodox,” but someone who “absolutely” has issues with women’s roles in her religious milieu.

“The fact that I sing with male musicians and I sing for men, people will tell you I’m not Orthodox.” While some Orthodox Jews believe it is wrong for a man to hear a woman’s singing voice, “they come hear me anyway and they buy my records,” she said.

It may be too soon to tell, but Carlebach believes her family’s musical gifts may have been transmitted to a new generation. She and her husband, Steven Katchen, have a two-year-old son named Rafael. “He can clap in time,” she said. “For a Jewish kid, that’s great. He is incredibly musical.”

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