July 10, 2003

Pop Bands Whose Beat Is Orthodox and Hip

t was just after midnight at the Makor nightclub on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and the rock band Soulfarm was beginning to peak. Near the front of the stage, fans swayed and spun in time with the groove, their eyes closed as the band settled into a chugging Bo Diddley beat. Well-established on the jam band circuit, this New York-based quartet had drawn a young, slightly scruffy, neo-hippie crowd. But there was a twist: most of that crowd was made up of Orthodox Jews.

Bringing together as it does two seemingly disparate worlds, Soulfarm is just one of a handful of bands that are attracting a yarmulke-wearing audience to sweaty nightclubs. The Moshav Band is another prominent act in this scene. Like Soulfarm, it splits its time between Jewish events and nightclubs like the Bitter End, where it will be appearing on Saturday.

In the last few months, Soulfarm has taken part in a tribute to Bob Dylan at the B. B. King Blues Club in Times Square and a performance celebrating the Jewish holiday Lag b'Omer at a club in Greenwich Village.

Both groups are followers of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the Hasidic teacher who popularized traditional Hasidic melodies and Jewish mysticism starting with the 1960's folk revival. In fact, several members of both bands grew up with Rabbi Carlebach at Moshav Me'or Modi'im, a community he founded in Israel in the late 70's. Rabbi Carlebach's performances were folky affairs, filled with singalongs and storytelling. He was known for attracting a New Age crowd, many of whom were exploring Orthodox Judaism for the first time.

This new generation, however, is playing loud rock 'n' roll influenced more by the improvisatory style of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers than by Rabbi Carlebach's acoustic performances.

At its recent gig at Makor, Soulfarm jumped between swaggering Southern-style rock, a bluegrass take on Bob Dylan and an instrumental version of a well-known Carlebach melody that spun off into a spacey jam. The Moshav Band's latest album, "Return Again," is filled with well-worn liturgical lyrics and Carlebach compositions, but the arrangements take a page from West Coast folk-rock singers like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.

This kind of casual cross-cultural experimentation makes these bands an excellent fit on the neo-hippie jam band scene, where they're currently thriving, said Dean Budnick, editor in chief of Jambands.com, an online magazine. "To have Soulfarm juxtapose a Carlebach tune to the Dead's `I Know You Rider' — that's the kind of hallmark and attitude of the jam band movement, a willingness to cross traditional boundaries."

To outsiders, this mix of religious orthodoxy and loud rock 'n' roll might seem unusual. But a natural affinity exists between the mystical Hasidic sect and the jam band scene's counterculture ethos, which Rabbi Carlebach tapped into in the 60's.

"Carlebach revolutionized Jewish music and spirituality by reaching out to the Jewish hippies," said Stephen Arnoff Hazan, director of arts programming at Makor, a Jewish arts and community center in Manhattan. "And there is a connection between the two movements: they share a certain disdain for traditional appearance, they have unkempt beards and long hair, and more importantly, they both put an emphasis on the mystical and spiritual."

In fact, Soulfarm's audience has grown increasingly more Orthodox since the group first started performing in the early 90's. "At first we were kind of irked about it," said Noah Solomon, the group's lead singer. "But now I see it from a different perspective. It's great that these Orthodox kids can go to a club and hear music that speaks to them and that their parents also approve of."

Because of the connection with Rabbi Carlebach, these bands have an unofficial Jewish stamp of approval, so religious parents often freely allow their children to visit a decidedly secular nightclub. Meanwhile, for young Orthodox music fans, it's a gentle form of rebellion; not as bad as eating bacon, but a Soulfarm gig is a bit cooler than another youth group singalong.

For bands with dreams of larger mainstream acceptance, however, the Jewish following can be both a blessing and a curse. "I don't really desire to be a quote-unquote Jewish band," Mr. Solomon said. He paused and added, "On the other hand, it's gotten us a lot of work."