{"id":13979,"date":"2014-05-09T02:50:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T08:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=13979"},"modified":"2014-05-09T02:50:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T08:50:58","slug":"jazz-fest-shabbat-fires-on-all-cylinders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/jazz-fest-shabbat-fires-on-all-cylinders\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Fest Shabbat fires on all cylinders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON, New Orleans Performing Arts Examiner<\/p>\n<p>While not every religious service becomes a religious experience, the annual <span class=\"inline_link omniture-click-processed\">Jazz<\/span> Fest Shabbat at Touro Synagogue comes close to firing on all cylinders. The combination of jazz, <span class=\"inline_link omniture-click-processed\">blues<\/span> and funk set against a traditional Friday night worship service sung in Hebrew and English makes for an unusual event and one that might not easily be appreciated by the non-<span class=\"inline_link omniture-click-processed\">Jewish<\/span> crowd.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13998\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13998\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13998 lazyload\" title=\"2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped.jpg 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/214;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13998\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13998\" title=\"2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014Jazz_Fest_Shabbat_cropped.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-13998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organist Joe Krown, right, looks out at drummer Russell Batiste, Jr. and guitarist Walter &quot;Wolfman&quot; Washington at the 2014 Jazz Fest Shabbat. (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But this is Jazz Fest Shabbat, a concept invented by the late Cantor Steven Dubov 23 years ago as a way of expressing love of music with love of worship during the opening weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years a succession of cantors have carried on in Dubov&#8217;s stead, leading the worship services with Rabbi David Goldstein, then Rabbi Andrew Busch and, since 2009, Rabbi Alexis Berk. Most recently, Cantor Billy Tiep was replaced by Cantor Joshua Kaufman and then by Cantor Jamie Marx. It is the cantor who coordinates the affair, which involves a full adult choir, musicians and special guest performers. Occasionally, the cantor will arrange a special rendition of a liturgical work for the benefit of the attendees.<\/p>\n<p>This year is was the Joe Krown Trio with organist Joe Krown playing a Hammond organ complete with a leslie. Krown&#8217;s other collaborators were singer and guitarist Walter &#8220;Wolfman&#8221; Washington and drummer Russell Batiste, Jr.<\/p>\n<p>While not as well known as some of the previous headliners like Kermit Ruffins, Irma Thomas, Marcia Ball, Dr. Michael White and Allen Toussaint, Krown brought his A-game with him, letting his adept keyboard work highlight and lead the vocals and guitar play emanating from Washington. Batiste&#8217;s peripatetic drumming kept the beat moving along all night. The three focused their energies into a sound that was loose, but ordered.<\/p>\n<p>The night began with a traditional marching band from Sophie Wright Charter School playing selections from near the pulpit.<\/p>\n<p>When things kicked off, they did so with the blasts of a shofar played by David Bernstein. The religious service started off with traditional liturgy accompanied to anything but traditional music, some arranged by Marx and others written by Kurt Weill, Debbie Friedman and Craig Taubman.<\/p>\n<p>Jews and gentiles alike were moving and swaying to the beat of &#8220;Adon Olam\/When the Saints Go Marching In&#8221; when the night officially ended.<\/p>\n<p>The Jazz Fest Shabbat has become so well attended in several years in the past that regular worshipers were denied entrance to their own synagogue on the Friday night event. Attendees have been urged in more recent years to become patrons, paying for reserved seats, private entertainment and a catered meal prior to the public performance.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Editor&#8217;s note: This article, along with photos can <a title=\"Examiner.com\" href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/article\/joe-krown-trio-thrills-2014-jazz-fest-shabbat-crowd\" target=\"_blank\">be found at Examiner.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Jazz%20Fest%20Shabbat%20fires%20on%20all%20cylinders\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8785,8790,8795,5281,8788,8786],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14000,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions\/14000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}