Soul Music for a Good Cause

Tonight, Thursday, June 19th, at 8PM, the Creative Soul presents the continuation of their weekly artistic nights. This time, the turn is for the Brooklyn Jazz Warriors.

An energetic and genre bending group, led by Rabbi Yisroel Gootblatt, teamed up two years ago with the legendary New Orleans’ guitarist/Bob Dylan collaborator Brian Stoltz and top local musicians to record their first album, In Service of the King. They aim to expose the world to a new combination of deep rooted and complementary styles of music like soul, jazz, funk and rock-and-roll with Rabbi Gootblatt’s spiritual lyrics which, according to Off beat (New Orleans’ music magazine) emphasize the “light, the exhilaration, the transforming power of faith” …and love, we must add.

Now onto their second album, Kedeira (from Talmud Berachos 56B “one who sees a Kadeira [kettle] in a dream can look forward to peace”), the Brooklyn Jazz Warriors are looking to bring their soulful and mystical sounds to the heart of their spiritual and inspirational home, Crown Heights, at the Mayan Center (386 Kingston Ave.) at 8 PM.

The event will also be promoting the Digital Album PENIMI, a music compilation to benefit theYeshiva Temimei Darech located in Tzfat, Israel, to which the Brooklyn Jazz Warriors, together with Levi Robin, Noah Lubin and many other talented Jewish artists donated their songs to help generate funding for the Yeshiva for students who cannot afford tuition.

The Yeshiva Temimei Darchei, which started 5 years ago, provides a place for people with creative souls to learn Torah, find answers and enjoy the spiritual energy of the mystical city of Tzfat. Notable alumni include popular jewish musicians Ari Lesser and Levi Robin. The Yeshiva director/advanced chassidus teacher, Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, plays in the Kabbalah Dream Orchestra (also featured on the disc), a band that features the Yeshiva’s musical students during the annual Klezmer Festival in Tzfat and motzei Shabbos concerts at Ascent (a Chabad hostel for travelers).

A “PENIMI” according to Chabad chassidus is a person who works on himself, strives to have an honest understanding of his neshama, and with humility shares the best parts of himself with the world…a soul attribute well represented by the artists featured in the current album and in future artistic projects of the Yeshiva.