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RebbeSoul - News & Reviews

Change The World With A Sound review

Written by Cat Delaney, Lucid Forge
March 5, 2006

If the title of this album sounds idealistic, and it is, but it's quite serious about carrying through on its message, that the universality of music can change the world, or at the very least, how we view the world.

In this album I heard jazz, folk, rock, even rap. The music being played is in its most global form but with a linear message. A quick word of advice, this CD is not to be used as banal background music, so please give its due and listen like you mean it.

The music that influenced RebbeSoul (known to friends as Bruce Burger) are audible, and quickly apparent: Led Zeppelin is there; and Jimi Hendrix, too. But their influences are nuanced within the framework of a statement steeped in Judaic heritage, proud but not bold, spiritual but not drowning in religious tones. Most importantly: it rocks!

Years ago, Burger stumbled upon a traditional Hebrew prayer called "Avinu Malkenu" and was consumed by the "haunting beauty" of it that he produced an acoustic instrumental version, which was met with rave reviews. Since then it has appeared in different incarnations on every album he has recorded.

If you don't speak Hebrew though, it doesn't matter. This is about us, as in the big "us", not about individuals, biases, cultural clashes or any of that other clutter that junks up our daily lives. This album is about how we are more alike than different. Listen to the bond forming; this is human glue.

The range of instruments is staggering. Forget guitars and bass, here we get balalaika and mandolin. The musicianship that RebbeSoul demonstrates is outstanding, whether it's the almost honky-tonk, brassy Middle-Eastern percussions found in "Tzamah L'Cha Nafshi" or the flamenco-style guitar in "Qaafilah."

RebbeSoul also includes a new version of "Rock of Ages," a song often called one of the most powerful ever written. On this disc it's got an element of sound that can almost be described as East Coast, as well as a hint of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May." The seventh track, "Shmelke's Nigun," was an instrumental track, quick, jazzy, and with remembrances of a day I spent in Jerusalem in '72. It's polished, professional, and finished off with stellar production. My only criticism is that the poignant lyrics are not printed in the liner notes.

RebbeSoul dedicates this album to "peace in the Middle East and the rest of the world", and precedes that with a moving blank verse in justification of the CD's title: "While the Baal Shem was praying, / he climbed a ladder of prayer / reaching a place where he saw / a golden bird, whose lovely song / would bring tranquility to all who / heard it… He knew that if its song / were brought to the physical world, / it would surely bring peace and / change the world with a sound…" Amen, brother.

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