Album Notes

I offer in this CD a small sampler of liturgical settings for erev Shabbat, Sabbath eve. I've chosen texts and settings for private devotion and for home and synagogue use that represent the many moods of Shabbat: simplicity and stateliness, interiority and togetherness, eros and mystery, thanksgiving and stillness. Selections are primarily from the Sephardic repertoire (both the eastern and western migrations). Also included are liturgical settings from the world of Rebbe Nachman's Hasidim, from the modern cantorial repertoire and from my own improvisation on Mizrachi modalities. The eastern Sephardi selections are from the repertoire of the lands of my maternal ancestry: Istanbul and Salonika. I honor with this recording the gift of the Sabbath, saviour of souls in an unhinged world. May we all come to delight in her joys and to drink at the well of her salvific waters.