Jeff Klepper is an American Jewish Cantor, and one of the pioneers of the singer-songwriter style that took over American synagogue music during the second half of the 20th century. He started playing the guitar in 1962 and was a song-leader in NFTY summer camps. At those camps, he started to compose parts of the prayer by himself. Klepper was ordained as a cantor in 1980 in the HUC campus in New York.
He cooperated with a lot of Jewish musicians; His best-known cooperation was with Rabbie Dan Freelander. Together they founded the famous musical duo named “Kol B’Seder” (meaning “everything’s ok” but also “this voice is good enough” in Hebrew) and they still perform together to this day. One of his most known melodies is “Shalom Rav” which he composed in 1974 and is still a popular melody in synagogues around the globe. He also co-edited the song section in the Reform prayer book, Mishkan T’filaih, and co-founded with Debbie Friedman the annual Hava Nashira song-leader workshop.
The style that Klepper and other Jewish musicians of his time created was characterized by harmonies and rhythms of the folk-rock music of the late 1960s. Their idea was to use music to connect people and create musical communities in the same way folk-music communities were created.
Kol B'Seder duo with Zamir choir - Shalom Rav:
Biographies:
Jeff Klepper's website
About the connection between Jeff Klepper and Bob Dylan, see chapter 4, 'Bob Dylan', in:
Kaufman, David. Jewhooing the sixties American celebrity & Jewish identity : Sandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press, 2012.
Interviews:
Yesh Kochavim performance and interview with composers Jeff Klepper and Dan Freelander (video).
The interview discusses the composing process of the song “Yesh Kochavim” written by Hanna Sennesh.
An Interview with Jeff Klepper by Gordon Nary (text)
Klepper answers questions about biographical details and music influence.
Jeff Klepper - Interview with Mark Slobin (sound).
A part of Materials from the History of the American Cantorate project.
Sheet music of Jeff Klepper in the transcontinental music website.
*The picture is taken from a Youtube video.
