Kol Nidre - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

Comedian Lewis Black frequently references the Kol Nidre in some of his shows and his first book, Nothing's Sacred, referring to it as the spookiest piece of music ever written, claiming that it may have been the piece to inspire all of Alfred Hitchcock's musical scores.

Kol Nidre plays a climactic role in The Jazz Singer (1927 film), where it is sung by notable Jewish entertainer Al Jolson, and by Jewish pop singer, Neil Diamond in The Jazz Singer (1980 film).

Musician and filmmaker Nicolas Jolliet uses the sitar, surbahir, tabla, oud, dumbek and other exotic instruments in his "Kol Nidre Goes East", which was recorded on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and evolves from traditional ragas into a seductive Reggae beat. It is housed in the Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University.

Read more about this topic:  Kol Nidre

Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:

    Like other secret lovers, many speak mockingly about popular culture to conceal their passion for it.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    The poet will prevail to be popular in spite of his faults, and in spite of his beauties too. He will hit the nail on the head, and we shall not know the shape of his hammer. He makes us free of his hearth and heart, which is greater than to offer one the freedom of a city.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I know that there are many persons to whom it seems derogatory to link a body of philosophic ideas to the social life and culture of their epoch. They seem to accept a dogma of immaculate conception of philosophical systems.
    John Dewey (1859–1952)