Isaac Bitton - Music Career After Les Variations: Crossover Into Modern Jewish Music

Music Career After Les Variations: Crossover Into Modern Jewish Music

In 1977, the Baal Shem Tov Band (BSTB) was formed at the Lubavitch Rabbinical College of America, in Morristown, New Jersey, as part of an outreach program to college students. The regular members included Menachem Schmidt (snare drum), Tzvi Freeman (acoustic guitar), Moshe Morgenstern (cello), and business and equipment manager Shlomo Sawilowsky. They were occasionally complemented by a violinist and a flutist who attended the College. Subsequently, Bitton, who had moved to the nearby Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, joined and completed the group.

With the addition of Bitton, Schmidt was able to move to lead guitar, Freeman to rhythm guitar, and Morgenstern to bass guitar. The combination of Schmidt's creative genius and powerful rock licks with Bitton's Sephardi/Moroccan rhythm and lead vocals produced an electric rock and roll sound. They played traditional Chabad nigunim (songs and melodies) to this beat at Chabad Houses on college campuses and other venues, primarily on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. One of the highlights of each performance was Bitton's drum solo. A four-song demo was cut in a local studio, but the BSTB disbanded in 1978 as the rabbinical students began to graduate.

The experience with the BSTB provided a transition for Bitton. Subsequently, he was the founding member of the Jewish music group "Raaya Mehemna" ("Faithful Servant" – a reference to a Kabbalistic work; the group was later renamed "Raava Mehemna"), which was formed in the early 1980s. Bitton was perhaps the first religious Jew to infuse music on religious Jewish themes with "non-Jewish" styles such as rock and soul. He helped establish the idea of Jewish rock with his heavy hitting style and brought real rock and roll showmanship to the Jewish stage. He released his first record of this genre in 1980 and the second in 1984.

Currently, Bitton makes new music, and performs at concerts occasionally. He performed at Yeshiva University on 6 May 2007 at a Lag B'Omer celebration concert. The opening group played with little response. Once Bitton began his set on the drums to the tune of "Im Ein Ani Li Mi Li" the crowd erupted.

Bitton is widely known for his energetic drumming style, soulful powerful voice, and for fusing traditional Moroccan tunes and scales with R&B, Blues, and Soul. He has served as leader and Cantor for a Sefardi synagogue in Crown Heights since the early 1980s, where his musical signature is evident in his cantorial renditions.