Ken Burgess was a ger tzedek, a very spiritual person whose music was profoundly infused with hope and with faith in Hashem

Any lyrics written by Ken Burgess a”h are the kind of poetry that sticks in your mind, so that even as the decades pass and Ken’s contributions to Jewish music have begun to fade from public memory, those who listened to his music can’t forget such lines as “He is our heartbeat for always, for we believe,” “Cross the bridge of holiness… say goodbye to emptiness,” “There will be no more lonely people… you only have to say the word and G-d is there to be your friend,” and “Together with our brothers, sisters, and friends, the children of Hashem until the very end, as the colors of the rainbow blend — together.”

One person who is keeping the memory alive is ELI MARCUS, who has just released an EP with six of Ken’s best-loved songs, titled KEN BURGESS: a tribute COLLECTION.

Ken, who passed away in 2021, was a ger tzedek, a very spiritual person whose music was profoundly infused with hope and with faith in Hashem. Described by friends as a “gentle guy who loved Hashem and loved Torah,” his Cockney-accented voice gave away his East London origins. Born in 1944, he’d been part of London’s vibrant music scene in the 1960s, hitting the top of the charts with songs that he wrote and produced for various bands. Yet he left a successful music career behind when he converted, married the Israeli singer and baalas teshuvah Nava Bruchim, and moved to Eretz Yisrael, which he publicly vowed never to leave. As he wrote in his first Jewish album, I’ll Never Walk Alone in the Desert, “There I stood at the holy wall, and I made that holy vow.”

In Eretz Yisrael, Ken’s talent was discovered by the music crowd in the Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan area. But then he was interviewed on Kol Chai radio, formed a close friendship with Mordechai Ben David, and went on to produce MBD’s The English Collection album, for which he also wrote the songs “This Time” and “No More Lonely People.”

Later, he also wrote the lyrics for MBD’s “We Are One,” and composed “I Need You” for Yeedle Werdyger and released on Yeedle IV.

Producer David Fadida became another close friend, and it was Ken who wrote the arrangements for Ohad’s first song “Se’u Marom Eineichem.” In addition to these collaborations, Ken continued to work on his own projects, and his albums include I’ll Never Walk Alone in the Desert (2000), Rebuild His Kingdom (2001), and an album titled simply Ken Burgess (2004). On the first of these, his song “Adon Olam” was recorded by a who’s who of industry talent (some of whom have since passed away): Amiran Dvir, Mendi Jerufi, Avi Barak, Yehudah Katz, Efraim Mendelson, Aryeh Broner, Kobi Sela, Adi Ran, Chanoch Vinderbaum, Menachem Toker, Dovid Fadida, Yuval Stupal, Rafi Biton, Yakov Zingboim, Avi Piamenta, Dedi Graucher, Yehuda Dym, Yeedle Werdyger, Udi Ullman and Ohad Moskowitz.

An artist to the core, Ken’s gifts were multifaceted; he was a painter as well as a singer, songwriter, lyricist, and producer. Musically, Burgess came from a highly professional world. The sound quality of his arrangements remains unparalleled, even today as technology has taken gigantic steps forward. Friends remember how he would arrive at the studio with no notes or music notations, and instruct each musician verbally about what he wanted to hear. He used a lot of “reverb” or echo in his songs. He knew how to build each section, bass, drums, strings, and piano, and still leave “air” in the arrangement, as space for the imagination. Artists from across the Israeli music scene would often come by to see and hear him work at the studio he built in Ramat Gan. Sadly, Ken endured significant health and financial struggles in his last years.

“When we approached Nava, his wife, she was very happy with the idea of a Ken Burgess collection and gave us her brachah,” says Eli Marcus. “She explained that Ken was a very spiritual person, and didn’t write his music for commercial impact, but preferred to write about Hashem and emunah. There is also something uniquely calming about Ken’s songs and lyrics. Nava mentioned that a listener once called Ken out of the blue to tell him that his music had calmed him down in a crisis and brought him back from the brink at the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Eli’s own first exposure to Ken Burgess came through MBD’s English Collection. He loved the song “This Time,” which he says he sang at dozens of weddings. “Then, Avrumi Berko introduced me to ‘Bridge of Holiness,’ and I found ‘I’ll Never Walk Alone in the Desert,’ and ‘Heart and Soul.’ I also discovered ‘Blessed in Heaven’s Eyes,’ which Ken wrote for Chazzan Tzudik Greenwald. These songs became my go-to in the car while driving home from events.”

The idea of a Burgess tribute collection solidified when Eli was chatting with Chaim Bokchin, guitarist and founder of the En3rgy band, at a wedding in Ateres Chynka. The two agreed to work on the project together, and Eli says that the feedback has been so strong that they are already thinking about a second volume.

“People are telling us that they’ve been hoping and dreaming for years that someone would dust off Ken Burgess’s music,” Eli says. “It’s our privilege to bring it back.”

Mic Drop

In with the New

“One thing all the recent collection albums have shown us is that Klal Yisrael likes their old songs,” says DONI GROSS, prolific New York-based producer of many of the newer nostalgia albums, and the man behind BENNY FRIEDMAN’s new BE GEBENTCHED project. “But it seems that they do like new material, too.”

Doni says that the first challenge for a new song is catching people’s attention in a hectic world and amid a packed music scene. The old songs, he explains, don’t require listeners to pay much attention. “When we put out Benny’s Sounds Like Chanukah and Sounds Like Purim albums, we were basically filling the audience’s need for music to play at their parties. Old songs are already familiar, so they are easier listening. But with new material, the job is to pull people in, which is always harder. This album aims to do that. We hope it worked.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1082)