AGNEW — “Let My People Go” is just one of the traditional songs Saul Kaye imbues with a blues sensibility.
Kaye, an internationally known singer, is on the North Olympic Peninsula today for just one concert: at 2 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 73 Howe Road.
The Congregation Olympic B’nai Shalom, a local Jewish community, is hosting Kaye’s performance.
Admission is $8, and doors will open at 1:40 p.m.
Kaye, a believer in music’s power to heal, has said he tries to “do a little tikun olam — Hebrew for ‘repairing the world.’”
Born in South Africa and raised in New Haven, Conn., Brooklyn, N.Y., and central California, Kaye attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston as well as the University of California at Berkeley.
‘The Blues Train’
The singer has been fascinated by blues rhythms ever since he was a 10-year-old boy glued to a radio show called “The Blues Train.”
That train, he recalled, would depart at 8 p.m. every Monday night and keeping rolling until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
So young Kaye would play his guitar all night along with Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King.
Kaye began forming bands as a teenager but said it’s only been in the past few years that he’s found his Jewish voice.
Jews and black Americans share a spiritual kinship, he believes, in their struggle for freedom from discrimination.
Kaye’s CDs include “Doctor’s Orders,” “Taste of Paradise” and “Jewish Blues: Kings Prophets Brothers.”
To learn more about the artist and hear some of his music, visit www.SaulKaye.com.
To connect with the Congregation Olympic B’nai Shalom, phone 360-452-2471, email congregationOBS@olypen.com or write to P.O. Box 553, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
