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