Yisroel Lamm: We Just Had to Collaborate

One year, Reb Eli invited Yigal Calek to come along with his choir. The London Pirchei boys joined the camp, and they were an amazing hit at the concerts. Yigal had already produced two records, but he came with a treasure trove of new material: His “Ashirah” and “Ko Amar” made their debut at Sdei Chemed concerts.

I had recently joined Neginah Orchestra. When I realized how good Yigal and his choir were, I decided that we just had to collaborate with them. I called our producer, Yitzchok Gross, in New York, and told him that we had to work something out. In that way, I was the shadchan of the London School of Jewish Song and Neginah. Soon, we got to work on our first collaboration, which is widely known as the Ashirah album, or the “London-New York” album.

I wrote the arrangements for Yigal’s songs and recorded the music with our orchestra in New York, and Yitzchok and I flew to London, bringing those tapes along. There, the choir sang in the studio as our music played. The music was on four tracks, and the choir was recorded on the other four, which was the way things were done back then. I can still recall the moment I knew that this would be big. It was when we were recording the vocals for “Chamol.” A boy was singing, and Yitzchok and I were blown away by his vocals. We looked at each other, and we both knew we were hearing something exceptional.

And in fact, the album was huge. It put the London School very firmly on to the map and led to concerts all over the Unites States.