Jewish Jams on a Mission

For 25-year-old singer-songwriter Sammy Rosenbaum, music is life. From an early age, the South Florida native was exposed to everything from Latin Jazz to Classic Rock and learned to play guitar, drums and piano all before middle school.

After spending 13 summers at Camp Ramah Darom as a camper and later as a member of the music staff, Rosenbaum became entranced with Jewish music. Now the Atlanta local is set to unleash his debut solo album, “We Are The Ones” on the world.

Rosenbaum stopped by the AJT offices in Sandy Springs July 21 to talk about his blend of upbeat, positive jams, musical influences and his mission to spread Jewish inspired music in the Southeast.

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Did we mention he’s a real mensch?

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Sammy Rosenbaum’s debut solo album “We Are The Ones” is set to be released August 11

AJT: So, your debut album comes out August 11. How thrilled are you to finally release it?

Sammy Rosenbaum: This is my debut solo album, it’s been about a year in the works and it’s been such an exciting, incredible, stressful and fulfilling project. It’s amazing to finally see it come to fruition and I’m so excited to release it to the world.

AJT: How did you settle on the title, “We Are The Ones?”

SR: So, the title itself comes from an experience I had in a sweat lodge here in Atlanta. We were all sitting, sweating, detoxing in this really enclosed environment together. There were about 15 of us and the leader of the group started saying repeat after me, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” He kept saying that, and it just resonated with me. Who are we and why have we been waiting for us? What does that mean? To me I think that means it takes all of us, it takes you and me to change the world.

AJT: Let’s talk about the actual music, what inspired you while you were putting this album together?

SR: Trying to put yourself in a genre is tough sometimes. My musical influences span from Latin jazz to Ska to some good old Funk and I try to bring that in through my music. My mission is to spread this album, get the music out there and get people listening. The music is fun, it’s upbeat and catchy, as it should be. I like to explore and experiment with different styles of music and fuse them together. Hopefully everyone will enjoy it.

AJT: So, how did you make the transition to Jewish inspired music and how do you see Jewish and secular music converging?

SR: I spent pretty much every summer of my childhood at Camp Ramah Darom. While I was there, there was a music culture. People would sing in Hebrew and even sometimes in English, we would clean the bunk singing or finish the day out with tunes like Rad HaYom. I started seeing that the feeling I was getting from secular music was not so dissimilar from the feeling I would get from Jewish music. So to me music is a universal thing. The message can be put across in any sort of way.

AJT: Are you involved with anything here in Atlanta that combines Judaism and music?

SR: I’m involved with a couple of things actually, I work with a community called first Fridays at The Temple, it’s a young adult and millennials crowd of really awesome, intelligent people that come out. We’ve created this really cool experience of spiritual music to bring in Shabbat. I’m also involved with the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, this is my second year on the board with them. Our goal is to support Jewish music in Atlanta and the region. If there’s a way to help Jewish music grow in any shape or form, we are there to help.

AJT: So how can people get ahold of your album?

SR: The album is going to be on Spotify, ITunes, Amazon, CDBaby, Bandcamp, GooglePlay and it will also be on my website sammyrosenbaum.com. It comes out Tuesday, August 11 for the world to listen.