Matisyahus Festival of Light Hanukah celebration continued last night at New Yorks Webster Hall. U-Melt served as the evenings guest opener and, throughout the night, percussionist Danny Sadownick and backup vocalist Jeff Taylor enhanced the reggae-singers already stacked band. In addition, during Matisyahu’s set

Israeli multi-instrumentalist Shalom Mor sat in for both oud and other stringed instruments on Smash Lies’ and ‘Two Child, One Drop (the two musicians first connected when Matisyahu made a guest appearance with the Idan Raichel Project at New Yorks Irving Plaza a while back). Adding to
evening’s festivities, Matisyahu also invited out a handful of students from New Rochelle, NYs Albert Leonard Middle School to sing backup on Nature and hung a huge disco ball-shaped Hanukkah dradle from the ceiling throughout the second half of his set (the singers mother, who was in attendance, is a social worker at Albert Leonard).
Shalom Mor—-who traveled to America speicically for this series of shows—-also sat in with Matisyahu at Webster Hall on Tuesday when Guster offshoot the LeeVees supplied opening duties. In addition, Yossi ‘The Hasidic Hendrix’ Piamenta played guitar on both Close My Eyes and the debut of Motivate. Piamenta recently recorded the larter tune for Matisyahus forthcoming album Light. Other Tuesday guests included vocalist Nosson Zand and Cyro Baptiste collaborators Tim Keiper and Brian Marsella, the latter of whom played keyboards on a stretch of songs that included ‘Chop ‘Em Down, ‘Close My Eyes, ‘Smash Lies, ‘Struggla, and ‘Motivate.’ The Festival of Light will continue at Webster Hall on Christmas.