Onboard klezmer music for delayed passengers

Published on May 18, 2012

Air Canada passengers stuck aboard a delayed flight on Wednesday were treated to an impromptu onboard klezmer concert.

Klezmer Music’s Revival Still Going —  25 Years On

By Tom Teicholz
Published on December 7, 2011

A Hope-filled Look at Poland’s Jewish Renaissance

Published on June 8, 2010

An annual Jewish film festival; a week of performances by world-class klezmer acts; the construction of a $26 million Jewish museum in the country’s capital; “Tot Shabbat”: This is the stuff of Jewish communal life in many American cities.

MUSIC: A klezmer wedding in a European shetl circa 1910

Published on January 3, 2009

A DJ and a music professor, using old recordings and new, recreate the typical sequence of tunes a klezmer band would play at every stage of a traditional wedding.

MUSIC VIDEO: Margot Leverett and Klezmer Mountain Boys

By The Web Guy
Published on November 24, 2008

'2nd Ave. Breakdown' by Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys.

MUSIC: ‘That Yemenite Kid’  Diwon makes a mix tape—in Yiddish

Published on October 7, 2008

Courtesy of Diwon, the artist formerly known as DJ Handler and otherwise known as the executive director of Modular Moods and Shemspeed.com, comes this fresh mix of pop, hip-hop, electronica and . . . Yiddish?

Calendar Girls Picks and Clicks for September 13-18: When Ladino met klezmer, Torah Slam, a lawyerly lecture

By Dikla Kadosh and Danielle Berrin
Published on September 12, 2008

JDub throws off the label and opts for change

By George Robinson
Published on July 23, 2008

JDub was never supposed to be just a record label, and as JDub records celebrates its fifth anniversary with a free concert on July 27 downtown at California Plaza, it is more clear than ever that the organization's founders have greater ambitions than merely putting out good Jewish CDs

MUSIC VIDEO: Beyond the Pale in ‘The Jamaican-Jewish Wedding’

Published on May 25, 2008

He's a nice Jewish boy, she's a nice Jamaican girl, but what will happen when klezmer meets reggae at the wedding?

Theater: ‘Immigrant’ sings the story of the ‘Only Jew in Town’

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 17, 2008

In 1909, an impoverished Jewish immigrant arrived in Hamilton, Texas, hawking 1-cent bananas from his pushcart.

Haskell Harelik had fled Russia to escape pogroms, docking not in Ellis Island but in Galveston, Texas, via a plan to route Eastern European Jews to the West. He spoke no English and was the first Jew the Hamilton residents had ever seen. But he found some friendly faces, and he stayed in that Baptist town, founding a dry goods store and raising three sons there.

Jewgrass adds a new song to the South

By David Kaufmann
Published on March 20, 2008

First there was bluegrass, then there was newgrass and now, perhaps inevitably, there is Jewgrass.

There’s no shame in the Shondes’ melodious yelling

By Rachel Ament
Published on February 28, 2008

It is no easy feat to yell melodiously, but the Jewish rock quartet, The Shondes, has achieved just that. The screams on their new album, "The Red Sea," sound ancient and somewhat cantorial, piping in from the Old Testament to talk to us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, misogyny, Bible tales and intimacy.

Eight Jewish albums hit high notes in ‘07

By George Robinson
Published on December 20, 2007

Jewish music of 2007 reviewed.

For listening, for giving—klezmer and its cousins

By George Robinson
Published on November 29, 2007

CD reviews, Metropolitan Klezmer, "Traveling Show", The Polina Shepherd Vocal Experience (featuring Quartet Ashkenazim), "Baym Taykh", Blue Fringe, "The Whole World Lit Up" , Gail Javitt, "Like a Braided Candle, Songs for Havdalah", Klezamir, "Warm Your Hands", Romashka, "Romashka", Chana Rothman, "We Can Rise", Slavic Soul Party, "Teknochek Collision".

Master of musical fusion blends klezmer with salsa

By Roberto Loiederman
Published on November 22, 2007

Practitioners of world music are constantly exploring ways to fuse disparate musical strains in new and interesting ways. Given all that, it should not be a surprise that there is a new group that combines klezmer with salsa. Odessa/Havana -- "The Explosive Jewish/Cuban Musical Mash-Up" -- a musical project that brings together these two musical traditions in a jazz context will perform at the Skirball Cultural Center at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 29.

A Musical Odyssey, Comic Con at the Shrine, Two’s Company, Man Ray

By Dikla Kadosh
Published on November 1, 2007

Arts and entertainment briefs.

Music: A Yiddish celebration with Buenos Aires style

By Roberto Loiederman
Published on October 18, 2007

In the 1950s, a few years after Yiddish culture in Europe had been decimated, there was a bustling metropolis in the Western Hemisphere that still had a thriving Yiddish culture. This city had a number of schools in which classes were taught in Yiddish; there was an active theatrical scene, a couple of daily newspapers, books, literary magazines, songs and musicals -- all in Yiddish. There were Yiddish comedians, as well as cafes where Yiddish-speakers gathered to chat and drink tea with a bissel (little) lemon. And there were vacation resorts, a few hours' drive from the city, where Yiddish was regularly heard. New York? Montreal? Actually, Buenos Aires.

MUSIC VIDEO: Mickey Katz—‘The Ballad of Duvid Crockett’

By The Web Guy
Published on August 16, 2007

Everyone knows the legend of American pioneer 'Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.' Far fewer know the exploits of 'Duvid Crockett, King of Delancey Street.' You shouldn't worry, Duvid's life and times were immortalized in this Yinglish song by the great Mickey Katz.

MUSIC VIDEO: ‘Yankee Doodle’ played with a Yiddish accent

Published on June 29, 2007

Veretski Pass (http://veretskipass.com) play Yankee Doodle Dandy at one of their workshops -- first straight, then in a Jewish hosidl style, then in a Ukranian kolomeyke style.

MUSIC VIDEO: Klezmer—Denmark’s Channe Nussbaum ‘Where Can I Go?’

Published on April 26, 2007

Denmark's red hot Jewish momma Channe Nussbaum and Klezmofobia: 'Vi ahin zol ikh geyn? Where can I go?'

Good albums drown out naysayers’ dire predictions

By George Robinson
Published on December 28, 2006

All in all, 2006 was a very good year for Jewish music.

MUSIC VIDEO: North Strand Klezmer Band

Published on September 21, 2006

Once you've seen and heard 'Fiddler on the Roof' in Japanese, what's left but klezmer from Ireland?

PASSOVER: Songs for a Swinging Seder

By George Robinson
Published on April 6, 2006

Of all the Jewish holidays, none is so firmly rooted in the home and so joyously celebrated with song as Passover. This simple fact would lead you to expect an avalanche of Passover records, but this year the avalanche is more like a mild rain of pebbles, at least in the quantity department.

Band Gives Klezmer Extreme Makeover

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on March 30, 2006

Joellen Lapidus points out that klezmer, which has famously experienced a revival since the late 1970s, has never been performed exclusively at Jewish functions, and the bands have often included non-Jewish musicians. Likewise, Extreme Klezmer Makeover is not comprised solely of Jews.

7 Days in The Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on February 9, 2006

7 Days in the Arts

Two Shows Set the Stage for Chanukah

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on December 15, 2005

Two winters ago, in one of its traditional Victorian teas, A Noise Within (ANW), the classical repertory theater company in Glendale, staged a series of holiday readings from actors as varied as Ed Asner and Fred Savage.

7 Days in The Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on May 19, 2005

7 Days in the Arts

It’s Not Your Zayde’s Klezmer Anymore

By Gaby Friedman
Published on May 19, 2005

"There was level of musical sophistication that goes with the kind of music you can play on the mandolin, and my intention was to start a new acoustic-fusion thing, with an emphasis on string and wind instruments," said Eric Stein, who went on to form Beyond the Pale, a klezmer-fusion band.

7 Days in the Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on December 23, 2004

7 Days in the Arts

Singing Klezmer Isn’t Hard to Do

By David Finnigan
Published on December 2, 2004

Neil Sedaka has had a noteworthy place in American music for four decades; he became a comfortable perennial who did not let himself turn into a tortured titan like Sinatra or a forgettable one-hit wonder like The Imperials, Haircut 100 or Luscious Jackson.

7 Days In Arts

Published on September 2, 2004

7 Days in the Arts

Mikveh Plunges Into Uncharted Waters

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on June 17, 2004

Since the klezmer revival exploded a quarter century ago, the Ashkenazi musical tradition has experienced more variations than deli sandwiches. There has been klezmer-infused jazz, hip-hop, bluegrass and most any other permutation one can imagine. But as klezmer has morphed from shtetl to nightclub fare, one of the most unusual things it has added is women, said musician-scholar Yale Strom.

"Traditionally, the purveyors of Yiddish songs and culture were women, but that didn't occur outside the home," said Strom, author of "The Book of Klezmer" (Chicago Review Press, 2002). "Women did not play in klezmer bands because of the Orthodox prohibition against hearing a woman's voice and because nice Jewish girls stayed home."

Clarinetist Finds His Klezmer Voice

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on March 11, 2004

"I came to klezmer quite by accident," said virtuoso clarinetist David Krakauer.

He was a noted classical musician around 1987 when a chance encounter on a Manhattan bus changed the direction of his career.

7 Days In Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on October 2, 2003

7 Days in the Arts

Skirball Celebrates Europe’s Best

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on August 7, 2003

A single album, inherited from his late father, led disc jockey Max Reinhardt to rediscover his Jewish musical roots. The recording was "Mish Mosh," by comedian and klezmer clarinetist Mickey Katz: "He does a version of Dean Martin's 'That's Amore' as 'That's Morris,' which my father, Morris, was forever playing for his Jewish friends," Reinhardt, 52, recalled from London.

Beyond ‘Avinu Malkeinu’

By Ellen Jaffe-Gill
Published on April 10, 2003

To most people, "Jewish music" is something familiar: the
"Avinu Malkeinu" they hear every Rosh Hashana, a Yiddish lullaby or the theme
from "Schindler's List."

Songs of Simcha

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal
Published on May 2, 2002

As a member of the South Coast Simcha Band, 44-year-old Chattler brings those traditional Yiddish melodies to the Southland.

Klezmer: Backward and Forward

By Paul Wieder
Published on April 18, 2002

Three new klezmer recordings offer a listen into the genre's past, present and possible future.

Klezmer was originally the soundtrack to the Jewish wedding, but no band has attempted to recreate such an event until recently. Working with people who were in Eastern Europe at the time klezmer was developed, the band Budowitz -- named for the maker of their accordionist's instrument -- crafted "Wedding Without a Bride" (Buda Musique, $18.98).

Strike Up the Klezmer

By Beverly Gray
Published on November 29, 2001

This is not your grandmother's halftime show. Unless of course, Grandma grew up in a kibbutz or shtetl with a 145-piece marching band in residence.

Gershwin at CSUN

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on November 16, 2000

"Gershwin the Klezmer" aims to show their continuing contribution to the musical zeitgeist: "It's really about the Jewish soul of American music," Vass says.

Catching Up With Klezmer

By George Robinson
Published on September 7, 2000

If ever there was any doubt that Jewish music is a universal language, these records put it to rest.

Music From Home

Published on May 11, 2000

On a warm spring evening this month, the boisterous strains of Eastern European music wafted out the window of a large, Spanish-style home in Santa Monica.