Klezmer and new Jewish music '98
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 1, 1998) -- The festival of Chanukah commemorates the physical and spiritual rededication of the Jewish people to their ancient roots during a time when they faced enormous pressures to assimilate themselves into a dominant, non-Jewish culture. Such a struggle has both particular and universal implications to which most anyone in the American melting pot can relate. While only a few of the following new albums of Jewish music address Chanukah or the issue of assimilation directly, all in some way speak to it, if only as expressions of identity separate from the prevailing culture.

The Klezmatics continue their leading role in new Jewish music with "The Well" (Xenophile), a collaboration with Israeli folksinger Chava Alberstein. The album is not so much a klezmer album as it is a celebration of new Yiddish song. As such, its spirited existence proves the lie that Yiddish is dead or that it can only be sentimentally fetishized as an object of nostalgia. In other words, Yiddish is alive and kicking and resonates in "The Well." Catch the 'Matics, as they are known to fans, tomorrow night live from Town Hall in New York City on public radio's "Prairie Home Companion."

The individual members of the Klezmatics keep busy with side projects, none perhaps moreso than trumpeter Frank London, who has a hand in at least two new albums this fall. Recorded with keyboardist Uri Caine and Klezmatics' soulful vocalist Lorin Sklamberg, London's "Nigunim" (Tzadik) is a musical and spiritual exploration of Hasidic prayer melodies on which tradition meets the downtown avant-garde, and beauty is the victor.

London really lets loose, however, with Hasidic New Wave, the Jewish avant-funk group he co-leads with saxophonist Greg Wall. "PsychoSemitic" (JAM/Knitting Factory) is the latest from that group, a blistering, psychedelic journey that leaps from ancient to modern with dizzying, jazzy acrobatics. Catch Hasidic New Wave at the Iron Horse in Northampton on Monday, Dec. 14, at 7.

Lorin Sklamberg also has a large hand in "Di grine katshke (The Green Duck)" (Living Traditions), a charming collection of two-dozen Yiddish animal songs for children. The album includes traditional folk songs as well as new ones by contemporary Yiddish poets. Sklamberg shares lead vocals with Paula Teitelbaum, and a handful of other well-known Yiddish musicians are on hand to lend distinction to an album that will be savored by children of any age.

Also geared for children is "Oy Vey!" (Backyard Partners) by the Young People's Klezmer Workshop. Featuring stories, jokes, songs and lots of well-executed klezmer tunes, the album boasts the sort of variety of approaches that keeps kids engaged and coming back for more. Along the way they'll learn quite a bit about klezmer and Yiddishkeit, so pay attention or else they will be smarter than you!

One of the best albums to come out of the contemporary klezmer revival was released earlier this year by Brave Old World. "Blood Oranges" (Pinorrekk) lives up to its subtitle, "New Jewish Music," in the manner in which it subtly tweaks traditional klezmer and turns it into an artful concert music incorporating other strains of modern music, including classical, jazz, Tin Pan Alley and world-beat, making for an intimate style of chamber-klez. Klezmer or not, "Blood Oranges" is one of the best albums of 1998, period.

Brave Old World has its roots in a 10-year-old album of the same name, re-released this past year as Joel Rubin's "Hungry Hearts: Classic Yiddish Clarinet Solos of the 1920s" (Wergo/Schott), the latest in the superb Jewish Music Series curated for that label by Rubin and Rita Ottens. With its particular focus on the music of legendary klezmer clarinetists Shloimke Beckerman, Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein, and with the care in which it reproduces and embellishes upon their repertoire, the album is a must-have for all serious klezmer fans.

Naftule Brandwein is also paid tribute to on "Klezmer, NY" (Tzadik) by David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! The bulk of the CD is devoted to an imaginary meeting between Brandwein and seminal jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet. For over 15 years the two were contemporaries in New York, and Krakauer -- one of the most expressive contemporary klezmer clarinetists, and one steeped in both Brandwein and Bechet -- imagines what a jam session between the two idiosyncratic musicians might have sounded like. The result is a suggestive mixture worthy of its address.

Naftule's Dream of Boston takes its name from Brandwein, and perhaps much of its iconoclasm, but its repertoire is entirely its own. On the aptly-titled "Smash, Clap!" (Tzadik), song titles such as "Free Klez" and "Speed Klez" only tell part of the story. This group has its klezmer chops down (they play more traditionally, if just as imaginatively, as Shirim, whose "Klezmer Nutcracker" was reviewed in this space last week), but it utilizes them as a freewheeling jam-band versed in New Orleans jazz, grunge-rock ("Yid in Seattle"), and other post-modern genres. Not for the faint of heart.

One might assume from its name that Yid Vicious likewise brings a punk esthetic to its klezmer, but one would be wrong. On "Klez, Kez, Goy Mit Fez" (Uvulittle), the Madison, Wisc.-based group approaches its repertoire, made up mostly of klezmer standards, pretty traditionally, and does a good job at it, too.

The Pioneer Valley's Klezamir's cheekily-titled "Back in the Shtetl Again" features a mix of Hasidic prayer melodies, Yiddish swing, folk and theater songs, some straight-ahead klezmer and, as the title indicates, some cleverly countrified tunes, such as "Noshville Bulgar."

King Django's Roots and Culture (Triple Crown) boasts a unique blend of klezmer and Hebrew melodies with the Jamaican dance rhythms of ska. Such undisputed klezmer all-stars as Andy Statman and the Klezmatics' Alicia Svigals are on hand to lend their chops and luster to this unusual effort.

Electronic composer and former Berkshire rabbi Bob Gluck released "Stories Heard and Retold" (EMF) earlier this year. A thought-provoking combination of musique concrete techniques, found-sounds, ambient recordings and Gluck's own compositions and electronic manipulations, the album functions as a kind of soundscape of Jewish life -- the aural equivalent, say, of a painting by Marc Chagall or Chaim Gross.

"A Guide for the Perplexed" (JAM/Knitting Factory) compiles tracks from many of the better- and lesser-known artists from the Knitting Factory's self-styled "Jewish Alternative Movement." In addition to the Klezmatics, Hasidic New Wave, Naftule's Dream and David Krakauer, this sampler includes pieces by Steve Dalachinsky, Gary Lucas, Andy Haas and Yosi Piamenta, "the Hasidic Jimi Hendrix." A great introduction to the thriving, downtown Jewish avant-garde, it even includes a swinging, bebop version of "Hava Nagila" by Uri Caine.

There actually are a few albums devoted to Chanukah music available this year. Six of 27 tracks on "To Life! Songs of Chanukah and Other Jewish Celebrations" (Rhino) are Chanukah standards. Most songs on the CD are new versions recorded tastefully by producer Jay Levy, with help from a crew of musicians including Brave Old World's Stuart Brotman. A few vintage classics show up here, including Theodore Bikel's "Chanukah, Oh Chanukah," the Weavers' "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and Nell Carter's "Rock of Ages." Overall, this is an excellent primer collecting standard Jewish prayer melodies, folk songs, holiday numbers and hymns.

Most American Jewish culture is based on Ashkenazic or Eastern European traditions, but Voice of the Turtle mines the rich vein of Sephardic or Judeo-Spanish tradition. "Circle of Fire: Songs of the Sephardim, Vol. V" (Titanic) captures a Chanukah-themed concert by the group that was originally broadcast on public radio. The group performs at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown tomorrow night at 7:30.

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[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Dec. 4, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]