the KlezmerShack

It is impossible to keep up with all of the good music coming out. Here is a near-random sampling from the CD pile:

This week's stack includes two albums of Yiddish music that are as different from each other as can be. For this one I have to also note that I had a minor production role. It was worth it. Becky Kaplan and Pete Rushefsky have recorded "Rebecca Kaplan & Pete Rushefsky / On the paths: Yiddish songs with tsimbl". This is the best new-old music I've heard in ages.

In the meantime, one of our favorite Yiddish art song singers has a new show with her arranger/accompaniest, celebrating the work of Mordechai Gebirtig and even bringing to life some recently discovered poems of his. van Oort & Verheijen / Mayn Fayfele.

Over fifty years ago, comedian Mickey Katz discovered fusion comedy: the marriage of Yiddish and English into Yinglish, and klezmer with just about everything else into hilarity. This band channels Mickey, updates several pieces, and ups the ante with some of their own insanity in our time: Yiddishe Cup / Meshugeneh Mambo

Continuing a career in which he has recorded in a variety of music settings, Jewish and otherwise, from klezmer to avant garde, composer/saxaphonist Greg Wall now steps out with a remarkable debut on Tzadik records: Later Prophets

It's been a good week to pull out some of the many klezmer albums. One of the most astonishing is this debut album by a band that originated at Princeton. This is mamash klezmer: The Klez Dispensers / New Jersey Freylekhs

Also a debut album of sorts, but by musicians who have been playing klezmer—almost 20 years now in Hawaii. Before that the bandleader was in a band recorded by Mickey Hart called the "Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra." Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome: Kona's Traveling Jewish Wedding Band

Some bands stop at nothing. This band from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, pulls in influences from all over the world, then adds it to a simmering pot of ska and pop. Please read all about the Plaid-Tongued Devils / Belladonna

Finally, in an experiment that was probably inevitable, from Germany we have the first hardcore/klezmer fusion band: Klezcore / Hackenbeisser