the KlezmerShack

I have been torn between some amazing new CDs that have appeared in the last couple of months, and just a few more CDs that I haven't found time to review while I've been running around like a chicken without a head working on recoding the KlezmerShack (still partially done). Here are the latest CDs that were in the changer when I had time to sit, listen, and actually write. Excellent choices, all, if I may say so:

I don't even know what to say about this. The album cover says it all, but you'll have to read the review to know how I heard it. Henry Sapoznik, with Austin's musical ambassador, Mark Rubin, and the absolutely stunning fiddle of Cookie Segelstein, teamed up to bring us the one and only Youngers of Zion / Protocols. Listen or else.

Can you cover all of Yiddish music, with sufficient coherence, in just one CD? If anyone could do it, Lorin Sklamberg and Frank London are the two to do it. Check out this latest excuse to celebrate on Celebrate Yiddish from Craig Taubman and the gang.

In this third CD from Berlin's Paul Brody, there is no cessation of the creative deconstruction of Jewish music. The results are far more tuneful than one would expect, and I am always grateful that Brody seems to pull together music that seems both edgy and listenable at the same time. Paul Brody's Sadawi / Beyond Babylon.

Is there an instrument for which German musician Willy Schwarz hasn't found an excuse to tie to Jewish music? I mean, when you are prepared to sing a lovely anti-British pub song like "Moses" as your Irish representation, clearly you intend to go for musical breadth. The ear is intriguingly rewarded. Purists we're not. Willy Schwarz / Jewish music from around the world

I reviewed this album a few weeks ago and can find no record that I have mentioned it anywhere. That would be a shame, because it's about time that I got a review of something that Belgian vocalist Seewald has done, and this is an excellent place to start: Zahava Seewald & Psamim / Koved: A Tribute to Martin Weinberg