Two sold out concerts
So, the 2nd KlezmerShack 10th Anniversary concert last Sunday was another packed house in which amazing music was played to everyone's delight. I could happily get used to thanking musicians for producing wonderful shows.
Rebecca Kaplan and Pete Rushefsky were outstanding. I have seen both of them perform apart, and I've heard the CD, but hearing them, watching them live together was extraordinary. Who would have thought that voice and tsimbl—or at least this voice and this tsimbl would fit so well together?
As for di bostoner klezmer, this is the first time I've seen them with new addition Christina Crowder. They were inspired. The music and musicianship were wonderful. Even better, almost all of the repertoire was unfamiliar—this was stuff learned from recent emigrants such as German Goldenshteyn, or picked up by Christina during her research in Romania, or newly written by Brian. Very traditional-sounding klezmer, but not a traditional show at all.
The next two 10th Anniversary co-sponsored concerts (neither sold out, quite yet, are:
- Fri, Apr 1: Charming Hostess, at Center for New Words, Cambridge, 8:30pm
- Sat, Sun, Apr 2-3: On My Grandmother's Knee, Featuring The National Spiritual Ensemble and A Besere Velt: Yiddish Community Chorus of the Workmen's Circle, with special guests Hankus Netsky and Adrienne Cooper at the Leventhal-Sidman JCC, Newton, 8pm/2pm
It is likely that at neither of these concerts, different from the first two, will "Ale Brider" be played as an encore.
Stay tuned for DJ SoCalled in June, and more events throughout the year. This year's goal to to make a new audience aware of the diversity of new and traditional Jewish music. We're off to a very gratifying start.