Di Naye Kapelye/Traktorist - what a treat!
I had other plans this evening. I might happily have caught up with a review of a very, very nice klezmer flute CD that is having a CD release party in New York City even as I write this. But then the package from Hatikvah Music arrived....
The new CD is called "Traktorist." It features Bob Cohen, Yankl Falk, and the rest of Di Naye Kapelye. Michael Alpert shows up, as does Josh Dolgin. At one point they run out of musicians, so they dragoon a semi-anonymous crowd of extras called the Técső village band. The music runs a gamut from hutsul and other Carpathian wonders to Abe Schwartz, Hasidic nign, and those folky things that you collect when you've wandered around in them thar hills a few decades. In short, if you were hearing real bands worth hearing playing the mixed up, all fits together, dance your socks off usual repertoire, it might sound this good. I might have more refined things to say as I listen to this a few more times (It's been on steady repeat since I got home a few hours ago), but I already know that this is the gift. (Well, this and the other ten or so recordings on my Hanukkah List. I may be passionately in love with music, but I share.)
Available exclusively in the US from Hatikvah Music. Email Simon and tell him that Ari sent you! Available in Europe and elsewhere from Oriente.