the KlezmerShack

JMI School of Jewish Liturgical Music
Cantorial Summer School
SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Sunday 20 - Thursday 24 June 2004 10.00am - 5.30pm
International Faculty of Cantors from USA, Canada and Israel

Course Director: Stephen Glass; Course leader: Cantor Arie L Subar (Montreal)
Guest lecturers: Cantor Naftali Herstik (Jerusalem), Cantor Alberto Mizrahi (Chicago)

For the first time in London a Summer School devoted to the traditional modes and melodies of the synagogue - for Sabbaths, Pilgrim Festivals, High Holydays, and Jewish weddings in the Ashkenazi (Eastern and Western European) tradition - for people of all backgrounds from very beginners to even the most experienced service leaders.

Come and learn/brush up/refine/improve/develop/broaden/increase your skills and learn some new music that is guaranteed to enhance the services in your synagogue. There will be opportunities for problem solving. The focus will be on repertoire and technique as well as interpretation of the text and congregational participation. It takes place at London University, in the heart of Bloomsbury.

This course is a 'must attend' for anybody leading services on the High Holydays or who is occasionally called upon to lead Sabbath or Holiday Services. It is also for those new to the genre. (Fluency in Hebrew, knowledge of the liturgy and written musical notation will be an advantage)

FeesBr /> Full rate: £165, student rate: £110
Fees will include all tuition and workshops as well as tea and coffee and kosher snack lunch.
Sunday only: £50, student rate: £30
Scholarships: Some scholarships covering all or part of the course fees are available. These are normally for full-time students under 30, but other categories may be considered.
Accommodation: Not included but we can recommend hotels and hostels near to SOAS.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"As you read in our Pesakh mailing, we are also producing a of a Best of KlezKamp 2-CD anthology which will be available by the beginning of KlezKamp this year. A crack group of KlezKampers have listened to all existing tapes of KlezKamp performances to find the treasures that will appear in the collection. It?s going to be great. We need your financial support to make this CD project happen, of course, so if you have not already sent in your response card to the mailing, please do so now. If you donate $100 or more above membership dues, you will receive an advanced copy of the anthology and your gift will be acknowledged in the accompanying booklet. That you participate is more important than the amount of your gift. Please help support this great project.

"We are so proud of the community that has been created through KlezKamp and Living Traditions. You are us. We want and need your input, suggestions and feedback. Please feel contact me anytime at Sabina@livingtraditions.org, call me in the Living Traditions office (212) 532-8202, or write Sabina Brukner, Living Traditions, 45 East 33rd Street, Suite B-2A, New York, NY 10016. I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Elliott Simon notes that there are two new reviews of Jewish Music interest on the "All About Jazz" site:

Two reviews that appeared in the April AAJ-NY have been posted to the main website; my CD/Concert Review of Krakauer and Caine at Carnegie Hall, a night that rocked Carnegie Hall to its fouindations and a wonderful tango nuevo CD by the original bassist on the first KM album.....Pablo Aslan...best to all...Elliott

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is my week to catch up on some distinctly non-Klezmer music of interest to KlezmerShack readers. In particular, I realized that I had, on hand, three CDs representing two fiddlers for the interesting New York modern Jewish music band, "Golem". It was too much to resist. None of these recordings resemble anything I have heard about Golem. All three are treasures. Enjoy.

Violinist Jenny Sheinman released her first album on Tzadik's "Radical Jewish Music" series back in 2002. Called "The Rabbi's Lover" it explores an interesting and pleasing fusion between Jewish sources and jazz. Now, two years later, she has composed something entirely new for Tzadik's "Oracle" series, "Shalagaster". In it, she explores textures, sound, and the fusion between her very lyrical violin playing and some occasionally minimalist, always driven experimental jazz. Delightful.

I met Alicia Jo Rabins at an Alicia Svigals concert here in Boston. A student of Svigals, she asked if I would be interested in hearing some non-klezmer music she had recently recorded. One never knows, so of course I said, 'yes', and was promptly rewarded with the best southern and old-timey album I have heard in years. The album is mostly instrumental, but when she sings, Rabins is as lovely in voice as she is when playing the fiddle. This is just a great, great album. Rabins has recently joined Golem, replacing the departing Jenny Scheinman. It will be very interesting to hear the result. In the meantime, don't be shy about purchasing extra copies of "Sugar Shack" and passing them around to people you love.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Come Celebrate the Rebirth of Klezmer Music in the Former Soviet
Union at the Fifth Annual KlezFest, Ukraine!

August 15-20, 2004
Kiev, Ukraine

klezmer.com.ua/events/info5.php

Posted by Ari Davidow at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

150 activists, cultural experts, scholars and philanthropists gather in Prague from 24-27 April to discuss the role of Jewish museums, archives and historic sites in a changing Europe

Conference programme on-line at www.mittelpunkt.biz/jewishheritageconference

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: MIRIAM BENCHETRIT ON +44 (0)7985 719407 OR ANTONY LERMAN ON +44 (0)7968 162579.

Interest in Europe's Jewish heritage has grown remarkably in the last decade. But what place does it occupy in today's Europe? And what role can cultural heritage sites and activities play in shaping modern Jewish communities? These and other questions will be discussed by 150 activists, scholars, philanthropists and heritage experts who will gather for three days in Prague to consider the state of Jewish heritage in Europe.

The thirty speakers include prominent writers and historians, as well as distinguished museum directors and curators, Jewish community activists, historic preservation experts, and representatives of Jewish philanthropies. Conference participants will be attending from twenty-five countries in Europe, and from Israel and the United States.

The Hungarian Holocaust survivor, political dissident and writer György Konrad will open the conference on 25 April with an address at the session on Jewish heritage in the context of European heritage. His speech is entitled 'The Modernization of the Jews'.

Conference organizers maintain that despite the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe in the past few years, the overall climate for the acceptance and appreciation of Jewish culture has never been better. The number of and attendance at cultural events continues to increase, and the number of historic Jewish sites, including synagogues and cemeteries now being restored is greater than at any time since the Holocaust.

New museums have been founded and older ones have been transformed. A great many historic sites have been surveyed and documented, and some have been conserved. Programs such as the Jewish Heritage Grant Program of the New York-based World Monuments Fund have helped fund over fifty restoration projects. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has made the return of Jewish communal properties and in their restoration for contemporary Jewish use a priority in the Former Soviet Union.

Nonetheless, funding remains sporadic and disconnected, and overall coordination and cooperation between the many current efforts still needs to be improved.

The focus of the conference will be on setting priorities, encouraging good practice, developing audiences and facilitating co-operation and co-ordination. It will shed new light on the role of the heritage sector in enhancing Jewish life and in representing Jews and Judaism in European societies. It aims to chart a course for continued and improved efforts to protect and develop these resources and will be the first such conference to unite concerns about Jewish museums, archives, and historic sites.

Samuel Gruber, Director of the Jewish Heritage Research Center in Syracuse, New York, and one of the conference organizers, says that 'while some sessions will address the extraordinary demands increased security is putting on many institutions, a central theme of the conference, that Jewish Heritage is an important part of European heritage, is considered the best weapon to ensure the long-term appreciation and understanding of Jews and Jewish culture' in Europe.

Antony Lerman, Chief Executive of Hanadiv Charitable Foundation in London, one of the conference sponsors, says: 'Above all, the conference will provide a unique opportunity to develop policies and strategies to protect and promote Jewish material culture in Europe. Beyond that it will be a rare opportunity for a lot of people doing similar work to meet each other, compare notes, and develop partnerships for the future.'

The conference is sponsored by the World Monuments Fund; a number of philanthropic foundations including Hanadiv Charitable Foundation, the Cahnman Foundation, the Rich Foundation, the Charles and Andrea Bronfman Foundation, the Gilbert Foundation and the Haskel Foundation; and the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee.

Conference programme on-line at www.mittelpunkt.biz/jewishheritageconference

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: MIRIAM BENCHETRIT ON +44 (0)7985 719407 OR ANTONY LERMAN ON +44 (0)7968 162579.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Differences can divide or can unite. In the realm of music, unity is achievable through our differences. Genesis at the Crossroads, a Chicago-based non-profit organization promotes and organizes events featuring Jewish, Arab and Persian artists. Genesis represents a variety of disciplines including performance, visual, literary and culinary arts....

Read more at Genesis at the Crossroads: Trio Mizan and Maxwell Street Klezmer Band Review

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Christian Dawid has posted pictures from the KlezmerWelten festival in Germany:

www.klezmerwelten.de/blickstart.htm

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Celebrating Yiddish Culture & Klezmer Music. A week-long celebration of Klezmer Music, Yiddish Language, Dance, Theatre and Folk Arts. Presented in Association with the Jewish Music Festival.

Place: San Francisco, California at the Jewish Community
High School of the Bay, 1835 Ellis St.
Dates: June 20 - 25, 2004
Times: 9:00 am -6:00 pm & Evening Programs

For more information: visit www.klezCalifornia.org, e-mail info@klezcalifornia.org, call (415) 789-7679. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 36 Lagunitas, CA 94938.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yup. That's the Google logo on the left-side of the KlezmerShack.

For the last few years, the KlezmerShack has been indexed by a rather fine free service called AtomZ. Unfortunately, I exceeded the maximum free pages that AtomZ indexes a couple of years ago. I've been marking a lot of pages "do not index" so that I could direct some content to be findable. In the meantime, Google seems to be doing a better job of spidering just about everything. So, I'm going to give it a try.

But that's not all! If all goes well, you'll start seeing ads on some of the weblog pages starting later this week. Much to my surprise, it turns out that there is an inventory of people advertising who are interested in Jewish Music and Klezmer. I looked over sample ads and they seemed to be for things that could legitimately be of interest to KlezmerShack readers (such as klezmer bands).

I have mixed feelings about accepting ads. I don't have any qualms about supporting the KlezmerShack via targeted advertising, per se, but several people have asked to advertise on the KlezmerShack over the years and I have turned them down lest I be felt to favor one advertiser over someone who isn't an advertiser. In this case, I have no control over who advertises. The aggregator is Google, who seem to be relatively neutral (sometimes, for those who follow Google search results on the search term "Jew", perhaps foolishly so). As is the case with using their search engine, I'll see how it goes. Let me know what you think.

What is important to me is that I explore any reasonable prospects for earning money at the KlezmerShack. Having just obviated the job that pays my bills (my position at Tufts U. ws terminated because I finished what I needed to do, but too fast for new opportunities to open up), I have some incentive to do so. And, of course, if anyone needs a Boston-based project manager with experience in web development and online community, take a look at my resume and let's talk.

In between writing cover letters and project proposals, I'll finally have time (I hope) to update some things here on the KlezmerShack. Number one priority is to move all e-mail addresses into a cloaked database, the better to keep contacts current, and most importantly, the better to fight spam harvesters who see us as prime fishing grounds. Stay tuned.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Richard Sharma resurfaces with a host of new material at his website:

Hope everyone's had a good escape from Egypt and the matza went down well. (Personally, I love 'em actually.)

The review of The Burning Bush with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler concert is at last online on Rainlore's World of Music after continued computer problems and the odd other emergency

There's also a separate review of the pre-concert "Vessels of Sound" foyer performances

A bunch of much delayed album reviews is also up:
Joe & Paul - The Best Of The Barton Brothers
The Barry Sisters / Our Way! The Barry Sisters Sing "Bei Mir Bist Du
Lenka Lichtenberg / Deep Inside
Lenka Lichtenberg / Open The Gate - Break Down The Walls
Wolf Krakowski / Unbounded
David Chevan / The Days Of Awe
Mark Weinstein / Tudo De Bom - Music from Hermeto Pascoal's "Calendario do Som"

Another lot should be up within the next week or two at most.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I first met Steve Greenman in Toronto, having flown in, like him, for a Flying Bulgars concert. I was a spectator, he was the insanely good violin player flown in for the occasion. In the years that followed, he served a tour in Josh Horowitz' Budowitz (and credits Josh for initially turning him on to klezmer), played on many of the most exciting klezmer albums, joined with Zev Feldman to dive deeply into pre-Holocaust European klezmer music in Khevrisa, taught numerous workshops, and for the last few months - I'll let him describe:

It's been long time since we last spoke and I hope you are well. I wanted to tell about my major recording project, "The Dream of Stempenyu". This is a recording of my original Klezmer and Jewish compositions all written in the traditional style. Everything has been recorded (January) and almost all mixed and I'm now writing liner notes and getting the booklet together. The release date will be in late June 2004. I have about 90 mins of music so it will be a double-CD in one package. I can't wait to share it with you. I'm the lead violinist and play with some great players including: Alan Bern, Stu Brotman, Michael Alpert, Zev Feldman, Alexander Fedoriouk, Pete Rushefsky and Mark Rubin. It's been an intense effort of raising the funds to make it all possible (and I'm still raising funds as we speak), doing all the logistical work and then finally playing all the tunes. The Cleveland commmunity has been most generous. The purpose of the project is to revitalize the Jewish violin repertoire and to continue the creativity of Jewish music composition all in the spirit of the great Stempenyu*. At some point I look to have a future publication of the music for all to play.

*"Stempenyu" was the title (and title chararacter) in a Shalom Aleichem novelette about a klezmer.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't often used this weblog for the obvious purpose of linking to other weblogs. This weekend I was looking at the entries for Jewish music subjects in a new blog search engine, technorati, and found a rather interesting blog by someone who appears to be part of the more-orthodox-than-thou community, who is especially interested in the loud rock side of Jewish music. His comments about My Afro-semitic Experience are a good representative of his writing, but only one - it's certainly worth reading more.

I didn't agree with the blogger's reaction to Chevan's small political mention, and I certainly would not and do not draw the same conclusions from Chevan's intent. Come to think of it, as a child of the Sixties (well, as a tail-end baby boomer) I think that politics and music should mix - that politics infuses everything we do (as much as I do my best to keep politics off the Jewish-Music mailing list as the only way to accomodate widely differing, frequently polarized political views trying to come together to share cultural commonality), so not only don't I draw the same conclusions about Chevan's intent - opposition to Israel's security fence is not necessarily a sign that one is careless of Israel's security; rather it could be that calling the fence a "security" fence doesn't necessarily make it so - but I don't agree with the belief that music can always be separated from politics.

But that's me. More important, Velvel writes an interesting blog, velvel.blogspot.com and it is often about Jewish Music. And we came very close to doing something very similar when we opened the door for Elijah at our seder. Enjoy.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Judith Pinnolis, who maintains the Jewish Music Web Center, has recently inaugurated a new section of CD reviews:

"There is a new, "new CD Reviews" section on the Jewish Music WebCenter. So far, only the first one is on the new page, but it's about the 3-CD set of music released by Shearith Israel in honor of the 350th in America celebration. The old pages are still there too, (so far)."

Other pages relevant to lovers of new reviews include her other reviews and review sites page, and CD announcements -- the 'blog')

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The new Brave Old World album, Bless the Fire, doesn't seem to be getting the kind of press it deserves. Granted, that would involve a ticker tape parade and mention on every streetcorner - this is the sort of music that reminds me of why I maintain these pages and why I love to listen to new Jewish music. In my minor worshipful way, I try to remedy the situation.

Shtreiml just gets better. For an outstanding band, that is no small feat. This Montreal-based klezmer band mixed Yiddish song with new and old klezmer instrumentals on "Spicy Paprikash" in a way that makes everything feel fresh and wonderful. Just because they aren't an American band shouldn't get in the way of discovering how good this new recording is. Besides, the band includes Josh "SoCalled" Dolgin, klezmer scion Rachel Lemish, along with Jason Rosenblatt on Harmonica and more.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can't keep up with the burgeoning archive of reviews that Richard Sharma has added to his Rainlore's World of Music. Here are some of the latest that I've received

By way of an interim update to Rainlore's World of Music, the review of Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble's fabulous January gig at London's premier jazz club, The Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho, held over from the previous update is now up. A truly unforgettabe date!

Lots more soon, including some more catching up on album reviews and profiles. Apologies to everybody I owe mail - I'm getting terribly behind at the moment and will be in touch ASAP.

Again, to see the whole range of Sharma's writing on Jewish music, visit his Jewish music page at www.rainlore.demon.co.uk/Reviews/JMReviews.html

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Fein writes about Lori Cahan-Simon's recent tribute to the music of Mikhl Gelbart on his "Gantseh Megillah" website (the website looks like it has some interesting content, but may not be generally accessible to people not most comfortable playing video games):

Vessel of Song: The Music of Mikhl Gelbart, Lori Cahan-Simon Ensemble

Posted by Ari Davidow at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few years ago I was wandering in Eastern Europe and found myself befriended by Josh Horowitz (of Budowitz, etc.). We hit it off and became instant good friends. He was about to release the initial Budowitz CD (Budowitz / Mother Tongue, 1997), and I, being the type of nerd that I am, happened to be traveling with my laptop, a few hundred of my favorite fonts, and my copy of Quark XPress. So, while he played some amazing tsimbl one evening, I roughed out better liner notes for the Budowitz CD for him to show the record company how it could all fit in limited space with (what I thought was) grace. To my horror, the half-finished version I prepared that evening was what the record company eventually used.

A few years later, Josh mentions that he, and another old friend, Stu Brotman (Brave Old World, et al), plus violin maven Cookie Segelstein (Klezical Tradition and more) were releasing a new album, and if I was interested. This time, the record company was listening....

Order a Veretski Pass CD right NOW.

Is klezmer dance music? Do fish swim in the water? I had enormous fun typesetting the new liner notes, and while they are not perfect, the music will blow your socks off. Working with the trio, and with Ates, the person running Golden Horn records (also a great source of Balkan Music) was a gas.

This is Eastern European Jewish music, mostly dance music. Sometimes there are hints of chamber music, as comes when three impeccable musicians play together as one. But, mostly this is the most rocking, roots klezmer album I have heard in years. Forget the liner notes, the music is incredibly, almost indescribably good.

Cookie describes the background of the CD thus:

"Much of the music on this recording comes from and near the region of the Veretski Pass (after which the group is named) in the Zakarpatska Oblast (Transcarpathian region) of what is now Ukraine, the main crossroads through which the Jews traversed the Carpathian Bow. There is a stunning suite of Crimean Tatar music and also a rare Karaite song, followed by improvisations and a pyrotechnic fiddle song performed on a scordatura violin. There are also original compositions, a suite with a bass and viola duet, traditional Jewish and Ukrainian dance tunes all accompanied by rich photographs and finely wrought essays (and even some family recipes) by each member of the trio.

"The book, 'The Music of Veretski Pass,' is the music of the record transcribed by Cookie with a forward by Josh. It is available for $20 plus $2.50 (in the US) shipping You can contact us through our website (www.veretskipass.com), click on BOOK, to find out how to purchase ( where to send the check or money order)."

I'll review the CD soon enough, I hope, but here's a couple of facts. First, Josh and Stu are two of the world's finest tsimbl players. And there are few instruments as good to listen to as the tsimbl. Second, Cookie is incendiary. I'm sure I said nice things about her playing on various albums over the years, because she is pretty incredible, but that was nothing. She tears the place up. Even better, where many klezmer musicians fall back on bluegrass when they are improvising klezmer and heading into the breaks, because that's what they know best when they need more ideas, Cookie improvises something that sounds like, well, living, breathing, must-dance-to klezmer. It just doesn't get any better than this, at least, not until their next album.

The good news is that, although the CD's official release date is April 21st, it is available now from the Golden Horn online shop. (Golden Horn has also also added two recordings of Jewish music from Turkey which were recently reviewed here: Maftirim (Judeo-Sufi Connection) and Yahudice (Urban Ladino Music). Ates, the mensh who runs Golden Horn notes that import titles are usually in stock - he orders them as they sell.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search broke on the Shamash lists a year or so ago. Irwin Oppenheim, who runs the wonderful Cantors pages, chazzanut.com has now created his own searchable archive of everything. Thank you, Irwin!

Introducing

Have you experienced trouble searching the archives of the Shamash mailing lists, like me? Have you always wished that there were an easy way to find a mail thread of several months or years ago?

As a service to the public, Chazzanut Online now contains a fully searchable and browsable archive of the <jewish-music@shamash.org> (1992-2004) and <hanashir@shamash.org> (1996-2004) mailing lists. That's more than 800MB worth of data!

Now you can finally read again what Ari Davidow thought about Jewish Music way back in 1992: http://archive.chazzanut.com/jewish-music-old/msg00001.html not to speak about 1986... http://archive.chazzanut.com/jewish-music-old/msg00000.html

Care has been taken to protect the archive server against e-mail harvesting spam bots, by scrambling all the e-mail addresses contained within the messages.

Again, enjoy the services of archive.chazzanut.com

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George Robinson uses the start of a wonderful festival of new Jewish music in Brooklyn, taking place on weekends over the next month, to talk about where Jewish music is today in this week's Jewish Week. I get quoted, as does Seth Rogovoy and other luminaries.

Jewish Music Goes Multiculti: "Old World klezmer’s out, Sephardic and African influences are in, experts say, on eve of BAM events."

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)