the KlezmerShack

Hasidic doom jazz? Meet Deveykus, by Lincoln Eddy, Alarm Magazine, April 24, 2013.

Trombonist Dan Blacksberg has recruited four other musicians and combined traditional wordless melodies with doom metal for a new project called Deveykus. [Their] first track, "Wordless Ecstasy," is a slow burn, built of trombone, electricity, and weighty, slow-motion beats. Moments of complexity flirt with the ear, building a deceptive drone. It's a Zen kōan through a Jewish lens. [more (includes track recording)]

Posted by Ari Davidow at 9:53 AM | Permalink

There is no better place to be as the summer winds to an end, than in the Canadian Laurentians, at a B'nai Brith camp only an hour north of Montreal, with just a few hundred of your favorite klezmorim and friends.

KlezKanada's Laurentian Retreat for 2013, the Chai Year, will be Monday August 19 to Sunday August 25. You can get the program from the KlezKanada website, and most important, if you are between 16 and 35, check out the Scholarship Application. According to the website, KlezKanada looks for "individuals with an interest in learning about Yiddish/Jewish culture and its artistic traditions and a desire to develop as artists within these rich traditions, exploring both the roots and contemporary innovations of the culture. We welcome students with interest in a wide variety of areas including music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, writing and Yiddish studies. Although actual numbers will vary according to the applications received, there are a number of spots reserved for each area of interest."

Posted by Ari Davidow at 8:41 AM | Permalink

Kleztival—the 4th edition of the Brazilian Jewish Music Festival will be held in São Paulo, from September 28th to October 6th, 2013. Major concerts and workshops all around Brazil. For further info:

IMJ Brasil—Jewish Music Institute
tel: +5511 3159-1997
São Paulo, Brazil
www.imjbrasil.com.br

Posted by Ari Davidow at 4:48 PM | Permalink

This just in from Alan Bern regarding Adam Stinga, about whom I posted a week or two ago. Good new!

Dear Friends & Supporters of the Adam Stinga Recovery Fund,

I'm delighted to send you a wonderful update about Adam's recovery. Yesterday, he was released from the rehab clinic. I picked up him there and found him looking "like a million bucks" as we say in English. He looked strong and healthy, in other words. The trip from the rehab clinic in Marburg back to the clinic where the operation was originally performed turned out to be a little more tiring than we thought, but that's to be expected when someone moves from a protected environment to the real world. This morning, Dr. Beqiri, Adam's surgeon, looked into his bronchia with an endoscope (I had the honor of being there and Dr. Beqiri explained everything we were seeing) and the result was very clear: the wounds have healed completely. When Adam came out of the anesthetic, Dr. Beqiri told him that he should start practicing trumpet again in two weeks! Unbelievable! Adam is supposed to take it easy for a while (no Doc Severinson licks), but the expectation is that he'll be back to normal in three months. It's an amazing result, beyond expectations and beyond words...

Thank you to all of you who helped make this happen! This whole thing is just an incredible example of how people can come together to help when it really counts.

Warmest greetings from Adam and Alan!

If you or anyone you know can help, there's a paypal link on the other european's website for the Adam Stinga Recovery Fund: www.theothereuropeans.eu [ari]

Posted by Ari Davidow at 2:00 PM | Permalink

Enjoy! This was a very special concert. Claudia Harris showed up with an Irish harp, which Betty used through much of the concert; otherwise she accompanied herself on guitar. Songs ranged from Ladino to Yiddish to Hebrew.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 11:34 AM | Permalink

From David Chevan

Some music for Yom HaShoah-Holocaust Memorial Day. "Yizkor for Martyrs" Recorded in the studio with Cantor Alberto Mizrahi and the Afro-Semitic Experience.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 11:09 AM | Permalink

From Ilana Cravitz:

Klezmer at SOAS Summer Music School 24-28 June, 7-9pm each day. A week-long course with Ilana Cravitz. Click here for info & registration

The London Klezmer Quartet Klezmer Residential at Benslow Music, Herts, 3-5 December. Info and registration at benslowmusic.org

Posted by Ari Davidow at 6:13 AM | Permalink

Judy and I had so much fun last year that we actually stayed out at a B&B in the area and spent a few days tooling around. Of course, last year we got to skip to a local folk festival and celebrate Woody Guthrie's 100th birthday with Arlo and his family before retiring back to the Yiddish Book Center for a high-energy finish to the weekend. This year, a dynamite lineup of workshops, lectures, and concerts, including a double bill Saturday night with Klezperanto and Margot Leverett & her Klezmer Mountain Boys. Holy Crossover, Batman! Don't miss it.

Yidstock 2013: The Festival of New Yiddish Music

July 18 - 21, 2013 at the Yiddish Book Center
Amherst, MA

Join us for Yidstock 2013: The Festival of New Yiddish Music! Continuing with the theme established in our inaugural year, Yidstock 2013 will bring the best in klezmer and new Yiddish music to the stage at the Yiddish Book Center. Don't miss out on what promises to be a great festival of music and related events.

More info: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/yidstock

Posted by Ari Davidow at 6:41 PM | Permalink

This is really nice—a review and video clips from Tim Sparks concert at Club Passim in Cambridge as part of the Boston Jewish Music Festival last month. As you will discover for yourselves, Sparks is just one of the warmest, bestest, and fastest pair of hands playing good music on this planet. Glad I caught the show:

http://concertmanic.com/2013/03/07/concert-review-tim-sparks-and-noah-lubin-at-the-boston-jewish-music-festival-352013/

Posted by Ari Davidow at 4:43 PM | Permalink

You know, I don't even care if the movie is significant or not (it is). The chance to hear Alicia Svigal and Marilyn Lerner perform, live? Priceless.

Alicia Svigal's original score to the 1918 silent film classic, "the Yellow Ticket," starring Pola Negri, performed live by Klezmer Unfettered: Marilyn Lerner and Alicia Svigals

April 29, 2013 (7:30 pm)
Coolidge Corner Theatre
290 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA
Tel: (617) 734-2501

A panel discussion will follow the film. Tickets are on sale now for $25.

The Yellow Ticket is a live multimedia concert event featuring the eponymous 1918 Pola Negri silent film with a performance of an original score by Alicia Svigals, one of the world's foremost klezmer fiddlers. The score is the newest commission from the Foundation's New Jewish Culture Network (NJCN) and marks the first feature-length film composition by Svigals who will perform live with virtuoso pianist Marilyn Lerner at each of the screenings of this cinema classic. Set in Poland and Tsarist Russia, the film portrays a woman's struggle to overcome adversity in a story of secret identifies, heroic measures, and triumphant love.

The Yellow Ticket PROMO from Jewish Culture on Vimeo.

Co-presented by Boston Jewish Music Festival and the New Center for Arts and Culture at Coolidge Corner Theater in collaboration with the Boston Jewish Film Festival

Posted by Ari Davidow at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Catching up on Jewish-Music list discussions, I note this exchange regarding the Ruth Rubin collection. Huzzah!

From Jane Peppler

The librarian I contacted about the Ruth Rubin tapes in their collection told me YIVO is digitizing them. Is that true?

Response from Lorin Sklamberg

We have indeed begun the work of digitizing Ruth Rubin's collection of field recordings. A large portion of the materials were transferred and databased by Bay Area singer/instrumentalist Jeanette Lewicki over the summer with the support of New York's Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Though far from completed, the tracks that have been processed are currently being prepared for on-site use in the not-too-distant future by YIVO Sound Archives consultant Matt Temkin.

Renewed interest in these treasures can be partially attributed to the posthumous publication of Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archives edited by Chana Mlotek and Mark Slobin (Wayne University Press, 2007). Recent projects that utilize the songs include my own Saints and Tzadiks (songs from the Irish and Yiddish traditions developed together with Susan McKeown), Voices of Ashkenaz (German-Jewish song connections explored by Andreas Schmitges, Deborah Strauss, Svetlana Kundish and Thomas Fritze) and Alpen Klezmer (Bavarian and Yiddish songs with Andrea Pancur & Ilya Shneyveys). I should also mention here the continued cultural activism and encouragement of Pete Rushefsky, Itzik Gottesman, Ethel Raim and Sandy Wolofsky, without whom we wouldn't have gotten this work started.

Please contact me directly if you are interested in these or other Sound Archives holdings.

Lorin
Mr. Lorin Sklamberg, Sound Archivist
The Max and Frieda Weinstein Archives of YIVO Sound Recordings
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 294-6169 phone
(917) 606-8289 fax

Posted by Ari Davidow at 3:14 PM | Permalink

Yup. New Koby Israelite CD coming out next week. This first clip offers a nice crunchy guitar/accordion take on a Dylan classic with a stunning voice doing the singing. I'm excited.

Posted by Ari Davidow at 12:36 PM | Permalink