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How shameless you are Sonye.
Are you afraid of people?
Come out Sonyetchke
We will see each other from a distance.
This week … a humorous Russian/Yiddish song performed by Feigl Yudin, with commentary by Itzik Gottesman. Now at Center for Traditional Music and Dance's Yiddish Song of the Week:
A program of CTMD's An-sky Institute for Jewish Culture
Here's a new one from Mike Regenstreif
About six decades after the release of Jewish Freilach Songs, some of today's most accomplished klezmer musicians - including Michael Alpert, Daniel Kahn, Bob Cohen (not to be confused with Bob Cohen, the Canadian guitarist), Psoy Korolenko, Jake Shulman-Ment and Hampus Melin—gathered as The Brothers Nazaroff to record The Happy Prince, a joyous tribute album to Nazaroff. [review continues on Mike's blog]
Get your copy/download of the CD from Smithsonian Folkways, or wherever fine music is purveyed.
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It's almost Khannike. I'm trying to get reviews of several new recordings online. Time. Girls in Trouble were here just a couple of weeks ago, so with that pleasure fresh in my mind, let me at least get some information about this recording online.
"Girls in Trouble" began life as a thesis project at JTA. Poet/musician Alicia Jo Rabins was stuck, and her advisor suggested that a song cycle would be an appropriate substitute for a paper. The first collection was stunning. It was released two kids (?) and six years ago, and introduced songs about several known and less-known women from the TaNaKh. Musically, the songs are wide-ranging "Americana." Three collections in, I find myself listening and relistening. The stories and music resonate. Some, such as a new song about Sarah, focusing on Isaac's near sacrifice, make the incident personal in a way that Bible class never did. Vashti's story, "I'm Done Dressing Up" is perfect bluegrass, and highlights what we all think every Purim. Others are more obscure, as in "New Arithmetic," about the Daughters of Tzelofchad—a story from the Talmud in which women demanded the right to portions in the Land of Israel. For those, I visit the Jewish Women's Encyclopedia at the Jewish Women's Archive to get the whole story. Rabins is a treasure, musically and poetically, and for giving us reason to dig into the TaNaKh. To get your own copy, check out Bandcamp.
This hReview brought to you by the hReview Creator.
I am so proud to have helped this project, and hope to be there in December
Dear Friends,
We are very excited to announce the fourth annual Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Legacy Concert taking place on December 26, 2015. Save the date! Be there!
The event will take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, hosted by Folksbiene National Yiddish Theater in partnership with YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, keepers of the Adrienne Cooper Archives, GOH Productions, and presented in association with Yiddish New York's inaugural year.
We invite you to join us as we celebrate the life, work and influence of Adrienne, Yiddish singer, scholar, teacher, educator/activist, Executive Director of Programming at the Workmen's Circle, and former Assistant Director at YIVO. Beloved stars of the klezmer and Yiddish world will present an evening of music from In Love and In Struggle: The Musical Legacy of the Jewish Labor Bund (YIVO, 1999), an album that features Adrienne and was reflective of her passion for social justice and Yiddish. This inspired musical choice came out of the Cooper Archives and is a direct result of your support for the Adrienne Cooper Fund for Dreaming in Yiddish. We thank you.
The recipient of this year's Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Award goes to the wild, wonderful Canadian artist, Josh Dolgin aka Socalled, for his work as a klezmer/hip-hop artist, composer, record producer, puppeteer and multi-facetted, kind, inclusive, creative genius always pushing the edges of possibility.
The Adrienne Cooper Fund for Dreaming in Yiddish is appealing to YOU anew to help us raise the resources needed to produce this award and concert event. Please donate generously. And quickly! Please help!
We must raise $6,000 by December 13 (last candle of Chanukah). Spread the light!
All proceeds go to the Adrienne Cooper Fund for Dreaming in Yiddish, which supports artists as they embark on the timeless, boundless, utterly unexpected adventure of working in Yiddish.
To donate, use this link HERE or copy this url npo.justgive.org/gohproductions
For tickets, use this link TICKETS or copy this url dreaminginyiddish2015.bpt.me
Please send your contribution today. Donations can also be made by check payable to GOH Productions, earmarked AC DIY/Artist Award and mailed to: GOH Productions /Seven Loaves Inc., 239 E. 5th St. Suite 1D, New York, NY 10003-8544.
Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Sholem, sholem, sholem. A hartsikn dank.
Marsha Gildin, ACDIY Development Committee & Bonnie Stein, GOH Productions
Catching up on last week's news from Alan Bern:
After five years of email correspondence with our publisher and slowdown tactics that would astonish a turtle, I'm happy and relieved to say that the three Brave Old World albums on the Pinorrekk label - Beyond the Pale, Blood Oranges and Bless the Fire—are finally available on iTunes to download. To all Brave Old World fans who don't know this music, or who acquired it through somewhat dubious means (ahem...), this is your chance to download groundbreaking, beautiful music. Please share this post, thanks!
The Boston Jewish Film Festival is one of the places where I get to explore an always mind-blowing array of Jewish experience and history. I look forward to it each year. This year is light on the music films, but breadth is traded for depth—a very special music about Iraqi Jewish music plays this coming Saturday night in Boston, at the MFA.
Tix and more info at: www.mfa.org/programs/film/on-the-banks-of-the-tigris. While you're there, check out other films playing between now and the 16th. What I've seen so far has been inspiring and wonderful. You are sure to find even more to tickle your fancy and help keep an important local Jewish institution thriving.