Milken Archive - Ben Zion Shenker oral history project
One year ago today, the world lost Ben Zion Shenker, a rabbi, cantor and composer who had been dubbed "the greatest living figure of Hassidic music." Shenker devoted his life to niggunim--spiritual melodies used in Hassidic worship--in the Polish Modzitzer Hassidic tradition, starting with the melodies of Rabbi Saul Taub.
A new video from Milken's oral history project features Shenker's insights about the styles, inspirations and significance of niggunim in his own life, and in the various Hassidic traditions of Eastern Europe.
Known to the rest of the world as a master violinist, teacher, mentor, Yaela Hertz was also a critical faculty member at KlezKanada where I was fortunate to meet her. She had that rare combination of extraordinary ability, insight, and human warmth that will be heard for generations as her students teach their students. Deborah Strauss posted on Facebook yesterday that she had passed away May 30, 2014. You can get a brief sense of who she was professionally from her entry in the 
sad to have to report some bad news, i just heard that Harold Seletsky has
passed away.
It is with with great sadness that I announce the passing away of Sara Alexander.
She was an Israeli singer who settled in France after the 6 days war.
She was dedicated to working towards a better undertanding between israelis and palestinians and released about 10 recordings as well as 2 books, one of them calle Shalom Salam. With her we lost "a Mentsh" and as she was not very well known in North America except Quebec, I invite you to google her name and discover her work and her music.
Ruth Ellen Gruber's column, 
Yiddish Film Project
I am sad to pass on news of the sudden death in
Krakow of Henryk Halkowski, a true custodian of Jewish memory in the city, whom
many list member will have met during the Festival of Jewish Culture or on
other visits. He had a heart attack Thursday night, around midnight. He had
just turned 57.
Years ago, awed by David Breytman's playing, I accused him of playing "speed klez." This past spring, with a new release by his band, Klezmania, 
Dear Friends,
I very sadly report that the wonderfully talented and sweet Harris Wulfson
has died. His gifts included an extraordinary ear for many styles on violin,
particularly klezmer and Balkan musics.
I thought it would be appropriate to post this information about Rabbi Moshe Cotel z"l on this list, since it was conspicuous by its absence. I first heard of Moshe's untimely passing from the following notice sent out to the Israeli folk dance community to which I belong:
Sephardic singer Judy Frankel died of cancer on March 20, 2008. Judith Cohen immediately wrote a remembrance, but I had no time to get it online before departing for travels to Israel. Frankel's role in documenting the music and making it available was tremendous, so with great pleasure, I have finally uploading Dr. Cohen's 
Mark Rubin takes some time out to write about an essential (and ubiquitous) member of the Klezmer Community, 
Still catching up from several months of backlog, here is a note from 
I just learned that on March 9, Samy Al-Maghribi, as Salomon Amzallag
was known, passed away. He was my oud teacher in Montreal in the early
1980s. Born in Morocco in 1922, he soon became a well-known figure in
Andalusian music and after emigrating to Canada, served for many years
as the Cantor of Montreal's Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. After
retiring, he spent several years in Israel where he worked with the
Israeli Andalusian Orchestra and eventually returned to Canada. He was a
very fine singer, instrumentalist, and composer, highly appreciated in
both the Jewish and the Muslim worlds, and a great person. Some
information about his life and music can be found here:
Klezmer Friends,
Itzik Gottesman posted to the Jewish-Music mailing list this week that long-time bandleader Rudy Tepel passed away a few weeks ago. Hankus Netsky writes: "Rudy played with great passion and feeling. He actually started out as a
dixieland player, but joined the Hassidic scene, since it fit his Orthodox
lifestyle better. He was featured with 'Neginah' for a while and later was one of
the best clarinetists playing the klezmer rep with Klezmer Plus in the early
revival era. He made three excellent recordings on Westminster, which his son
put out on CD, 'Chassidic Wedding,' 'Lubavitcher Wedding,' and 'Bobover
Wedding.' [Recordings re-released just a few years ago, and reviewed on the KlezmerShack by Matt Temkin: 
From Zisl (Dmitri Slepovich), back on July 15, 2007. The delay in sharing this eulogy is entirely my fault:
Many thanks to 
I cannot claim to have "gotten" Steve Goodman during his lifetime. I dug Arlo Guthrie and treasured my copy of "Hobo's Lullaby" with its recording of "The City of New Orleans." But, I'm not much of a folkie. The Jewish kid from Chicago, high school classmate of Hilary Clinton, may have spent his youth singing in his suburban Temple choir, but his musical heart and soul were in Americana--in the blues he soaked up in Chicago clubs, in the folk songs that he learned everywhere, and in his own compositions, from "My Old Man," to "Men who love women who love men" and the "Dying Cub Fan's Last Request." Like fellow Chicagoan Mike Bloomfield, Goodman may have come from Jewish ancestry, but it was not an overt part of any of his music. Nor was he overtly political. And his records, at least those I encountered during his life, never moved me.
) with a whole insane live disk, and the joy and craft that he brought to music began to sink in. Now Clay Eals has written the only (and definitive by any measure) biography of Goodman. At 8x10 and two inches thick (complete with accompanying CD) this is not a book to be taken lightly. As documentation of a remarkable life and incredible music, it excels. It's just one of those books worth reading because it's well-written. I suspect that it would have won Goodman even more listeners if it had been 1/3 the size, but I'm really not sure what should have been cut out. Goodman wrote incredibly good songs, performed like a demon, and until he took over making his records himself, at the very end of his very short life (he died of leukemia at 38), he made okay-to-mediocre records. Good friends and cohorts such as John Prine and Jimmy Buffet became more famous. (Think of those two in the same sentence.) But Goodman's songs remain with us—those he wrote himself, like "Chicken Cordon Bleus" or "Vegemetic" (his humorous songs are the ones the grab me hardest) and those by others, like "The Dutchman" that he first popularized. But the book isn't just about Steve, it's about a whole folk scene that gave us Goodman, Prine, and helped make Chicago a synonym for incredible folk music, along with the city's blues.
Steve Goodman: Facing the music
Just got the news on one of the online news services that longtime Jewish-Music list participant Sylvie Braitman has passed away. Julie Sherman writes the following on the WELL:
For generations, Shoshana Damari defined Israeli music. She passed away on February 18th. Judith Pinnolis has written an obituary and has links to more information about her life
Paul Pincus was a wonderful saxophone player that I came to know through his work in recent years with the Epstein Brothers. He also tutored my stepson, Ari Fertig, at KlezKanada one year. He was an amazing musican, a great teacher, and a delightful human being. Henry Sapoznik writes:
Majer, who was born in Poland, but lived most of his life in the UK was credited as a source in the amazing 2000 Budowitz album, 
In today's Tampa, Florida, Tribune, there is an obituary for Mike Eisenstadt, long-time Jewish radio host, long-time klezmer clarinetist, long-time participant of the Jewish-Music mailing list, and of course, long-time activist in the Tampla, FL Jewish community and federation.
hi, as you know, I'm not a great opera fan, and much much less a fan of traditional songs being performed by opera singers. But Victoria de los Angeles was a great singer and a great person, whom I met because she pioneered the performance of Sephardic songs in Spain: her "10 Sephardic songs" were the introduction to the repertoire for many Spaniards and in many ways the "justification" of a folk repertoire in the eyes of those who need such "justifications". But more than that, she was also a great person. I met her about 13-14 years ago, when we were both giving brief summer workshops at a university in the north of Spain, she in opera technique, and I in Sephardic music. At the time, I was doing a post-doc project on the performance of Sephardic songs in non'traditional ways, and was interviewing several singers- finding her at that same setting was serendipitous, and very rewarding. I was struck by how completely unpretentious she was, and how easy and delightful to speak with - and very moved when she told me she had "learned from me."
Seth writes to the Jewish-Music mailing list:
No one who has heard his playing can forget it. Joseph Moskowitz, expert on the Hungarian cymbalom, was one of the early Jewish recording artists in this country. A descendent has started gathering memorabilia, and the KlezmerShack is proud to host this page, "
Sandra Layman writes on the Jewish-Music mailing list: