The Tablet: Israeli singer Shai Tsabari Storms the Heavens
For a few minutes, as the opening bit on the first video embedded in this article opens, I am reminded of Ehud Banai, in his punk phase. On other tracks, I am reminded of Yehuda Poliker--both Israeli musicians who have grounded their music in their roots. What I really love here is that mixing of piyyut and modern music forms (just as the original piyyut melodies mixed devotional poetry with the music of times 1500 years ago (give or take a few hundred years?) in the Islamic world. Conceptually, it's like listening to Abraham Inc., but starting from a Mizrahi world instead of an Ashkenazic one.
Shai Tsabari Storms the Heavens, From Bat Yam to New York, by Tal Kra-Oz, The Tablet
Shai Tsabari is an Israeli singer whose music has been called Mizrahi-indie. His debut album and live performances, fusing traditional oriental music with rock, pop, electronic and world music, have attracted some of the most enthusiastic audiences to be found both in Israel and abroad. Tsabari and his band, the aptly named Middle East Groove All Stars, are now embarking on their first mini-tour of the United States. They will perform at Joe's Pub in New York on Aug. 23, and give a free concert at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles two days later. [more]
The 
One of the key ingredients of the festival is the ongoing dancing. This year, the band that did most of the playing for that dancing was a Montreal band, Ichka, that has also done some minor touring—they were even south of the border, here in Boston on a double bill with local favorites 
Joining Ichka on its debut album was the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, one of Toronto's best street orchestras. You don't know from street orchestras? Somewhere, in an urban area near you there is a festival called "Honk!" featuring these popular, often-amateur ensembles from around the world. (Boston's was held this weekend, in fact!) Lemon Bucket is famed for calling out the band to play in an Assisted Living home, or to accompany a good protest. At Ashkenaz, they headlined on Saturday night, exciting the largest crowd I saw during the festival with incredible energy, precision, and a scintillating mix of klezmer, balkan, and whatever else they felt like playing. Their new recording, Lume Lume has the frenetic mix you would expect, with tunes from all over Eastern Europe, Jewish and otherwise. They close with one of my favorites, "7:40." Back towards the beginning of the klezmer revival, this was recorded by everyone. We all moved on. I am greatful to the Lemon Buckets for bringing it back, and for having so much fun playing. You can 
As part of my introduction to the artists playing at Ashkenaz, I mentioned Lenka Lichtenberg's recent CD, 
Finally, we come to my personal favorite, Sunday night's headline band, Zion 80, jazz guitarist/Tzadik recording artist Jon Madof's recent project merging the AfroPop sounds of Fela Kuti with the melodies of Shlomo Carlebach. While that original project was a wall of danceable, infectious nign, this concert highlighted material from the new release, 
There has been an evolution as Basya Schechter has gone from writing Middle Eastern-inflected folksongs, to someone more involved with rethinking religious poetry. He most recent CD was a recording of her settings of love poems, both to women, and to God (and sometimes, like "Song of Songs," as easily to read as expressing love for both) written in Yiddish by Rabbi A. J. Heschel. This latest recording by 
SHIR HODU LAUNCH PARTY
Several years ago I received the latest recording from the Middle Eastern / nign / fusion band 
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:
It started with a new Rough Guide release, this time, 
The problem was that I got so wrapped up in the first CD, that I had to spend time with that Idan Raichel CD that I've been meaning to write about for years: 2002's 
By now I was in trouble, so I also polished off a review of the relatively recent release of the final album by Israeli jazz masters, The Platina: 
There is something about Philadelphia Jews. I've said this before, but with the release of 
The 10th Anniversary of the first Masada material has prompted a wonderful re-examination of that work by a wide variety of artists. I confess to being among the few who find Zorn's Masada okay, but don't have a great need to own each volume. On the other hand, listening to Jon Madof and his noisemakers, er, Rashanim, transform some of the material is entirely different. 2005's 
Ladies and gentlemen, for another take on the extraordinary John Zorn/Masada material, may I offer you the totally flipped, amazing 
And, finally, in a nod to everything that I didn't have time to listen to today, all of which is at least htis good, I offer one last fusion, the world music band Asefa, house band to Sam Thomas' Brooklyn-based "Jewish Awareness through Music" organization. 
George Robinson writes frequently for the Jewish Week. He listens to an incredible diversity of music. Take a read of 
I got carried away. CDs were falling off the shelf, so I sat down this weekend and stayed sat down until I got several reviewed. We've got some great new Jewish music, some avant garde and jazz, some klezmer (lots of klezmer), some Sephardic and Mizrahi music, more klezmer and Yiddish folk.... That's not the whole gamut, but odds are that something in this weekend's stack will be just what you were looking for:
It's about time, but we finally have a short review up of the marvellous recent CD by Laura Wetzler,