KlezCalendar

Midrash Mish Mosh recently released their debut CD on John Zorn’s Tzadik label to rave reviews. The all-original music, written by Alexander, is rooted in the klezmer tradition, yet reaches out to embrace and include Jazz, thrash punk, middle-eastern and israeli music, and balkan and african rhythms.

The band features an mix of downtown jazz/jewish music all-stars and great young players in the klezmer scene. The band at Satalla will be: Frank London –trumpet, Susan Watts – trumpet, Alex Kontorovich – clarinet, Greg Wall- saxophone & clarinet Curtis Hasselbring – trombone, Brad Shepik – guitar, Fima Ephron - bass, Mike Sarin – drums, Aaron Alexander – drums

Drummer and Composer Aaron Alexander is considered by many to be a fantastic klezmer and jazz drummer and composer. His new CD "Midrash Mish Mosh" has been acclaimed by critics, musicians and listeners alike. Over the past decade and a half his performances and recordings with Hasidic New Wave, Babkas, The Klezmatics, Greg Wall's Later Prophets, Alicia Svigals, Satoko Fujii Orchestra, Tronzo Trio, Jay Clayton, Margot Leverett, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Boban Markovich Orchestra and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars have brought his music to the attention of listeners all over the world. Alexander conceived and co-produced Hasidic New Wave’s 2002 collaboration with Senegalese Sabar drum ensemble Yakar Rhythms, which was widely acclaimed by critics and public alike: It was an "inspired collaboration” and a "brilliant Afro-Semitic fusion" wrote Jazz Times writer Bill Milkowski.

Other press quotes

"contains a fascinating mixture of Jewish music melded into some wonderful avant garde sounds. What makes Alexander's album so fascinating is that, like Golem's Ezekiel, Alexander is making new music based on very deep knowledge of mainstream American Jewish culture, prayer, and music, and then creating something fantastic and new and edgy. To me, Alexander's music speaks to the heart of what it means to live in a world where one is trying to balance multiple realities: Jewish, American, Jazz, Bagels, Mysticism, Intermarriage, the Yankees, and pulls it together in ways that are always exciting, and that prove that working on that balance is fun and worth doing." —Ari Davidow, Klezmershack

"A project with newly composed music of expansive scope, Alexander has produced a screaming celebration of the multicultural American Jewish identity." —Elliot Simon, All About Jazz

"Pounding free-bop with swirling klezmerish lines, this is definitely not your grandpa's bar mitzvah band. Alexander sounds like Barry Altschul on crystal meth, a dervish on wood blocks and crash cymbals. There are also some straight-ahead klezmer burners." —George Robinson, Jewish Week

"Alexander’s animated percussion style brings a sense of creative frenetics to his little big band ... the drummer's krazed klez swoops you off your feet." —Jim Macnie, Village Voice

"Alexander's recording boasts a wide palette, a broad, pan-cultural reach connecting thrash-punk to Hasidic dance, and funny, evocative song titles, including "Kleyzmish Moshpit," "Yiddishe Kop," and "Khosidl for the Mixed Marriage." —Seth Rogovoy, The Forward

"... a relentlessly fun record." —John Schaeffer, WNYC Radio