Daniel Kahn & Jake Shulman-Ment / The building and other songs
דער בנין און אנדערע לידער

I first heard "All tomorrow's parties" in the home of an American immigrant to kibbutz on Israel. My musical imagination has not been the same, since. But, back then, who could have imagined Daniel Kahn opening a Yiddish recording with his own translation of Nico's flat vocals and his own expressive voice; or could have imagined Jake Shulman-Ment's violin adding a very Jewish feel to John Cale's droning fiddle, nor following it up with a klezmer dance? That, khevre, is part of the magic of these two veterans playing together and making magic.

In this new recording, Kahn offers new takes on modern Yiddish classics, such as the title song, as well as new Yiddish translations of familiar English-language favorites, ranging from that opening Velvet Underground classic, to Leonard Cohen's "The Future" (disquietingly prescient and all-too-current) and "Everybody knows," to Tom Waits. Add in the interplay with Shulman-Ment's fiddle and you have something special, and the two play back and forth, klezmer, yiddish, klezmer, english, and woven together back and forth.

Home, place are powerful themes of the album, from Tom Waits' closing "Tom Trauberts blues" (with its invocation of "Waltzing Matilda") to Woody Guthrie's "This land is your land" and Bruce Springsteen's "My father's house." Perhaps the theme is best offered in Perets Markish's Broken Pieces: "The pain of wanting so to see again reflected whole / what has been shattered and scattered across the seven oceans." These are gloomy times, but as Brecht's "Song of the Moldau" reminds us, "Night only lasts until day arrives, and day arrives." When it does, it will surely be accompanied by Shulman-Ment's uplifting fiddling and Kahn's gloomy song. Until then, we have this recording, even if we end up drunk as Lot, again, in Hamburg, singing Australian folk songs. Hah!

Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 28 Dec, 2024

Song Titles

1. Morgndike Simkhes—All tomorrow's parties (Lou Reed / Daniel Kahn) 5:04
2. Der Binyen—The Building (Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman / Daniel Kahn) 5:06<
3. Di Tsukunft—The future (Leonard Cohen / Daniel Kahn) 4:23
4. Yeder Eyner Veys (Leonard Cohen / Sharon Robinson / Daniel Kahn) 4:42
5. Dos Lid fun der Molde (Bertolt Brecht / Hanns Eisler / Daniel Kahn) 2:12
6. Zuchnower Nign (Daniel Kahn & Christian Dawid. Composed for Johanna Wehner's 2022 production of Joseph Roth's “Hiob“ - “Job“, at Frankfurt Schauspiel) 2:03
7. Brokhshtiker—Broken Pieces (Perets Markish) 5:05
8. Mayn Tatns Hoyz—My father's house (Bruce Springsteen / Daniel Kahn) 5:02
9. Dos Land iz Dayn Land—This land is your land (Woody Guthrie / Daniel Kahn) 3:55
10. Heym iz Mir (Aleyn Nor Vu Du Blaybst)—Home to me is anywhere you are (Tom Paxton / Daniel Kahn) 3:07
11. Tom Trauberts Kloglid (Shiker vi Lot in Hamburg)—Tom Traubert's blues (Tom Waits / Daniel Kahn) 5:10

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