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KLEZMER / YIDDISH


Zeydes un Eyniklekh (Grandfathers and grandsons) - Joel Rubin with the Epstein Brothers Orchestra 
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1 No Name Sirba ...............3'31
2 Mayn Eynikl (My Grandson)   ...............4'17
3 Baym Zeydns Tish (At Grandfather's Table) ......4'54
4 South Fallsburg   ...............3'45
5 Kale Bazetsn ("Seating" the Bride) .........5'03 6 Bukoviner Freylekhs .........  3'08
7 Freylekher Sher   ............... 3'13
8 Doina ...........................5'40

9 Baym Shotser Rebn (At the Rebbe's from Suceava) ......4'44
10 Freylekher Nushiele .........3'14

11 Hora and Sirba ...............3'43
12 Seymour's Bar Mitzvah ...... 3'54
13 A Khasene in Shtetl (A Wedding in Town) .........4'35
14 Lebedik un Freylekh (Lively and Merry)   ...... ..... 5'06
15 Brownie's Khosene (Brownie's Wedding) .........3'26
16 Rumenisher Freylekhs ......... 1'55

Arrangements: Joel Robin   Orchestrations and Musical Direction: Peter Sokolow

Joel Rubin, C clarinet " Max Epstein, Bb clarinet " Julius Epstein drums and percussion " William Epstein, trumpet " Danny Rubinstein, tenor and alto sax, Bb clarinet (H) " Peter Sokolow, piano " Pat Merola, string bass

75-06

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg


Zev Feldman & Andy Statman 
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This record was originally released 20 years ago and became an instant classic,
and is now considered one of the mainstays of the Klezmer repertoire.

"...klezmer virtuosos."

- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Mr. Statman unearths the soul of Jewish music..."

- NEW YORK TIMES

1. A GALITSIANER TANTSEL
2. OLD SHER
3. FUN DER KHUPA
4. DOINA
5. KALLARASH
6. THE BRIDE'S WALTZ
7. TERNOVKA SHER
8. KALEH BAZETSEN
9. GYPSY HORA AND SIRBA
10. FIHREN DI MAKHETONIM AHEIM
11. ALINEINEM
12. WEDDING MARCH



127-03

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Yiddish Soul - Giora Feidman & Ensemble 
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1. SHOFAR NIGUN 2:19
2. LET'S BE HAPPY 1:56
3. A DUDELE 5:08
4. HOPKELE 4:28
5. MAY THE TEMPLE BE REBUILT 5:51
6. BUBLITSCHKI - SILK NIGHT GOWN - VEHAIER EINEINU 4:39
7. AND THE ANGELS SING 2:40
8. DIBBUK - CHAVELLE 2:28
9. LA FIESTA 5:29
10. FRILING MAKH TSU DI EYGELEKH - SHALOM ALEICHEM - HALAKA 8:14
11 . JERUSALEM OF GOLD - OSEH SHALOM 3:48

TOTAL PLAYING TIME 47:05

EXTENSIVE INFORMATION IN BOOKLET DETAILLIERTE BEGLEITINFORMAT IM BOOKLET PRÉSENTATION DETAILLÉE À L'INTERIEUR



69-07

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Year in Yiddish song, The 
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Choral Arrengements by Mark Zuckerman
The Goldene Keyt Singers

Choral Arrangements by Mark Zuckerman The Goldene Keyt Singers

Mary Ellen Callahan, Hsi-Ling Chang Michael Steinberger, Tom Meglioranza

1 Mir zaynen do tsu zingen! 1:54
2 O, it kleyne likhtelekh 3:14
3 Fayer, fayer! 0:56
4 Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl 1:13
5 Urim-burim 1:43
6 Dona, dona 3:17
7 Zog, Maran 2:14
8 Dolye 3:22
9 Unter dayne vayse shtern 2:58
10 Vilne 4:06
11 In kamf 1:48
12 Mayn rue-plats 2:26
13 0, kum shoyn shtiler ovnt 2:08
14 Tum balalayke 1:28
15 Bay mir bistu sheyn 3:47
16 Amerike di prekhtike 1:40
17 Akhtsik er un zibitsik zi 1:49
18 Harbstlid 3:36
19 Di zun vet aruntergeyn   2:27


 

Total Duration:   46:57



24-36

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Wedding withiut a Bride - Budowitz 
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Tsum Badekns
1. Gliner Casn Nigr1 (trad. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:48
2. TSUm Badekns (trad. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:08
Kale Bazingns
3.Opshplln DI Kale (trail arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:18
4. Kale Bazingns (trad. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:31
5. Nokhshpil (trad. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 0:39
Khosn Baxingns
6. Opshpiln Dem Khosn (trad. arr by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:24
7. Khosn Bazingris (trail, arr by hlorowitz/Shephlerd) 1:51
8. Nokhshpil (trail, arr by Horowitz/SViepherd) 0:28
Di Khupe
9. Tsu Der Khupe (trad. air by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:21
10. Under Der Khupe (trail. arr. by Shepherd/Horowitz) 2:50
11. Fun Der KPnupe (t rail. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:24
Tsum Tish
12. Mekhutonim Tsu Der Vetshere (trad.arr by
 Shepherd/Horowitz) 2:05
13. PiotrkowerTish Nign (trad.arr by Shepherd/Horowitz) 2:53
Far Der Kale
14. Mitsve Tertsl (trail. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:30
15. Bughicis Freylakhs (trad. arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:43
16. Novi Sacz Sirba (trail, arr. by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:50
Far Di Mekhutonim
17 Horowitz's Dobranoc (comp arr by Horowitz) 3.54
18. BroygesTants (corrp. arr by Horowitz) 1:27
19. Shulem Tants Mit Variatsyes (comp. arr. by Horowitz)  3:38
Tsum Tants
20. Dudowitzer Sher (trad. arr by Horowitz/Shepherd) 5 57
Caute Nakht
21.Horowitz'sZogekhts(cornp.arrbyHorowitz) 3:34
22. Bney Heykhlo (trad. arr. by Shepherd/Horowitz) 2:57
23. Gute Nakht Vals (trail, arr by Horowitz/Shepherd) 2:43
24. Shapiros Korohod (trail. arr by Horowitz/Shepherd) 1:57

Total Tlfne: 56:51



69-14

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Tsirkus - Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band 
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Fruto de diez años de investigación de las honduras del sonido tradicional yídish de este extraordinario nuevo álbum del grupo klezmer norteamericano, irreverente, gozoso, hambriento y lleno de innovadoras sorpresas al apuntar al futuro. Duración: 62'38".



127-35

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Trio - Kroke 
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1. Spiel Klezmer - Yiddish Freylekhs (Kroke/traditional)    
2. Bessarabian Hora/Di Sapozhkelkh (traditional)    
3. From Doina To Hava Naguila (Kroke/traditional)    
4. Rumenisher Tants (traditional)    
5. Ajde Jano - Balkan Piece Klezmer Style (traditional)    
6. Kazimierz Impressions (Kroke/traditional)    
7. Jerusalem Part 1 (Kroke)    
8. Jerusalem Part 2 (Kukurba)    
9. Returns - Kazimierz 1995 (Kroke)    
10. 5757 (Kroke/traditional)


127-24

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

The well - Chava Alberstein and the Klezmatics 
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Loneliness, loss, displacement, and death loom large among the topics covered in the 15 Yiddish poems set to melodies by popular Israeli folksinger Chava Alberstein, and arranged by New York's exploratory Klezmatics, on this deeply sad and beautiful album. Anyone familiar with the Klezmatics' more rambunctious side will be impressed by the inventive delicacy and subtlety they bring to these elegant vestiges of fading Yiddish culture, virtually reanimating it with tangos, Hasidic melodies, polkas, and festive freylekhs that recall its vibrant past. Alberstein's low voice meshes beautifully with Lorin Sklamberg's high tenor, adding extra emotional resonance to a series of poems in the middle of the album that evoke the genocide twilight that enveloped the writers' world half a century ago. Their tragedy is redeemed in The Well. --Richard Gehr

1. Di Krenitse   
2. Ikh Shtey Unter A Bokserboym   
3. Ergets Shtil/Baym Taykh   
4. Ver Es Hot   
5. Ovnt Lid  
6. A Malekh Veynt         
7. Bay Nakht         
8. Vek Nisht         
9. Kh'vel Oyston Di Shikh         
10. Mayn Shvester Khaye         
11. Umetik         
12. Di Elter         
13. Velkhes Meydl S'nemt A Bokher         
14. Di Goldene Pave         
15. Zayt Gezunt



153-01

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

The Polina Shepherd Vocal Experience - Baym Taykh 
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New Yiddish Song

Tracklist - Baym Taykh 45:27

1. Ai-yai-yai 5:44
2. Shpitsn berg Lyrics: Osher Shvartsman 1:48
3. A frisher vint Lyrics: David Hofshtein 3:00
4. 2x2=4 Lyrics: H.Leivick 3:15
5. Nit ikh veyn un nit ikh lakh Lyrics: Shike Driz 2:36
6. Der heyliker Balshemtov Lyrics: Zisha Landau 4:47
7. Tsvey Lyrics: Moyshe Kulbak 2:09
8. Tirtl-toybn Lyrics: Abraham Sutzkever 1:02
9. Lernendik geyen Lyrics: Yitskhok Leybush Peretz 0:59
10.Dertseyl Lyrics: Moyshe-Leyb Halpern 4:42
11.Oy, a shuster darf ikh nisht Lyrics: trad. 3:11
12. A nigndl Lyrics: Shike Driz 3:01
13.Vos vilstu Lyrics: trad. 3:23
14. Baym Taykh Lyrics: Mani Leyb 5:16

This CD, the Quartet Ashkenazim’s fourth recording contains all original compositions with 11 poems by Yiddish writers, two from folklore and one wordless. The diversity of musical expression far surpassing all their previous works. Drawing from a large variety of Poets and a great variety of subjects Polina Shepherd creates a world where all is other and yet all is strangely familiar.



127-84

Peso/Weight: 0.18 kg

Ten pieces to save the world - Kroke 
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1. Sun    
2. Desert    
3. Childhood    
4. Cave    
5. Usual happiness    
6. Take it easy    
7. Mountains    
8. Dream    
9. Light in the darkness - T4.2    
10. Hope

Album Description
"Ten pieces to save the world" - what in the world makes three musicians from Kracow, Poland believe that they will save the world with their music? The ancient greeks had a good word for that: HYBRIS - boldness does not contain the same real and implied meaning. What Prometheus did was hybris: challenging the Gods. To be honest: Kroke are not sure to get through with it. But we are very sure that it's worth a try. Because deep in our hearts we know that if anything could save this world it's music. However, this CD may not save the world - but it will make the world a bit better for those who are ready to listen with an open heart.



127-28

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Sweet home bukovina - The chicago klezmer ensemble 
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Notes from a musical journey

1. Sha, Sha, Di Shviger Kumt (trad./arr. C.K.E.) 6:21
2. Yiddish Hora - A Heymish Freylekhs
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 5:02
3. Oy, Di Kinderlakh!
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 3:09
4. A Galician Dance
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 5:47
5. Doyna
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 5:14
6. A Romanian Fantasy
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 3:24
7. Mazltov Far Di Mekhutonim
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 4:36
8. Behusher Khosid
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 4:47
9. Hora & Honga
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 3:50
10. Terkisher Tants & Khosidl
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 6:28
11. Romanian Hora
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 3:47
12. Mazel Tov, in memory of Dave Tarras
(Tarras/arr. C.K.E.) 5:13

total playing time: 58:19

12-page-booklet in English, French & German

Tracks 4, 6 & 9 recorded December 11 & 15, 1987
at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago
Recording engineers: Mike Rasfeld & Ken Racek

All other tracks recorded live, August 11 & 12, 1989
at the Lake Street Church in Evanstown, Illinois
Recording engineer: Ken Racek

Produced by the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble

Release date: 01/11/2001

The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble:
Kurt Bjorling, clarinet, bass clarinet, accordion; Eve Monzingo, piano;
Joshua Huppert, violin; Alan Ehrlich, double bass (except track 4)

with: Patrick Fleming, tenor mandolin (tracks 6 & 9); Alan Goldsher, double bass (track 4)

 

A Brief History:

The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble began forming in 1983 and gave its first performances under that name in the Spring of 1984. Over the next five years many friends and colleagues played with me at various times, with different combinations of instruments, large groups and small, as 'Chicago Klezmer Ensemble.' In December, 1987, the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble made its first recordings. The band had five members then, but the most effective pieces were recorded by smaller units: two trios and a duet. Those three pieces are included in this CD.
At the beginning of 1989 the band solidified into a core group of four musicians, all of whom are still in the band now, thirteen years later; Kurt Bjorling (myself), Al Ehrich (since 1984), Joshua Huppert (1988) and Eve Monzingo (1989). (The only other permanent member of Chicago Klezmer Ensemble during these years was Deborah Strauss who began playing with us in 1992 and stayed until 2001.) In August, 1989 this quartet recorded the nine pieces which complete this CD.

In early 1988, a few months after the first recordings in this collection were made, I was introduced to Zev Feldman by a mutual acquaintance. Zev was an important figure for me. His LP with Andy Statman, "Jewish Klezmer Music," (1979) had been part of my initiation into klezmer music, and it had served as an example for the idea that klezmer music can be played with emotional depth and intelligence. When I met him, Zev Feldman had 'retired' from active involvement with klezmer music, so it was only with some reluctance that he had agreed to meet me: an unknown musician interested in 'klezmer music.' I did not know this at the time. I simply showed up at his residence at the appointed time with a cassette containing my first recordings, and as we listened to some of these pieces (track #3, 6, and 9) Zev became visibly more interested and then excited. Our conversation turned from an exchange of polite comments to a lively discussion about details of rhythm, phrasing, repertoire, history ... From that moment a new stage in my musical life had begun.
Zev's encouragement added to the confidence and interest I took in my musical efforts, so it was natural, a year and a half later, that I would send Zev recordings of the music Chicago Klezmer Ensemble had been developing (the nine remaining tracks on this CD). He wrote the following in response:
October 10, 1989
"... I think now that you see the great challenge in performing the authentic music in a manner which is both true to the sources and attempts to bring out all the musical potential of the genre. The music was never sealed from various influences, but it had a definite shape of its own. If one wants to alter that shape, then one should begin by knowing what it was, as Dave Tarras did for example. I'm afraid our contemporaries as a rule don't have this basic information ... When I used to go to Dave Tarras' house in the last few years he would play me the latest klezmer LPs, frown and tell me that no one was coming anywhere near what he had done. I think he really would have liked what you are doing."
Dave Tarras had died earlier that year, in February, 1989, and he would not get to hear our music. But the influence of his music runs through much of the material in this collection: The first piece, "SHA,SHA, DI SHVIGER KUMT," is a medley of 4 'KHOSIDLS,' three of which we learned from recordings Dave Tarras made in 1924. The last piece is a medley of three tunes Tarras recorded in the1940s.
So, we called the new recording "1989" and we produced it privately on cassettes which we sold at performances and by mail-order. Twelve years later I still hear from people who call to tell me that this is their favorite recording of klezmer music and to ask, "Is it available on CD?" So, ORIENTE Musik and the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble have decided to issue this 'new/old CD' which still sounds as good to us as it did in 1989.

Kurt Bjorling, September, 2001



127-60

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Sounds of the vanishing world, The - Kroke 
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1. Earth - Behusher Chosid (Traditional arr. Kroke)    
2. Air (Tomasz Kukurba/Jerzy Bawol)    
3. Question - Bublitschki (Traditional arr. Tomasz Lato)    
4. Time (Tomasz Lato)    
5. Dance (Jerzy Bawol)    
6. Love - Lullaby for Kamila (Jerzy Bawol)    
7. Fire (Tomasz Kukurba)    
8. Water (Kroke)    
9. The Sounds of the Vanishing World (Kroke/Dariusz Grela)    

Album Description
This may sound like a manifesto aimed at saving things of value, because yes, in a world of unlimited communication hysteria, Kroke want us to think about things that are really important in life: "Earth", "Water", "Fire" or "Love", for example, to mention titles on this recording.

Last but not least it should be mentioned that this Kroke CD, like their three previous ones, was produced in Krakow, Poland. This city itself is a symbol of a disappearing world. Krakow's long history provides its lively cultural life with inspiration. Kroke is proof enough of the vitality, variety and ability to innovate what characterises Polish culture today.



127-27

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Soul of Klezmer, The - Rêve et Passion - 2 CD 
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CD 1

1. KLEZMATICS: ROMANIAN FANTASY 4:41
2. ANDY STATMAN QUARTET: PURIM 4:58
3. FRANK LONDON, LORIN SKLAMBERG, URI CAINE: A NIGN 3:22
4. THE EPSTEIN BROTHERS ORCHESTRA: EPSTEIN's DOINA 5:34
5. KLEZMER PLUS: OT AZOY 4:00
6. BRAVE OLD WORLD: BRAVE OLD SIRBAS 2:54
7. NEW ORLEANS KLEZMER ALL STARS: DOWNTOWN DOINA 4:21
8. MUZSIKAS: HANEROS HALELU 3:15
9. KASBEK: OY PIYDU YA 4:03
10. BUDOWITZ: KALE BAVEYNENS 3:59
11. AVA GOLD & EPSTEIN BROTHERS: A YIDDISHA MOMMA 3:55
12. THE KLEZMORIM: THALASSA 2:13
13. KAPELYE: OY, TATE S'IZ GIT 3:18
14. NAFTULE BRANDWEIN: NIFTY'S FREILACH 2:5'1
15. DAVE TARRAS: UNZER TOIRELE 3:24
16. ABE SCHWARTZ ORCHESTRA: A DREIDELE FAR ALLE-FREILACHS 3:1 1
17. BRAVE OLD WORLD: THE TUNE 6:28

TOTAL PLAYING TIME 66:30

CD 2

1. FRANK LONDON, LORIN SKLAMBERG, URI CAINE: PESEKH NIGN/MIPNEY MA 6:25
2. ALICIA SVIGALS & LAUREN BRODY: GASH NIGN 4:02
3. ZEV FELDMAN AND ANDY STATMAN: GYPSY HORA AND SIRBA 4:21
4. THE KLEZMORIM: FIDL VOLACH 3:44
5. THE CHICAGO KLEZMER ENSEMBLE: RUMEYNISCHER BULGARISH 3:50
6. KLEZMATICS: SHVARTS UN VAYS 4:58
7. ANDY STATMAN & DAVID GRISMAN: CHASSIDIC MEDLEY: ADIR HU/MOSHE EMES 4:13
8. NEW ORLEANS KLEZMER ALL STARS: DE KOP TUT MIR VEY 3:05
9. BRAVE OLD WORLD: BASARABYE 6:49
10. MUZSIKÁS: LAMENTING SONG 2:04 
11. BUDAPESTER KLEZMER BAND: OVERTURE - FIDDLER ON THE ROOF 5:06
12. KROKE: RUMENISHER TANTS 2:43
13. SAM MUSIKER AND HIS ORCHESTRA: A HEIMJSHER BULGAR 2:53
14. NAFTULE BRANDWEIN & THE ABE SCHWARTZ ORCHESTRA: FIHREN DI MECHUTONIM AHEIM 3:40
15. KLEZMATICS: SHNIRELE PERELE 6:'13

TOTAL PLAYING TIME 64:11

69-08

Peso/Weight: 0.50 kg


Son - Amsterdam Klezmer Band 
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1. Opa D
2. Son
3. Spaghetti
4. Der Fryske Bulgar
5. Blue Hora
6. Zosulenka
7. Vondelpark
8. Magnificent 7
9. Multa bani ne femei (De Roemeen)
10. Dr. Clavan
11. Bublitzki
12. Tussen Amsterdam en Rotterdam
13. Ademnood
14. Apritfeesten
15. Staapgebrek
16. Trieste Dromen

153-27

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Seventh trip - Kroke 
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127-83

Peso/Weight: 0.97 kg

Sconfini - Klezroym 
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Grupo italiano que cultiva la música klezmer judía, en sus facetas sefardí y ashkenazí, con algún acercamiento al jazz o a la canción de autor (como en la versión de un tema de Fabrizio De André aquí incluida). Esta recopilación recoge muestras de sus tres álbumes, grabados entre 1998 y 2003. Duración: 61'34".

CENI’ - TRACKLIST

1) Trokar kazal trokar mazal 5’29’’ (G. Coen)
2) Fel Shara 2’48” (Tradizionale)
3) To East 5’39’’ (A. Pandolfo)
4) Canzone dell’amore perduto 4’17” (F. De Andrè)
5) Klezmer song 7’28’’ (M. Camboni)
6) Oyfn pripetshik 4’21’’ (M. Warshawsky)
7) Ershter Vals 4’55” (Tradizionale)
8) Shabbat Day 5’10” (Tradizionale)
9) Cerimonia Nuziale 4’36” (Tradizionale)
10) Szol a kakas mar 4’49’’ (Tradizionale)
11) Eléna Tantz 4’14” (L. Cesari)
12) Yankele nel Ghetto 2’55”
(A. Pandolfo, P. Laino, R. Manzi, G. Coen, M. Camboni, L. Cesari)


BONUS TRACK

Dove osano le quaglie 1’24” (A. Pandolfo)
Un amore complicato 3’11” (P. Laino – R. Manzi)



127-30

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Sceni - Klezroym 
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Grupo italiano que cultiva el repertorio judío en sus múltiples facetas de canción, klezmer y jazz, con arreglos originales para instrumentos de viento y de cuerda pulsada y la voz solista de Eva Coen cantando en castellano, italiano, yídish, húngaro e inglés. Duración: 68'58".



127-38

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Sages of Chelm - Matthew H. Fields and the Houston Sinfonia 
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1 Khutzpah - 29:03
2 Tsores - 15.53
3 Simchas... 12.29



24-40

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Rythm + Jews - The Klezmatics 
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1. Fun Tashlikh   
2. NY Psycho Freylekhs   
3. Di Sapozhkelekh   
4. Clarinet Yontev   
5. Araber Tants   
6. Di Zun Vet Aruntergeyn         
7. Tsiveles Bulgar         
8. Violin Doyna         
9. Honikzaft         
10. Bulgar A La Klezmatics         
11. Shnirele, Perele         
12. Der Yidisher Soldat In Di Trentshes         
13. Bukoviner Freylekhs         
14. Buhusher Khosid         
15. Terkish-Bulgarish 



153-12

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Rise up! - The Klezmatics 
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Shteyt Oyf!

1. Barikadn
2. Kats un Moyz
3. Klezmorimlekh
4. Hora 
5. Hevl Iz Havolim
6. Gayster         
7. I Ain't Afraid         
8. Tepel         
9. Loshn-Koydesh         
10. Bulgars         
11. Yo Riboyn Olam         
12. St. John's Nign         
13. Honga         
14. Makht Oyf         
15. I Ain't Afraid [English Edit]

On Rise Up!, The Klezmatics once again expand the concept of klezmer music by fusing the radical and the traditional via edgy jazz musicianship, interesting arrangements of traditional Jewish folk songs and Eastern European rhythms, and myriad other imaginative influences. Created in response to the 9/11 attacks, the album is an often somber meditation of loss in songs about deathbed regrets, lost love, and the dangers of vanity and complacency. While the band is typically best known for its ecstatic moments of musical celebration, even the instrumentals here have a subdued tone to them. The album is more reaffirming on its two versions (one in English and one in Yiddish) of Holly Near’s "I Ain’t Afraid": the message is a powerful indictment on religious fanaticism set to an uplifting gospel arrangement. Even though they didn’t write it, the song crystallizes the social and musical slant of The Klezmatics, a band with a message that preaches in its own unique style from its own very unique musical perspective. --Tad Hendrickson



153-04

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Possessed - The Klezmatics 
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1. Shprayz Ikh Mir   
2. Kolomeyke   
3. Moroccan Game   
4. Undoing World   
5. Mizmor Shir Lehanef (Reefer Song)   
6. Shavarts un Vays (Black and White)     
7. Lomir Heybn Dem Bekher     
8. Sirba Matey Matey     
9. Mipney Ma     
10. Beggars' Dance     
11. Shnaps-Nign     
12. Interlude     
13. Dybbuk Shers     
14. Fradde's Song     
15. Der Shvartser Mi Adir (Tha Black Benediction)     
16. Hinokh Yafo     
17. Mipney Ma     
18. Eyn Mol     



153-24

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Popular Yiddish songs 
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1. RUMANIA RUMANIA (3'05)
2. MAZEL TOV (3'09)
3. FAR NEELA NOKH NEELA (2'45)
4. AI-D-DAI-DA (2'27)
5. ODESSA MAMA (2'36)
6. YACH TSIRI BIM (2'42)
7. OIB MIR BESSARABIA (3'10)
8. SKRIP, KLEZMER, SKRIP (3'13)
9. TSEN KOPIKES (2'25)
10. AZ MEN FARZUCHT (2'58)
11. DOS OIBERSHTE FUN SHTOISEL (2'31)
12. DES HELIGE SCHNEIDER (3'12)
13. PASSACH SHIN SHA (3'30)
14. MESHUIGINER MOSHIAKH (5'08)
15. A KHAZAN A SHIKER (6'21)
16. MY YIDDISHE MOMME (5'42)
17. ELI ELI (4'10)
18. DEN REBENS NIGUN (3'07)
19. TANST TANST YIDELEKH (3'02)
20. BAYM REBENS SUDE (3'18)

Interprètes: Aaron Lebedeff (titres 1 àll) - Maurice Schwartz (titres 12 à 15) Sophie Tucker (titre 16) -Joseph Rosenblatt (titrel7) - Elenkrig's orch. (titre 18) - Abe Schwartz (titres 19 & 20)



69-16

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Oy, S'iz Gut 
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14 Fabulous tracks for a fantastic price

1. The Klezmer Conservatory Band - Oy, S'iz Gut (Oh, It's Good) 2.50
2. The Klezmorim - A Wild Night In Odessa 3.01 3. Finjan - Dancing On Water 2.36
4. Dan Crow, Marcia Berman, Uncle Ruthie Buell, J.P. Nightingale, Fred Sokolow - KHANEKAH 3.02
5. Theodore Bikel & NEC Jewish Music Ensemble - Der Bekher 2.51
6. Judith Berkson, Rebecca Shrimpton & NEC Jewish Music Ensemble - Pesah A La Mano 2.46
7. Brave Old World - Kolomeykes 3.10
8. Rachel Buchman - Efiahu Hanavi (Elijah The Prophet) 2.22
9. The Klezmer Conservatory Band - Di Sapozhkelekh 3.51
10. Naftule Brandwein - Nifty's Freilach 2.46
11. Kapelye - Yoshke Furt Avek 2.41
12. NEC Chorus & NEC Jewish Music Esemble - Al Hanisim 2.21
13. The Klezmer Conservatory Band - Di Mekhutonim/Tants A Freylekhs (The In-Laws Are Coming/Dance A Freylekhs) 4.15
14. Marissa Steingold & Hankus Netsky - 0 Ir Kleyne Likhtelekh 4.51



153-08

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Old roots / New World - Maxwell Street Klezmer Band 
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"These are fine musicians...they care about the music. And when they care - I care." - Theo Bikel, Actor Singer

 

1. Lebedike Honga (A Lively Honga)
2. Shpil di Fidl, Shpil/Yidl mitn Fidl (Play, Fiddle, Play/Yidl with the Fiddle)
3. Leah's Saraband

4. Chusn Kalleh Mazl Tov (Congratulations, Bride and Groom)
5. Friling (Spring)
6. Zol Zayn Gelebt (Live to Enjoy!)
7. Oy, Abram
8. Galitzianer vs. Litvak (The Polish Jew vs. the Lithuanian Jew)
9. Abi Gezunt (Good Health is All That Counts)
10. Undzer Toyrele (Our Beloved Torah)
11. Chiribim
12. Yoshke/Tantz, Yidelekh (Dance On, Jewish People)
13. Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin

 

Almost anything one writes about klezmer music sounds a bit serious. Originating from Eastern Europe, klezmer, or Jewish folk music, features clarinet and fiddle, but can also include tuba, trumpet, saxophone, flute, piano, percussion, and vocals. This information, however, fails to convey how much fun a group like the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band can be. Eclectic and occasionally outrageous, the 17-member band is bursting at the buttons with intensity. With bouncy instrumentals like "A Lively Honga" and happy vocals like "Play, Fiddle, Play/Yidl With the Fiddle," Old Roots New World reminds one of a cross between John Philip Sousa and cabaret. Kimber Leigh Nussbaum handles most of the vocals and her theatrical style on pieces like "Congratulations, Bride and Groom" captures the joyful spirit of a wedding celebration. Violinist Alex Koffman has done a fine job of providing lively arrangements for many of these songs and instrumentals, which must have been quite a task with all the musicians involved. The band does have a serious side, though it's easy to overlook it amidst so much excitement. A quiet, reflective "Leah's Saraband" crosses folk and classical traditions, while the lyric of "Springtime" recalls the Holocaust and how one woman attempts to continue with her life after the murder of her husband. The album ends with the ambitious "Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin," a 17-minute instrumental with multiple phases ranging from ecstatic to thoughtful. With Old Roots New World, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band deliver an album that captures the band's abundant energy and versatility. — Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.

"Both Tarras’ and Schwartz’ arrangements appear on Old Roots New World, the latest from Chicago’s own Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. This high-sprited ensemble, bursting at over a dozen members, is also bursting with verve, wit, and talent. “Old Roots" also features Yiddish theater classics— with the Bette Midler-like sound of Kimber Leigh Nussbaum filling in for Molly Picon— and original compositions, like the ambitious, 17-minute suite “Klezmer Rhapsody." The band’s founder, Lori Lippitz and Nussbaum to channel the a Barry Sisters on a cheeky “Chiribim," and the rakish Alex Koffman is a stand-out on violin. The sound is big—Chicago may soon be too small to hold it." We would love to make this last line happen! - Paul Weider



127-04

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Music from the Yiddish Radio Project 
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Archival recordings from the Goleden Age of Yiddish Radio 1930s-1950s

1. Introduction to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swing Orchestra
2. The Bridgeroom Special - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swing Orchestra
3. Adler Shoes Commercial
4. Second Avenue Square Dance - Dave Tarras Orchestra
5. Oh Mama, I'm So in Love - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
6. WEVD Station ID - Solomon Dingol
7. Die Goldene Khasene - Abe Ellstein Orchestra
8. Manischewitz Matzo Commercial - The Barry Sisters and Jan Bart with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
9. Samson and Delilah - The Barry Sisters and Jan Bart with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
10. Bei Mir Bist du Schoen - The Andrews Sisters
11. Hebrew National Meats Commercial
12. Joe and Paul Commercial - Paul Kofsky and Sholom Secunda
13. Joe and Paul - Barton Brothers
14. WEVD Station ID
15. Levine Mit Zayn Flying Machine - Charles Cohan
16. WVFW Station ID - Frank Daniels
17. Parkway Cafeteria Commercial - Rubin Goldberg and Hannah Hollander
18. Dona Dona - Moishe Oysher and Sholom Secunda
19. Stanton Street Clothier's Theme Song - Moishe Oysher
20. WBBC Station ID - Brett Childs
21. Wo Bistdu Gewesen Vor Prohibition - Naftule Brandwein Orchestra
22. Milady Frozen Fruit Products Commercial - Pincus Sisters
23. Ajax Commercial - Seymour Rechtzeit
24. Surrey Mitn Fringe Afn Top, Oy S'iz a Sheyne Fremorgn - Seymour Rechtzeit
25. Introduction to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
26. Yidel Mitn Fiedel - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
27. WCNW Station ID
28. Turkish Yalle Ve Uve - Naftule Brandwein Orchestra
29. Gefilte Fish Commercial
30. Dayenu - Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet
31. Eastside Gluckstern's Restaruant Commercial - Pincus Sisters
32. Barbasol Commercial - Seymour Rechtzeit
33. Battle Hymn of the Republic - Seymour Rechtzeit
34. Sign-Off to "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" - The Barry Sisters with Sam Medoff and the Yiddish Swingtet

The dual assault of TV and rock & roll in the 1950s caused many casualties, among them swing music, radio, and a vital Yiddish-American culture. This wonderful project (and its companion 10-part National Public Radio documentary series) celebrates a time when those three institutions joined together to form a powerful force of their own. Producers Henry Sapoznik and Yair Reiner re-create Yiddish radio's golden age of the 1930s through the 1950s with a combination of klezmer music, "Yiddish swing," and commercial jingles culled from vintage 78s as well as radio transcriptions (once the property of longtime TV host Joe Franklin). It's a fascinating story of a time when Jewish culture thrived in its new home, but within is buried a different story: one of assimilation. The once-beloved traditional klezmer sounds of Eastern Europe (represented here in the work of Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein) were slowly replaced by "Yiddish swing," a mostly successful attempt to update traditional Jewish pop and folk songs in the fashionable swing style--or, as Sapoznik puts it, "playing downtown Jewish music in an uptown style." The need (or perhaps desire) for acceptance is revealed in both performer names (the Bagelman Girls became the Barry Sisters) and in "nonethnic" product spots for essentially "ethnic" products. Tellingly, it was the Midwestern Andrews Sisters' 1937 hit reading of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (originally from a Yiddish play) that set off an explosion of Yiddish and American cultural cross-pollination. It represented the peak of Yiddish cultural influence in America--and as it turned out, the beginning of that culture's demise. For most, Music from the Yiddish Radio Project will be an endearing and enlightening history lesson, but for many others, it will be a bittersweet nostalgic journey through a time that remains so vivid in memories, yet feels like 1,000 years ago.



127-33

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys 
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Klezmer- clarinetist Margot Leverett joins forces with today's stars of klezmer and bluegrass to explore the shared musical spirit of two genres literally worlds apart. Appalachian tunes by Bill Monroe meet klezmer melodies from pre-war Russia and Eastern Europe, some newly discovered, and the resulting medleys and improvisations are at once raw, funny, melancholic and footstomping.

1. Cluck 01' Hen 2. Klezmer Waltz 3. Russian Sher & "Growling Old Man, Growling Old Woman" 4. Bit Morgn 5. Leather Britches 6. Leibes Tanz (Moldavian tune) 7. Kentucky Dance Medley: Bill Monroe meets Sid Beckerman 8. Lonesome Fiddle Blues: for Jews 9. F major Bulgar 10. Sea of Reeds 11. A Redl & A Volich (Kiselgof Collection) 12. Lonesome Moonlight Waltz & Volich 13. I. Yankele (Mordechai Cebirtig) a. Shlof mayn feygele III. Chava

MARGOT LEVERETT: CLARINET
KENNY KOSEK: FIDDLE
BARRY MITTERHOFF: MANDOLIN, GUITAR
MARTY CONFURIUS: BASS
JOE SELLY: GUITAR

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS:

FRANK LONDON &
THE KLEZMER BRASS ALLSTARS
MICHAEL ALPERT. VOCALS, ACCORDION
ZALMEN MLOTEK: PIANO
RUSLAN AGABABAYEV: PIANO



127-21

Live at the Pit - Kroke 
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Tracks:
 1. THE NIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Harry Kandel)
2. TSIGOYNER TANTS (trad./Kroke)
3.a) WATER (Kroke)  b) DAFINO VINO (Kroke/trad.)
4. BESSARABIAN HORA/DI SAPOZHKELEKH (trad.)
5. KAZIMIERZ'S IMPRESSIONS (Amitai Neeman/trad./Kroke)
6. THE SECRETS OF THE LIFE TREE (Kroke/H.Kandel)
7. SPIEL KLEZMER - YIDDISH FREYLEKHS (trad./Kroke)
8. SHER (trad.)
 
all tracks arranged and produced by Kroke
 
Recorded live 3rd July 1998 at "The Pit", Itchel Lane, Crondall, Near Farnham, Surrey; U.K.
 
KROKE:
Tomasz Kukurba: viola, violin, vocal, double bass percussion (track 8)
Jerzy Bawol: accordion
Tomasz Lato: double bass
 
 Date of release: 20/10/98         total playing time:  67:44


127-26

Peso/Weight: 0.127 kg

Live at Severin - G. Feidman & Eisenberg 
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127-76

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Laughter and Tears - The Wolford Rosemblum Duo 
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A Jewish Saga

Dale Wolford - Saxophone
Ivan Rosenblum - Piano


CLASSICAL KLEZMER
Four Hebraic Pictures in the Klezmer Tradition
(art. Simeon Bellison)
1 Jacob Weinberg: Grandmother's Stories 2:05
G. Fitelberg: To the Wedding
2 "Kale-Besczen' (Preparing the Bride) 3:38
3 Processon 1:41
Ivan Rosenblum: Shred Voices (1981)
4 Yentel l 2:35
5 Dvayre 11 2:50
6 Boris Levenson: Hebrew Dance 2:15
Carl Anton Wirth: Jepthah
7 Invocation & Dance 7:14


HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE
Elwood Derr: I Never Saw Another Butterfly
8 Terezin 2:49
9 The Butterfly 2:50
10 The Old Man 2:17
11 Fear 1:24
12 The Garden 2:04


SYNAGOGUE PRAYER
13 Eli, Eli 2:23


SOUNDS FROM ISRAEL
Paul Ben-Haim: Three Songs Without Words
14 An- 3:40
15 BaIIade 2:42
16 Sephardic Melody 3:23


CLASSICAL KLEZMER
17 Jacob Weinberg: Maypole 1:16


AN ENCORE FROM JEWISH VAUDEVILLE
Irving Berlin (arr. Ivan Rosenblum)
18 Sadie Sale., (Go Home) 2:49
19 Yiddle on Your Fiddle, Play Some Ragtime 3:07


Total Duration: 53:38


24-27

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg


L'amour des niguns - Duo Peylet-Cuniot 
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1. CHAVA - Anonyme - Arrangement Denis Cuniot   3'19

2. DOINA - Nano Peylet LET'S BE HAPPY - Anonyme - Arrangement Nano Peylet   6'04

3. WEDDING WALTZ -J. Sperling   4'39

4. CHASSIDIC DANCE - Naftule Brandwin m BERDISCHEVER CHOSSID - Anonyme - Arrgt Nano Peylet   5'12

5. DER ALEF-BEYZ (OYFN PRIPETSHIK) - Mark M. Warshawsky - Arrangement Denis Cuniot   3'17

6. ZOG NICHT KEIN MOLL - Paroles Hirsh Glik - Musique Dmitri Pokrass   2'12

7. ODESSA BULGAR DANCE GRECQUE A TRÈS JOLIE CHANSON - Mishka Tsiganoff   8'09

8. BOUBLICHKI - Anonyme - Arrangement Denis Cuniot   1'54

9. TIEF IN WALDELE - Anonyme - Arrangement Nano Peylet   3' 13

10. IMPRO-INTRO. NIGUN POUR MARIN - Nano Peylet   6'42

11. MIR LEBEN EYBIK - Texte Leyb Rozenthal - Musique Anonyme   1'19

12. BAY MIR BIST DU SHEIN -Jacobs/Segunda   3'35



69-22

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Klezmer for the sultan - Yinon Muallem 
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271-67

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Klezmer - Jewish music from Old World to Our World 
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A companion CD to Henry Sapoznik's book Klezmer! Jewish Music From Old World To
Our World (Schirmer) is a chronological anthology which offers an overview
of the diversity, audacity and enthusiasm that was Yiddish popular culture
at its height, its decline and its current revitalization.

1. ABE ELENKRIG'S ORCHESTRA Nit Ba Motin (Not By \loti)1912 2. CANTOR YOSELLE ROSENBLATT Ato Yozarto 1912. 3. BELF'S RUMYNSKI ORK'ESTR Mayofus (How Beautiful) 1912 4. JOSEPH MOSKOWITZ Doina 1916 5. THE ORIGINAL DIXIELAND JAll BAND Palesteena 1920 6. GUS GOLDSTEIN WITH ORCHESTRA Di Grine Kuzine (The Greenhorn Cousin) 1922 . 7. NAFTUI BRANDWEIN w/ABE SCHWARTZ ORCHESTRA Firn Di Mekhutonim Aheym (Escorting the Parents Bride and Groom Home) 1923 8. KANDEL'S ORCHESTRA Di Hasidim Furn Tsum Rebin (The Hasidic Travel to the Rebbe) 1924 9. JOSEPH CHERNIAVSKY AND HIS YIDDISH-AMERICAN JAll BAND Bazetzns un a Freylekhs (Seating of the Bride and a Freylekhs) 1925 10. AARON LEBEDEFF w/PERETé SANDLER'S ORCHESTRA Der Freylekher Rumeyner (The Happy Rumanian) 1925 11. ABE SCHWARTZ'S ORCHESTRA Di Rayze Nukh Amerika (The Trip To America) 1928 12. ALEXANDER OLSHANETSKY'S ORCHESTRA Mazl in Libe (Lucky in Love) 1929 .13. SAM MEDOFF AND HIS ORCHESTRA featuring DAVE TARRAS, clarinet WHN The Bridegroom Special "Yiddish Melodies in Swing" 1938 14. SEYMOUR RECHTZEIT, THE BAGELMAN SISTERS, DAVE TARRAS AND ABE ELLSTEIN'S ORCHESTRA Dem Nayem Sher (The New Sher) 1940 15. SAM MUSIKER AND HIS ORCHESTRA Rumanian Fantasy 1956 • 16. ANDY STATMAN, ZEV FELDMAN, MARTY CONFURIU Voliner Bulgar "Jewish Klezmer Music" 1979 •17. THE KLEZMER CONSERVATORY BAND A Freylekl Nakht in Gan Eydn (A Happy Night in the Garden of Eden) "Oy, Chanukah" 1986. x 18. KAPELYE Chic] "Kapelye's Chicken" 1987 19. BOILED IN LEAD Sher "From the Ladle to the

Grave" 1989 20. KLEZMER PLUS Sidney's Eygene Bulgars "Klezmer Plus! Featuring   r Sid Beckerman & Howie Leess" 1991 21. THE KLEZMATICS Man in a Hat "Jews

With Horns" 1994. 22. KLEZKAMP DANCE BAND Bulgar (Lauren Brody accordion, " Y A 6-o Mark Rubin, tuba, Henry Sapoznik, banjo, Merlin Shepherd clarinet) 1997

 

This compact disc was compiled from extremely rare old 78s, which have been remastered to produce the best possible sound. However, the listener is advised to approach

this CD in its historical perspective realizing that there are some imperfections and noise in the original recordings. These should be viewed as being of minor consequence in view of the considerable musical and historical importance of this project.



127-34

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Klezmatica 
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24-44

Peso/Weight: 0.96 kg

Kings of Freylekh Land - The Epstein Brothers Orchestra 
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1 Beresh Katz' Bulgar ............3'34
2 Mitzve Tants .......................4'03
3 Olshanetsky Medley ........... 6'33

4 Hasidic Medley .................. 3'25
5 Fotta-Poppa & Shtekelekh..
2'59
6 Cabaret Songs & Gypsy Bulgar 8'

7 Hora & Sirba ..... .. ..............
4'59
8 Epstein's Doina ....................5'28

9 Moskowitz' Sirba .................4'07
10 Romanian Drinking Song & Kalarash .................................4'37

11 T'khies Ha-Meysim (Resurrection of the Dead) ..... 6'24
12 Keshenever Shtikele ...........3'09
13 Hungarian Melodies . ..........6'47
14 Silkene Pajamas &
Epstein Nign ............................2'24
67'02
Max Epstein, B6 clarinet " Julius Epstein, drums and percussion " William Epstein, trumpet and flugelhorn " Danny Rubinstein, tenor and alto sax " Peter Solcolow, piano " Pat Merola, string bass

75-07

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg


Jews with horns - The Klezmatics 
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1. Man In A Hat      
2. Fisherlid      
3. Khsidim Tants      
4. Simkhes-toyre      
5. Romanian Fantasy
6. Bulgars/The Kiss         
7. Nign         
8. Honga         
9. In Kamf         
10. Doyna         
11. Freyt Aykh, Yidlekh         
12. Kale Bazetsn         
13. Heyser Tartar-tants         
14. Es Vilt Zikh Mir Zen         
15. Overture 



153-14

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Hungry Hearts - Classic Yiddish Clarinet Solos of the 1920s - Joel Rubin 
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1 Lebedik! (Lively!) 6'16
2 Bukovina 3'51
3 Ot Azoy! (That's the Way!) 5'09
4 Rumenishe Doina 6'32
5 Gasn Nigunim (Street Tunes) 5'28
6 Mazltov der Shviger (Congratulations to the Mother-in-Law) 7'37
7 Kale Bazetsn (Seating the Bride) 3'19
8 Rumenishe Nigunim (Romanian Tunes) 4'26

Joel Rubin, clarinet " Michael Alpert, violin - Stuart Brotmon, string bass - Hankus Netsky, piano " Lisa Rose, tsimbl " Moishe Yerushalimsky, trombone

75-08

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg


Hommage au Klezmer - Joseph Dorfman 
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Joseph Dorfman (h. 1940)
Hommage au Klezmer

1 Enchanted Klezmer for solo violin 17'28"
Zacharia Zorin

2 Bewitched Klezmer for solo clarinet 16'19"
Romeo Tudorache

3 Klezmeriana for solo cello   18'09"
Mark Drobinsky



24-32

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Ghetto Tango 
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Wartime Yiddish Theater

Adrianne Cooper - Zalmen Mlotek



La cantante Adrianne Cooper y el pianista Zalmen Mlotek interpretan canciones de autores judíos en lengua yídish, basadas tanto en su folklore como en el tango, el ragtime o la opereta que se cantaban en los guetos de la segunda guerra mundial. Duración: 53'27".

In the Jewish ghettos of Poland and Lithuania during World War II, a world of dislocation, terror and death, cabaret music thrived. Jewish audiences gathered in makeshift clubs and theaters to hear newly-created Yiddish songs, rooted in Jewish folk and liturgical music as well as European operetta, American ragtime and Argentine tango. Jewish performers tuned these cosmopolitan songs in a local key: satirical and elegiac, political and personal, angry and heartsick. Together they created something rare, scarcely conceivable: art at the edge of the abyss.

Adrienne Cooper, one of the world's most acclaimed singers of Yiddish vocal music, and Zalmen Mlotek, a leading figure in Yiddish musical theater, here present ghetto songs collected during and after the war.

1.   Moyshe halt zikh

  1. Coolies

  2. Mues

  3. MazVOn a heym

  4. Makh tsu di eygelekt

  5. Peshe fun Reshe

  6. Yisrolik

  7. Moorsoldaten

  8. Vayl íkh bin a yidele

10. Fun der arbet

  1. Nit kayn rozhinkes

  2. Ver klapt es

  3. Friling

  4. Song of the Nazi Soldier's Wife

  5. Amerike hot erklert

  6. Yid du partizaner

  7. Minutn fun bitokhn

  8. The Bar Mitzve Speech



127-37

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Fidl - Alicia Svigals 
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1. Kale Baveynen (Svigals)
2. Baym Rebns Sude (trad/arr. Svigals)
3. Dem Tsadiks Zemerl (trad/arr. Svigals)
4. Romanian Fantasy no. 1 (trad/arr. Svigals)
5. Kallarash (Trad/arr. Svigals)
6. Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid (trad/arr. Svigals) 
7. Kale-kale Mazl Tov (trad/arr. Svigals)    a. A Heimisher  b. L'hu Neroneno (trad/arr. arr. Sv Svigals) c. Beckerman Honga (Horowitz) d. Romanian Bulgarish (trad/arr. Svigals)
8. Sha, Sha, Di Shviger Kumt (trad/arr. Svigals)
9. Binyomele's Kholem (Svigals) 
10. Glazier's Hora (Svigals)
11. Ternovker Sher (Tarras)
12. Shyer un Shviger (trad/arr. Sviga
13. Romanian Fantasy no. 3 (trad) 
14. Naftule Shpilt Far Dem Rebn (trad) 
15. A Heimisher Sher (Tarras)
16. Binyomele's Vig-lid (trad/arr. Svigals)

Alicia Svigals is a master of the klezmer violin. Her virtuosic yet intimate interpretations of the traditional klezmer repertoire have made her one of the most important voices in klezmer music today. Named "Best Klezmer Musician" at the Fifth International Klezmer Festival Competition, Svigals has toured and recorded extensively with The Klezmatics, of which she is a founding member, and appeared in the TV documentary In The Fiddler's House performing with violinist Itzhak Perlman. 'Fidl' is the Yiddish word for violin, an instrument which for centuries gave voice to Jewish musicality, emotion, and spirit. On this, her debut solo recording, Svigals performs both poignant improvisations and lively melodies from the klezmer repertoire.



127-08

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Eden - Kroke 
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1. The Night In The Garden of Eden    
2. Russian Sher    
3. Reb Dovidls Nigh    
4. Sher    
5. The Secrets of The Life Tree    
6. Fun Tashlikh    
7. Jazz Tashlikh    
8. Der Ziser Bulgar / Moldavian Medley    
9. Dafino Vino    
10. Eden

Album Description
The group Kroke was created in 1992 in Krakow on the initiative of three lifelong friends and graduates of the Krakow Academy of Music. Having gone through the successive phases of education in classical music and then fascination with jazz and progressive music, they concentrated on playing and composing within the realm of authentic Jewish music. Each member of Kroke is equally engaged in the creative process of the group. Using traditional material as the foundations on which to build ingenuous arrangements and improvisations, exploiting their previous experiences, transmitting the profundity of man's feelings and nature, Kroke creates new and unique compositions as well a sound which is thus far unheard in Jewish music. In 1993 the group released its' first cassette "Kroke", which was received with an astonishing interest. This resulted in numerous invitations to participate in many festivals and concerts, in intensified work on the improvement of their technique, and - through study of the sacred books - in an investigation of the tradition and philosophy of the Jewish nation. The mystical atmosphere of Krakows' Jewish district Kazimierz, the unshaken dignity of its six-hundred-year-old tradition, reflection on the sufferings of the past, on the present, on hope and trust in man, as well as common creative work found their outcome in the album entitled "Trio", which was released in 1996 in Berlin. The music from this album won much praise from the public who attended Kroke's concerts all over Europe and favourable reviews both in Poland and many other countries around the world.



127-25

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Early recordings 1987-89 - The chicago klezmer ensemble 
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1. Sha, Sha, Di Shviger Kumt (trad./arr. C.K.E.) 6:21
2. Yiddish Hora - A Heymish Freylekhs
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 5:02
3. Oy, Di Kinderlakh!
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 3:09
4. A Galician Dance
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 5:47
5. Doyna
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 5:14
6. A Romanian Fantasy
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 3:24
7. Mazltov Far Di Mekhutonim
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 4:36
8. Behusher Khosid
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 4:47
9. Hora & Honga
(trad./arr. Bjorling) 3:50
10. Terkisher Tants & Khosidl
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 6:28
11. Romanian Hora
(trad./arr. C.K.E.) 3:47
12. Mazel Tov, in memory of Dave Tarras
(Tarras/arr. C.K.E.) 5:13

total playing time: 58:19

12-page-booklet in English, French & German

Tracks 4, 6 & 9 recorded December 11 & 15, 1987
at Acme Recording Studios, Chicago
Recording engineers: Mike Rasfeld & Ken Racek

All other tracks recorded live, August 11 & 12, 1989
at the Lake Street Church in Evanstown, Illinois
Recording engineer: Ken Racek

Produced by the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble

Release date: 01/11/2001

The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble:
Kurt Bjorling, clarinet, bass clarinet, accordion; Eve Monzingo, piano;
Joshua Huppert, violin; Alan Ehrlich, double bass (except track 4)

with: Patrick Fleming, tenor mandolin (tracks 6 & 9); Alan Goldsher, double bass (track 4)

 

A Brief History:

The Chicago Klezmer Ensemble began forming in 1983 and gave its first performances under that name in the Spring of 1984. Over the next five years many friends and colleagues played with me at various times, with different combinations of instruments, large groups and small, as 'Chicago Klezmer Ensemble.' In December, 1987, the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble made its first recordings. The band had five members then, but the most effective pieces were recorded by smaller units: two trios and a duet. Those three pieces are included in this CD.
At the beginning of 1989 the band solidified into a core group of four musicians, all of whom are still in the band now, thirteen years later; Kurt Bjorling (myself), Al Ehrich (since 1984), Joshua Huppert (1988) and Eve Monzingo (1989). (The only other permanent member of Chicago Klezmer Ensemble during these years was Deborah Strauss who began playing with us in 1992 and stayed until 2001.) In August, 1989 this quartet recorded the nine pieces which complete this CD.

In early 1988, a few months after the first recordings in this collection were made, I was introduced to Zev Feldman by a mutual acquaintance. Zev was an important figure for me. His LP with Andy Statman, "Jewish Klezmer Music," (1979) had been part of my initiation into klezmer music, and it had served as an example for the idea that klezmer music can be played with emotional depth and intelligence. When I met him, Zev Feldman had 'retired' from active involvement with klezmer music, so it was only with some reluctance that he had agreed to meet me: an unknown musician interested in 'klezmer music.' I did not know this at the time. I simply showed up at his residence at the appointed time with a cassette containing my first recordings, and as we listened to some of these pieces (track #3, 6, and 9) Zev became visibly more interested and then excited. Our conversation turned from an exchange of polite comments to a lively discussion about details of rhythm, phrasing, repertoire, history ... From that moment a new stage in my musical life had begun.
Zev's encouragement added to the confidence and interest I took in my musical efforts, so it was natural, a year and a half later, that I would send Zev recordings of the music Chicago Klezmer Ensemble had been developing (the nine remaining tracks on this CD). He wrote the following in response:
October 10, 1989
"... I think now that you see the great challenge in performing the authentic music in a manner which is both true to the sources and attempts to bring out all the musical potential of the genre. The music was never sealed from various influences, but it had a definite shape of its own. If one wants to alter that shape, then one should begin by knowing what it was, as Dave Tarras did for example. I'm afraid our contemporaries as a rule don't have this basic information ... When I used to go to Dave Tarras' house in the last few years he would play me the latest klezmer LPs, frown and tell me that no one was coming anywhere near what he had done. I think he really would have liked what you are doing."
Dave Tarras had died earlier that year, in February, 1989, and he would not get to hear our music. But the influence of his music runs through much of the material in this collection: The first piece, "SHA,SHA, DI SHVIGER KUMT," is a medley of 4 'KHOSIDLS,' three of which we learned from recordings Dave Tarras made in 1924. The last piece is a medley of three tunes Tarras recorded in the1940s.
So, we called the new recording "1989" and we produced it privately on cassettes which we sold at performances and by mail-order. Twelve years later I still hear from people who call to tell me that this is their favorite recording of klezmer music and to ask, "Is it available on CD?" So, ORIENTE Musik and the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble have decided to issue this 'new/old CD' which still sounds as good to us as it did in 1989.

Kurt Bjorling, September, 2001



127-63

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Di Shikere Kapelye - Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars 
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1. Shiker Iz a Bloyzer-Shpiler (A Drunk Is a Brass-Player)   
2. Lekhaim Far Ale Freylekhas (A Gay Toast)   
3. Tsu Der Kretshem (Going to the Bar)   
4. Medley: Rakhmones (Compassion)/A Shikers Kolem (An Inebriate's Dream)   
5. Hora Mit Slivovitz (Crooked Dance With Plum Brandy)   
6. Lekhaim, Efraim (Cheers, Frank)         
7. Glezl Shnaps (A Shot of Shnaps)         
8. Trink Nokh a Glezele Vayn, Moishele? (Another Glass of Wine, Matt)         
9. Ot Azoy, Dovidl (Right on, David)         
10. Fun Der Kretshame (Coming from the Bar)         
11. Lign in Der Gasn Nign (Lying in the Street Tune)         
12. Oy, Mayn Kepele (Oh, My Aching Head)         
13. Medley: A Glezele Bronfn (A Shot of Brandy)         
14. Nokh a Glezele Brofin (Another Shot of Brandy)         
15. Ashers Hearing un Mashke Tants (Dave's Herring and Whiskey Dance)         
16. Oriental Shtetl Nigh [East Village melody]/Sholf, Mayn Kind (Sleep, My Child)

153-13

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Di Naye Kapelye 
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Tracks:
 1. DEM REBN TANTS  3:26
2. ANI MAMINI/WEDDING MARCH  4:35
3. HANGU AND FREYLACHS FROM PODOLOY  3:46
4. KOTSK/ DEM TRISKER REBNS NIGUN  6:13
5. SHLOIMKE’S RUSSIAN DANCE   2:25
6. NAFTULE’S DOINA  3:01
7. MOLDAV-O-RAMA  11:10
8. NOKH A GLEZELE VAYNE  3:13
9. ONO B’CHOACH - SLOW HORA/THE ODESSA BULGAR  6:23
10. JEWISH TUNES FROM SZATMAR  8:38
11. YISMEDHU/IN ADES/ARON’S HONGA  8:46
12. BOBOVER WEDDING MARCH  4:40
 
All tracks traditional and arranged by Di Naye Kapelye
 
    The musicians:
 Bob Cohen (vocals, violin, mandolin)
 Christina Crowder (accordion, drum)
 Géza Pénzes (bass, koboz)
 Janos Bartha (clarinet)
 Jack “Yankl” Falk (metal and wood clarinets, vocals)
with guest:
Robert Kerenyi (Moldavian caval and flutes, drum)
 
Date of release: 10/09/98       total time: 66:44
 
20-page-booklet in English, French and German
 
 
Yiddish culture in east Europe today is but a dim shadow of its history and legacy, but it is not dead. Jewish communities exist - in diminished numbers - and Jewish life continues, not the least in the memories of an older generation who remember a world which spoke Yiddish. Di Naye Kapelye means “The New Band” in Yiddish. We play old time Yiddish music from not so long ago. The klezmer music which defines modern Ashkenazic Jewish existence is the klezmer of America - especially New York. Old gramophone recordings document changes in instrumentation and repertoire as immigrant Jewish musicians adapted to new lives in the new world. In east Europe, however, folk traditions are strong, and Jewish music thrived as long as Jews had weddings. Our music takes its character from east European kapelyes (yiddish for a small band) like the Bughici family band in Iasi, Romania, the Markus family band in Hungary, the Lantos Orchestra in Maramures, Romania, and other Jewish village bands who played in distinctively non-commercial, local styles. In many cases the Jewish musicians played alongside local Roma (Gypsies), and today in Hungary and Romania Gypsies are the main source for living practitioners of Jewish music. Some, like the Transylvanian fiddlers Samu “Cilika” Boróss and Ferenc Árus, played for Jewish weddings when no Jewish band was available. Some, like András Horváth of Tiszakoród, Hungary, and Gheorghe and Vassile Covaci in Maramures, Romania, worked in Jewish bands before the war and learned the musical nuance of the local Hasidic courts (hoyfn). Hungary, due to its location at the center of the world, is our home, and we come together through a surprising set of circumstances, many of them soaked in pálinka - Hungarian plum brandy. I met Géza Pénzes with his traditional Hungarian folk group, Újstílus, in 1983 on their first tour of the USA. I moved to Budapest from New York City in 1988 to learn Hungarian bagpipe from Ferenc Tobak - alongside János Bártha - in Veszprém, my mother’s home town. Christina Crowder is from Portland, Oregon, where she acquired an accordion from her Finnish grandmother, and more recently from Budapest where she acquired an addiction to dizzying Transylvanian couple dances. Yankl Falk is a cantor and klezmer clarinetist who lived down the street from Christina in Portland, but didn't know it until he showed up in Budapest to study how Hungarians brew plum brandy in their homes. Róbi Kerényi, the best Moldavian flute player in Hungary and founder of the Tatros Band, lives next door to one of the best plum brandy home-brewers in Hungary. Without pálinka, there might be a Naye Kapelye. But not this one.
 
Bob Cohen

127-62

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Chants yiddish - Ben Zimet 
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1. LOMIR ZICH IBERBETN 3'02
2. PAPIR IZ DOCH VAISS 2'36
3. KLEIN YIDELE 0'39
4. BULBES 2'18
5. VI BIST DI GEVEZEN 2'26
6. FREILACHS 2'33 
7. POGROM 3'46 Voix et guitare : Ben Zimet
8. DREI TECHTEREL 3'47
9. A SOUDENIOU 3'43
10. IN A KLEINE CHTIBELE 2'00
11. DER FILOSOF 2'58
12. HOOTER TOOTER 0'50
13. AZ DER REBBE ZINGT 3'38Ç
14. YANKELE 2'58

Violon : Maurice Karachevsky
Clarinette : Teddy Lasry
Accordéon : Eddy Schafirovitch



69-21

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Brotherhood of brass - Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars 
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Feat. Boban Markovic orkestar & hasballa brass band

1. Freylekhs - Cocek (feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar)  
2. Weeding in Crown Heights  
3. Shalom Aleykhem (feat. Susan Sandler)  
4. Imayel Ya Khail (feat. Hasaballa Brass Band)  
5. A Freylekhs Nokh Dem Khuppah  
6. Watts-Hoffman Special  
7. Lieberman Husidl (feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar)  
8. Lieberman Funky Freylekhs (feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar)  
9. Belf's Carnaval  
10. Nomen Est Omen  
11. Sacred Dance Of the Scissors  
12. Shish Kebeb (feat. Hassaballa Brass Band)  
13. Slow Hasidic Nign  
14. Fast Hasidic Nign  
15. Doin' The Oriental - part 1 (feat. Boban Markovic Orkestar)  
16. Doin' The Oriental - part 2



153-03

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Brother Moses smote the water - The Klezmatics & Joshua Nelson & Kathryn Farmer 
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1. Eyliyohu Hanovi       
2. Elijah Rock       
3. Ki Loy Nue       
4. Shnirele, Perele       
5. Walk in Jerusalem       
6. Go Down Moses       
7. Moses Smote the Water       
8. Oh Mary Don't You Weep       
9. Didn't It Rain       
10. Ale Brider       
11. Shnirele, Perele



153-25

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Big Kibosh, The - New Orleans Klezmer Allstars 
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1. Wake-Up Call   
2. Viennese Freilach   
3. Chaye!   
4. Klip Klop   
5. Lullaby   
6. Di Zilberne Khasene (The Silver Wedding)   
7. Transition to Buffet     
8. Taking the Flower Arrangements Home After the Wedding     
9. D'Bronx Tantz     
10. Palestina     
11. This One...     
12. Trio     
13. ...Goes to Eleven     
14. Bob's Birthday Song     
15. Bweep, Bweep    

127-65

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Bessarabian Symphony - Rubin & Horowitz 
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Early Jewish Instrumetal Music

Dobriden 6'22
Dem zeydns tants 4'01
Doina Medley 10'44
Shulem 5'15
Shabes nign 4'01
Az du furst avek 6'48
Belf's khusidl 3'10
Mazltov 4'11
Karliner 7'29
Bessarobian Symphony 12'24
A q*e nakht 8'30

72'56
All arrangements by Joel Rubin and Joshua Horowitz, except ',20, (arranged by Joshua Horowitz).
Joel Rubin, clarinet in c and tsimbl (9)
Joshua Horowitz, button accordion and tsimbl (all other tracks)

75-05

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg


Beregovski's Khasene - Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble 
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Beregovski's Wedding

Forgotten Instrumental Treasures from the Ukraine

1 Tsu der Khupe Geyn (Going to the Wedding Canopy) ......... 7'06
2 Volekhl.............................. 6'46
3 Baveynen di Kale (Bringing the Bride to Tears) ............... 5'53
4 Makonovetski's Gas Nign .... 4'33
5 Russian Sher....................... 6'33
6 Taksim (Improvisation) ......... 7'38

7 Sakhnovski's Dobranotsh .....6'16
8 Skotshne ............................ 3'39
9 Tish Nigunim (Hasidic Table Songs) .......... 8'23
10 Gershfeld's Bulgarish ..........4'21
11 Ahavo Rabo (Great Love) ....................... 5'13

12   Zayt Gezunt (Farewell) ........ 7'14

All pieces traditional, harmonized and arranged by Joel Rubin
Joel Rubin Jewish Music Ensemble: Joel Rubin, clarinet in C " Kálmán Balogh, cimbalom " Claudio Jacomucci, accordion " Ferenc Kovács, trumpet " László Major, violin " Csoba Novak, string bass



75-04

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Autres Chansons Yiddish - Jacinta 
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ENGLISH TRANSLATION - TRADUCCIÓN ESPAÑOLA - DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG

 1. Dos vaserl (Le Ruisseau) 1'35
 2. Nokhemke, may zun (Nokhemke, mon fils) 3'55
 3. A nign vi du (Une mélodie comme toi) 3'15
 4. Sheyn feygl (Bel oiseau) 1'45
 5. Arum dem Fayer - Erev friling  (Autour du feu - Veille de printemps) 5'02
 6. Nor a mame (Seule une mère) 3'42
 7. Der kremer (Le boutiquier) 2'55
 8. Beriozkele (Mon cher bouleau) 5'58
 9. A khazndl oyf shabes (Un hazan pour le shabbat) 6'53
10. Dos lidl fun goldenem land (La chanson du pays d'or) 4'23
11. Undzer shtetl brent (Au feu ! frères !) 4'24
12. Vig-lid (Berceuse) 2'35
13. Shlof shoyn, mayn kind (Dors vite, mon enfant ) 3'43
14. A maysele (Il était une fois) 2'57
15. Hostu gehert a mayse? (As-to entendu l'histoire ?) 2'16
16. Stantsie Dzhankoye (Station Djankoï) 3'15
17. A bokher a hultay (Un jeune vagabond) 2' 16

DURÉE TOTALE : 62'40

La série Chanson-Tradition est réalisée par Eve Griliquez

L 'intégralité des chansons en caractère yiddish et la translitération sont reproduites à l'intérieur du livret

Remerciements à Nadia Dehan (Association pour (Etude et le Développement de la Culture yiddish)



69-05

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

Art of Klezmer Clarinet, The - Margot Leverett 
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1. Doina
2. Gasn Nigun
3. Bulgar Medley
4. Firen Di Mekhutonim Aheym
5. Oy Tate S'Iz Gut
6. Skocne
7. Freilicher Yontov
8. Sam and Dave
9. Heymisher Bulgar
10. Lustige Hasidim
11. Epstein Hora
12. Sid Medley
13. Shvesterel
14. Ben's Tune
15. Yiddisher Soldat
16. Ruchelle's Bulgar
17. Fifteen Years Away from Home

127-36

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg

A Mazeldiker Yid - Di Naye Kapelye 
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Old time Klezmer from east Europe

1. Drey Dreydele 3:29
2. Meron Tune (Shaffer's Nign) 2:48
Hasidic Tunes from Maramures:
3. Oyvey Rebbenyu 2:32
4. 999/Yom ha-Shabbes 3:33
5. Spoken introduction by Betty Tzarevkan Cohen 0:45
6. Platch Evrei 4:02
7. Goldenshteyn's Bulgar 2:31
8. Jidancutsa and Zsidó Tánc 2:43
9. A Mazeldiker Yid (A Lucky Jew) 2:15
10. S'iz Shoyn Farfaln / Grichisher Tantz 3:03
11. Wedding Processional from Ieud 3:22
12. Goldblatt's Freylakhs 2:21
13. Yearning Tune 3:34
14. Borey Olam (vocal version) 1:10
15. Borey Olam be-Kinyan 2:30
16. Jewish Hora / Buhusher Chusid 4:24
17. The Bosnian Nign (a cappella version by Cili Svarts) 0:35
18. The Bosnian Nign 3:17
19. L'Chaim Jó Testvérek 2:33
20. Bride's Dance from Ieud 2:19

total time: 53:59

Di Naye Kapelye
Bob Cohen:
violin, mandolin, koboz, cümbüs, gadulka, vocals
Christina Crowder:
accordion, vocals
Jack "Yankl" Falk:
clarinet, vocals
Gyula Kozma:
bass, cello
Ferenc Pribojszki:
cimbalom, drum

with special guests from Muzsikás
Mihály Sipos:
violin (tracks 11, 15, 19, 20)
Péter Éri:
three string 'kontra' viola (tracks 3, 4, 11, 15, 19, 20), drum (track 2)

Recorded at Podium Studios, Budapest, August 2001.
Sound engineer and mixing: Csaba Sándor.
Mastering: Tibor Rostás
Produced by Di Naye Kapelye with Mihály Sipos.

Dedicated to the memory of Itsik and Cili Svarts.


This recording developed over a period of several years, during which we have continued scrambling around east Europe looking for contexts and traces of Jewish music, a good half century after the Holocaust nearly destroyed Europe's Jewish population and culture. The key word here is nearly. There are still Jewish communities in east Europe, and in the memories of this aging population lives a sense of Jewish culture - Yiddishkeit - that developed strongly local expressions of faith and music. Furthermore, the memory of Jewish culture is often maintained by non-Jews, those who choose to cherish the legacy of neighbors lost but never forgotten. From the peasant who tends the forgotten Jewish cemetery to the aged Gypsy fiddlers who play for an audience of Jewish ghosts, Yiddishkeit lives on in the lives of those whom it touched.
Northern Romania, in particular the regions of Maramures and the Bukovina, was once home to a large Jewish community unlike any other. Hasidic Jews first settled in the poorer mountain areas of the Habsburg Empire during the 17th and 18th centuries, in the aftermath of the Chmielnicki massacres and the resultant messianic confusion. Led by disciples of the Baal Shem-Tov, Hasidism's pioneering leader, these Jews coalesced into Hasidic "courts" (hoyfn) centered around rabbinic dynasties residing in Szatmár, Vizhnitz, Munkács, Sighet, Sadagora, and Shpinka (Sapinta). Free of the official oppression and pogroms suffered by Jews in the Russian Empire, they lived in a relatively healthy social atmosphere with their neighbors - Romanians, Hungarians, Hutsul Ukrainians, Slovaks, Zipser Germans, and Roma (Gypsies). Reflecting the strongly conservative nature of the region, the Jews of Maramures rejected the "Jewish Enlightenment" offered by the 1868 reorganization of the Hungarian Jewish community, and maintained an existence apart, Yiddish speaking and deeply Hasidic in character, until the Holocaust. After the war this same stubborn independence led to the rebirth of Carpathian Hasidic communities in centers such as Brooklyn, Antwerp, and Bnei Brak, where the culture remains as vibrant and quarrelsome as it did the Romanian mountains.
The music of the Maramures Jews stands apart from the generic term "klezmer" by reason of its strong religious context. Couple dancing among Jews never became popular here. Many of the klezmer "fads" emanating from 19th century Moldavia made little impression on the devout highland Jews of Maramures. On the other hand, Jewish musicians borrowed freely from their Hungarian, Romanian, and Hutsul neighbors - and often hired local Gypsies to fill out bands for a larger wedding.
The source of much of the Jewish music played in 20th-century Maramures was the Shloimovitch family band, a pre-war Jewish string band in the village of Rozavlea who were known locally as the "Shugareni band" (often corrupted to "Huber"). Led by fiddler Hersh Shloimovitch (along with his sons Motele, Berl, Zicu, Eli, and Shmil), the band's repertoire, played on two violins, cimbalom, bass and drum, influenced a number of Maramures fiddlers, especially those of the Covaci family, a clan of professional musicians of Roma origin who have contributed several masters of Maramures folk music - many of whom are all confusingly named "Gheorghe Covaci," such as "Stingau" of Borsa, "Ioanei" from Ieud, and "Cioata" of Vadu Izei, who was featured on a 1993 recording by the Hungarian band Muzsikás.
Through interviews with members of the Covaci family and other living musicians, we have tried to collect as many memories and anecdotes about the Shugareni band as possible. On this recording we make several attempts to "re-create" a Transylvanian string band sound that might give a taste of what the Shugareni band sounded like. Rather than draw the obvious comparisons between our parallel efforts to revive the sound of Maramures Jewish music, we invited our good friends from Muzsikás to join us, and so it is that Mihály Sipos and Péter Éri lend a hand to provide authentic Transylvanian harmonies and approaches to several old Jewish tunes.
Rozavlea was also home to a unique family of Jewish entertainers, the "Circ de Petici" ("Dwarf Circus"), a family of Jewish dwarfs who lived down the road from the Shloimovitch family. The circus troupe featured dancing dogs, did acrobatics, played the fiddle, and performed their show in Romanian folk costumes. When we interviewed aged Romanian peasants in the Maramures region about Jewish music, their most vivid memories - not surprisingly - were often of the Jewish Dwarf Circus.

Our gratitude goes out to all the people in Romania, Hungary, and Brooklyn who have shared with us their memories and music. To them we raise our glasses of pálinka (plum brandy) and offer a L'Chaim! To life!

The Transylvanian Jewish journalist Dezso Schön, writing of Maramures Jewish life in 1937, tells us:
"What was pálinka to Maramures? In one word: everything. Pálinka signaled birth and death. One needed pálinka for work, for happiness and for sadness. For a Maramures person, the road of life was filled with pálinka bottles … Pálinka did not recognize racial or national differences. What for a Romanian was a "petrecanie" was for a Jew "tikkun"… A Hasid never "drank" pálinka, but instead "made L'Chaim". When they drink L'Chaim - they say - you need at least two Jews, because it takes two "Yids" to make the Eternal One's name. When two Yids drink L'Chaim, the Eternal One's spirit is present. A good Hasid only drinks 96% pure pálinka, because the number 96 ("tsadik-vav") is the same number as His Unpronounceable Name ("Shem havay im hakoleyl"). And to honor a Jew's life, when he has finally left this life, his grieving Hasid brothers share a bottle of 96 next to his open grave … Hosanna to you, Pálinka, to remind us of our biblical state, in our stupor you conjure Canaan beneath the Carpathians!"

L'Chaim!

Bob Cohen and Yankl Falk

 

1. Drey Dreydele
Moyshe Oysher (1907-1958) was a singularly charismatic Yiddish singer. Born in the Bessarabian village of Lipcany, and descended from seven generations of cantors, Oysher made his singing debut at the age of six. After emigrating to New York, Oysher's vocal talents - a combination of rich cantorial melismatic and Moldavian village scat - brought him simultaneous success on the bineh (the Yiddish stage) as well as the bimah (the cantorial podium), where he served as cantor at the First Rumanian-American Congregation on Rivington Street. Through such Yiddish films as "The Cantor's Son," "Overture to Glory" (The Vilner Balebessel), and "The Singing Blacksmith," Oysher would soon develop a worldwide following. Oysher's passionate performances mirrored his real-life reputation (chronicled in J. Hoberman's history of Yiddish film, Bridge of Light) as "a lusty skirt-chaser who drank, smoked, and didn't necessarily keep the Sabbath."
We learned this tune from Moyshe's sister Freydele, who still sings Yiddish in New York. Oysher's original recording of "Drey Dreydele" (Spin, Dreydl!) featured the virtuosic Dave Tarras on clarinet.
"Bring me bread, bring me wine - let's all celebrate! Latkes, meat, fish, white tablecloths, and a shining menorah. When Chanukah comes around, it's all good! So spin, dreydl - and bring us good fortune."

2. Meron Tune (Shaffer's Nign)
This melody is from a recording by the great Israeli klezmer clarinetist Musa Berlin, the main living practitioner of the Meron klezmer tradition. The annual Lag B'Omer pilgrimage to Mount Meron near Safed was one of the few Jewish religious activities in the Holy Land that made use of instrumental music. In 1868, the Rabbinate of Jerusalem decreed that instrumental music was forbidden as an act of mourning for the loss of the Temple. Perhaps because of its distance from Jerusalem, or because the pilgrimage was sponsored by a Moroccan Sephardic rabbi, the Meron pilgrimage came to be characterized by a unique klezmer tradition featuring clarinet and drum ensembles. Yeshiva students often dance to this melody, which bears the name of Hayyim Shaffer, a Karliner Hasid from Haifa. Parts of the melody reflect eastern Turkish and Balkan elements, which led us in a distinctly Ottoman direction.

HASIDIC TUNES FROM MARAMURES
These three tunes come from a recording made around 1970 featuring the Maramures Gypsy fiddler Gheorghe "Stingau" Covaci from Borsa, playing and singing in something that sounded like Yiddish. It wasn't uncommon for non-Jews, especially Gypsies, to know Yiddish in Maramures. But we were having an impossible time trying to decipher Stingau's Yiddish until our friend Jeff Wollock (who had called the field recording "phoneme salad") solved the first part of the puzzle, tracking down a 1940s Bagelman Sisters radio performance (with a New York swing ensemble).
3. Oyvey Rebbenyu
In its initial incarnation, the tune (folklorized from two songs by the Yiddish poet Mikhl Gordon) was an anti-Hasidic parody. By the time Stingau recorded the tune, it had been transformed into an exquisite declaration of faith: "I want to be a good Hasid, a devoted one. Oy, Rabbi, I stand and tremble, and a fire burns in my heart. I'm no rabbi, just a simple Jew, and I pray with devotion."
4. 999/Yom ha-Shabbes
The second tune is a csardas with these mysterious lyrics: "No, no, no, it can't be like that. I've always been a Jew, and I'm a Jew once again."
The third tune is a common Friday night zemer (table song), although we didn't recognize it as such until we had Shabbos dinner at the Kings Hotel in Budapest with a room full of hasidim who were on pilgrimage to celebrate the bar mitzvah of their rabbi's grandson in the ancestral village of Munkács, now in the western Ukraine. Between courses, one hasid at our table began singing this zemer - familiar to us in melody but not in context - and as our jaws dropped, Isaac Gluck (father of our good friend Pearl) opened the prayer book and showed us the verse from "Kol Mekadesh Sh'vi'i":
"On the holy Sabbath be happy and joyous while receiving G-d's gift."
We have tried here to preserve the old style of harmonizing modal melodies using major chords that may have been used by the Shugareni band.

5. Spoken introduction by Betty Tzarevkan Cohen
6.Platch Evrei
In the 1970s, my grandmother, Betty Tzarevkan Cohen, recalled the role that hiring fine musicians played in establishing a family's yikhes, or social rank, in 19th century Bessarabia: "We were all born in Telenesti, I am not from Uriv (Orhei) … My father was very rich. When my mother got married, they went looking for musicians … the best musicians … They went all the way to Iasi to get the most famous musicians. They were called Lemesh."
The Lemesh family was instrumental in the early Yiddish theater of Iasi, and is remembered in association with a wide repertoire of archaic Jewish genres no longer played. Some of the Lemesh family emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 20th century, and even today trumpeter Rachel Lemesh carries on the klezmer tradition.
"Platch Evrei" is a rare example of a klezmer "classical set piece" for listening. This piece was recorded in 1911 by the Belf Orchestra, which is probably about as close as one can get historically to the sound of the Lemesh band. The Belf "Romanian" Orchestra appears to have been based in Lemberg (Lvov) and was the first klezmer ensemble to be recorded. They may not have been the best around, but they were the first, and were slavishly copied and plagiarized in recordings made by American bandleaders during and after the First World War. When we first started playing this piece, we didn't really know to approach it until the ghost of Frank Zappa appeared in a dream one night and said "Frankenstein's Bar Mitzvah!" Thanks, Frank!

7. Goldenshteyn's Bulgar
This is a bulgar that we learned from German Goldenshteyn, a Bessarabian Jewish clarinetist who emigrated from Mogilev-Podolsk, Ukraine, to Brooklyn in 1994. Born in Atache, Moldavia, German was orphaned during WWII and later trained as a musician in a band of klezmorim who had become the local Soviet Army band. German keeps his tunes in a notebook containing some 800 melodies from his years as a wedding musician in Moldavia and Ukraine.

8. Jidancutsa and Zsidó Tánc
Two dances from the Bukovina known as Jidancutsa - the "Little Jew Dance". These are non-Jewish versions of Jewish tunes performed as a costume parody at New Year's and Carnival time. Inter-ethnic parody is a well-established east European tradition, as can be seen in any large Hasidic community at Purim. Formerly a Habsburg province under direct rule of Austria, the Bukovina was a melting pot of cultures - Romanian, Hutsul, German, Polish, Jewish and Hungarian - in which the court of the Vizhnitzer Hasidim, as active patrons of Jewish and Roma musicians during the Rabbi's summer "court" at Vatra Dornei, played a prominent role both in borrowing from local traditions as well as inspiring tunes like these.
The first tune is a Romanian version of the well known "Reb Dovidl's Nign" and comes from Florin Mucea, a master fiddler from Bilca, Romania. The second melody, widespread in Bukovina (where it is sometimes called "Jidauca"), was recorded in Hungary by János Gáspár in 1960. Gáspár, who called the tune "Zsidó Tanc," was resettled in southern Hungary in the 1940s, along with other Szekely Hungarians from seven Bukovina villages near Radauti. Gáspár's second fiddler, Lászlo Lászlo of Izmény, Hungary (also known as "Uncle Twice Lászlo"), remembers sneaking into Jewish balls held in Radauti in the 1930s to pick up new tunes. Although increasingly rare, the use of the Moldavian lute - the cobza (koboz in Hungarian) - continues in the Bukovina to the present day in villages such as Arbore and Frumusica.

9. A Mazeldiker Yid (A Lucky Jew)
Little is known about the source of this tune, Nathan "Prince" Nazaroff. Born in Europe, a veteran of the Russian Ballet Theater in New York, Prince Nazaroff bequeathed to humanity one LP recorded in 1954 on the Folkways label, owned by his friend Moses Asch. The original is a riot of foot stomping, bird whistles, mistuned mandolin, broken accordion, hard luck lyrics, and other marvelous memories of the Odessa Jewish musical world transplanted to New York in the 1950s. In the liner notes, Nazaroff poses for the camera in a Catskills backyard dressed in an ill-fitting suit, with his foot up on an Adirondack chair, a tenor mandolin across his lap, a goofy straw hat perched unevenly on his head. His profoundly off-center sense of fashion was matched only by his defiant opposition to common concepts of pitch and tuning. We hardly knew he was here, and yet the world is much quieter with his passing.

10. S'iz Shoyn Farfaln / Grichisher Tantz
The first tune is an instrumental version of the Yiddish song "S'iz Shoyn Farfaln" ("Doomed"), recorded in 1913 by accordionist Max Yankowitz as an introduction to the popular folk song "Yoshke Fort Avek." The second tune, a terkish, was recorded by Mishka Tsiganoff in 1929 as "Grichisher Tantz" (Greek dance).

11. Wedding Processional from Ieud
A bride's processional that we learned from Gheorghe "Ioanei" Covaci of Ieud, Maramures, who in turn learned it from the Shugareni band of Rozavlea. Although modern Maramures music is characterized by the use of a four-string guitar tuned to an open chord and known as zongora, the older string band tradition usually identified with Transylvania has never completely disappeared from the region. Most Jewish tunes, having a more complex modal structure, were accompanied by second fiddle, kontra (viola), and bass, and there is no evidence that Jewish musicians ever used the zongora. Today the accordion usually accompanies such tunes, and although the modern generation of village musicians no longer recognizes their Jewish context or origin, they remain in the repertoire as listening pieces. In this piece we have arranged the harmonies in central Transylvanian style.

12. Goldblatt's Freylakhs
This little charmer comes from an old gramophone recording we got on cassette from Berlin bassist Heiko Lehmann. Apart from the name of the bandleader, we haven't a clue as to what it is. It is safe to presume, however, that Goldblatt ate matzo ball soup. Always prepare matzo meal by crushing fresh matzo with a rolling pin - commercial matzoh meal makes a heavy, dense, and rather boring matzo ball. Mix with one and a half beaten eggs for each crushed sheet of matzo, and one tablespoon of melted chicken fat for each egg. Salt to taste. Chill the matzo mix in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to firm up. Form into small balls and boil in salted water for 20 minutes. Serve with chicken soup.

13. Yearning Tune
This melody - as in many Hasidic nigunim, a devotional tune without words - is referred to as "Wallachian," in description of its rhapsodic nature, and also as a "nign gaaguyim" (yearning tune). This nign is still sung by Chabad Hasidim, whose dynasty was the northernmost outpost of Hasidic philosophy in strongly "Litvak" (anti-Hasidic) Russia and Lithuania.

14. Borey Olam (vocal version)
15. Borey Olam be-Kinyan

A Hasidic nign whose lyrics are based on a zemer (table song) sung at the conclusion of the Sabbath, "Ish Khosid Hoyo" (there once was a hasid). The zemer tells of a poor hasid who went to the market to try and earn money to support his family. Elijah the Prophet approached the hasid and offered himself up as a slave to provide money for the hasid and his family. Elijah was bought ("with affection") by a wealthy merchant, who offered him freedom in exchange for building him a palace. In the middle of the night, Elijah called out to G-d: "I was sold as a slave for your honor, not my own. Creator of the universe, You complete this building!" The angels of compassion heard his plea and completed the work, and Elijah was set free.
It was not rare for Hasidim to adopt local folk and popular songs into their repertoire of inspirational nigunim, melodies that were revealed to the Tzadik as holy and leading to spiritual enlightenment. The first part of this nign is almost identical with the melody of the Hungarian song "Túri vásár." The second is the concluding part of the song "Már én többet a föutcán."
This rendition derives from versions played by "Stingau" and "Ioanei" Covaci. We play this tune in the style of the Szatmár region of Hungary and Romania, characterized by the use of harmony fiddle, as was used in the Markus Family band in Jánkamajitis, Hungary, before World War II.

16. Jewish Hora / Buhusher Chusid
Two cimbalom tunes from the repertoire of Joseph Moskowitz. "Jewish Hora" was recorded by Alex Olshanetsky's Orchestra in 1928 as "Yiddishe Hora und Sarba Maracinei," featuring Moskowitz on cimbalom and Dave Tarras on clarinet. "Buhusher Chusid," recorded in 1916, utilizes melodic quotes from Turkish fasil music.
Joseph Moskowitz, born in Galati, Romania in 1879, learned the small Jewish tsimbl from his father, Moyshe Tsimbler. After moving to America in 1908, he opened Moskowitz and Lupowitz's Restaurant in Manhattan, which became an establishment well known for its "Gypsy" music and Romanian atmosphere. His repertoire embraced classic Jewish klezmer melodies alongside Romanian lautar music, Hungarian café nota, and popular marches and waltzes of the day. Playing on a full-sized Hungarian Schunda cimbalom, Moskowitz's recording career ran from 1916 to his last sessions in 1954. His "spiritual" connection to Di Naye Kapelye is evident in the following passage from the book "Jews Without Money" by Michael Gold (1930):
"On a small platform, Moskowitz sat with his cymbalom. Strings of red peppers dried in festoons on the wall behind him. A jug of wine stood at his elbow and after every song he poured himself a drink. ... Moskowitz is a real artist, after twenty years he still makes restaurant music with his heart, and has never saved any money."

17. The Bosnian Nign (a cappella version by Cili Svarts)
18. The Bosnian Nign

This melody was learned from the singing of Cili Svarts, the wife of Itsik Svarts, the Yiddish writer, teacher, and former director of the Yiddish theater of Iasi, Romania. A schoolteacher, avid singer, and formidable baker of kosher soda cookies, Cili was born the daughter of a Breslover Hasid in Moinesti, Romania, in 1915. This was her favorite melody. She learned it from her uncle Alter Baris who worked as a forester in the Bosnian town of Zavidovich before the First World War. Whether Sephardic or Ashkenazic in origin, we play it as a slow hora. Sadly, Zavidovich was largely destroyed during the Bosnian War, as was my maternal grandmother's birthplace, the nearby town of Travnik. We hope this melody serves to honor the memory of Bosnia's Jewish culture, and as a loving tribute to the memory of Itsik and Cili Svarts.

19. L'Chaim Jó Testvérek
Vera Szábo, the Hungarian Yiddish researcher, learned this tune from Cantor Géza Hammerman of the Újpest shul in Budapest. Cantor Hammerman first heard it as a student in the Munkács yeshiva in the 1930s. The text, in a mixture of Hebrew and Hungarian, says "L'Chaim, brothers! Drink with me, may we live a long and healthy life … May the Messiah come quickly, and we shall be like kings and the wine will flow like rivers! Let's drink brothers, live happily, and meet next year in Jerusalem!"

20. Bride's Dance from Ieud
This melody was played at weddings for the bride's dance before the men jumped in to dance the husid dance. Gheorghe "Ioanei" Covaci of Ieud learned it during the 1930s from the Shugareni band in nearby Rozavlea. Ioanei rarely traveled beyond the neighboring villages, and his repertoire preserves many rare tunes - such as these Jewish ones - no longer current in the Maramures Romanian repertoire.

Dedicated to the memory of Itsik and Cili Svarts.



127-64

Peso/Weight: 0.175 kg