Good news fans of klezmer music. The groundbreaking, award-winning klezmer outfit The Klezmatics have reissued their classic album Rhythm + Jews: Revisited (Piranha, Germany), which was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991. The reissue is part of the band’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Originally formed in New York’s East Village in 1986, the band made an immediate impression, with their Yiddish, East European and Hasidic music roots brought into the later part of the 20th century with attitude and a willingness to blend klezmer with jazz, gypsy music, rock and the spirit of punk.
The band has released more than a dozen albums, toured globally and have appeared on TV shows across the planet. Bands like The Klezmatics, known as probably the most innovative of the new gen klezmer groups, have played and continue to play an important role in preserving the Yiddish language and music traditions by blending klezmer with contemporary music (including pieces sung in Aramaic and Bavarian). The band has also made the genre accessible and popular with younger audiences.
Led by trumpeter and producer Frank London, who has since worked with everyone from Itzhak Perlman to Gal Costa to poet Allen Ginsberg and David Byrne, the band won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for the Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah in 2007.
London also leads his other projects. Readers may remember a recent review of an album by Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars.
The reissue is not a re-release of the original album, the “revisited” album includes material from 1990 previously not released, including alternative takes on several tracks.
The album includes many songs that have become a popular part of the band’s repertoire. The album opens with an Oriental arrangement of the classic Fun Tashlikh, which always has me foot tapping when I hear it. The funky riddims continue with another standout, this time the melancholic lullaby Di Zun Vet Aruntergeyn and the achingly beautiful Shnirele, Perele.
If you missed out on this seminal album when it was first released, do check out the revisited album which has a fresh, clean sound. And don’t forget to play it loud. The album will release on Nov 7.
If you want to find to more on the history (and influence) of the band, check out the 2010 documentary film The Klezmatics: On Holy Ground. More information at records@piranha-arts.com or klezmatics.com.
In 2012, I reviewed a most unusual and unique album titled He Is #1 by the Malawi Mouse Boys. In between selling barbecued rodents on a stick by the side of the road, the Malawi Mouse Boys played music on homemade instruments. As far as I could tell this was one of the first international releases of Malawian music.
The new record label Mass MoCA Records, a joint venture between the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Hen House Studios, aims to bring together musicians through museum residences, creative collaboration and live performances.
Mass MoCA’s first signing is the multi-generational The Kasambwe Brothers, whose new self-titled album showcases Malawian roots music and was released yesterday.
The band, although street musicians from a village called Ndirande, are well known in the country. They use acoustic and home-made instruments, including the fascinating babatome, a kind of bass banjo, as well as pots and pans and bottle cap shakers.
The tunes on the album range from love songs like Mtima Wanga (My Heart) and Getu, which are sung in the national language Chichewa. The band’s delightful vocal harmonies are showcased on these songs but they also write about important social issues in Malawi like Ahedi (Head Teacher) which talks about the abuse of women and the risk of being a whistleblower.
The vocal traditions and rhythms of Southern Africa are evident through the album, something they have in common with the Mouse Boys, so the listener (and dancer) can hear the gorgeous vocal harmonies of mbube (Southern African gospel) and those unmistakable township rhythms of mbaqanga. If you like South African popular music, then this one is for you.
I do like the idea of art institutions teaming up with indie record labels to collaborate on music projects with the aim of helping the band record and perform. The background to this project revealed that Mass MoCA Records is committed to live recording, rather than piecing a song together digitally, which helps the band develop performance strategies.
I was recently part of a discussion on how to promote and develop the soft power of molam music and suggested something similar, or to focus on artist support from the roots upwards and not from the top down, helping with microfinancing and communication. So far, government officials seem to prefer big statement events, rather than developing the capabilities of musicians to explore international markets.