(2004 Archived Page)
Welcome to the Jewish Music Page of Rainlore's World of Music. Here, you will find all manner of news and information, including articles,
Jewish music reviews, information on artists, and more, concerning all
types and aspects of any kind of music that is even vaguely Jewish.
News
2004/04/27
Good news for those who either missed the splendid Lucie
Skeaping and The Burning Bush with the BBC Concert Orchestra concert
back in February or would like to repeat this extraordinary experience.
The concert is to be repeated on Thursday, 3rd February 2005, 7.30pm at
the Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester, West Sussex. Full details
can be found on the newly set up 2005 Jewish
Music UK Calendar page. This repeat performance is part of the BBC
Concert Orchestra's new residency at Chichester, comprising five
concerts between October 2004 and February 2005 as well as a series of
education workshops and broadcasts on BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3.
Details of the other concerts in this series are also listed on the calendar
pages. A price reduction is available for those attending all five
concerts, and the BBC CO have also set up a special discounted room
rate with The Ship Hotel in the centre of Chichester for those visiting
for the occasion and wishing to stay overnight. Full details are in the BBC
CO's new season brochure and shortly on the BBC CO web
site.
Abigail Wood of the Southampton University Klezmer Band invites everybody to come along to their lunchtime concert on Friday 14th
May, 12.50pm, at Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton University, Southampton.
They are also looking for a drummer, so if you're interested, please contact Abbi.
Other instruments also welcome. They're based at the university and meet
Monday nights.
Slowly catching up on the backlog of CD reviews - I'm doing the best
I can. There are another six albums reviewed, and
what an outstanding crop they are!
There's Afro-Cuban jazz legend Mark Weinstein's extraordinary
homage to traditional Jewish music - klezmer, Yiddish song, Ladino song,
Chassidic nigunim are covered -, Shifra Tanzt. It's a work
of sheer genius. This is Weinstein's heart. Also, we have the re-issue
of the phenomenal album that most created the Weinstein legend, Cuban
Roots, although this is not connected to Jewish music as such.
Long overdue, Lori Cahan-Simon's more-wonderful-than-free-beer Vessel
of Song - The Music of Mikhl Gelbart is finally reviewed.
Pure manna from heaven for any Yiddish song lover. Oud virtuoso Adel
Salameh's Nuzha - Promenade also features Israeli-born
drum genius Asaf Sirkis and Israeli Turkish clarinettist extraordinaire Eyal
Sela. This album is of particular interest also because of its close
ties to Sephardi/Andalusian and Mizrakhi music. The music is exquisite.
Last but by no means least, more from David Chevan, Warren Byrd and The Afro-Semitic Experience, Let Us Break Bread Together and This Is The Afro-Semitic Experience are outstanding
albums.
The next site update will include an illustrated review of the fabulous Daphna
Sadeh and The Voyagers in concert at London's Purcell Room late
last month, and, also from the Nomadica - Roots Revisited concert series, the excellent The Soul of the Fiddle concert
at the Queen Elizabeth Hall will follow shortly, with more illustrated
live reviews coming up soon.
Staying with the latter topic for a moment, if tangentially, whenever
an illustrated review goes online I tend to get a good few emails from
aspiring music photographers asking about how they could make a start photographing
live music events, gaining access to events and permissions, and what equipment
and film I use and other technical matters. It is obviously impossible
for me to answer such inquiries individually apart from a brief polite
acknowledgement. So, if you're one of those people please accept my apologies
but it simply can't be done. This site is dedicated to music, not photography,
so an article addressing these kinds of queries would be rather tangential,
and certain aspects of such queries would be difficult or impossible to
address without mentioning brand names, which further disinclines me to
engage in this matter. After all, that would practically amount to free
product/brand advertising, something that goes totally against the grain
as far as I am concerned.
Finally, the Other World Music page is active as of now. This will cover anything that broadly falls into
the world music category and that generally isn't already covered here.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/04/13
More computer problems, including the best part of two weeks offline,
have unfortunately delayed this update further. (A proper replacement computer
is now being sought, and then a few weeks will be taken up installing applications
and migrating data - argh! The joys of computers!) Hope everybody had a
good escape from Egypt. Here a good part of it alas tied in with a real,
if temporary, "migration" from home necessitated by a major utilities crisis
and resultant lack of heating and cooking (still no proper heating, if
at least electric cooking of sorts now). Matza I can live with, happily,
but no heat and no hot food at all I cannot.
A little delayed then, we have the review of The
Burning Bush with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Robert
Ziegler, concert at the Royal Festival Hall at last. Lavishly illustrated
as usual, this one is spread out over two pages, with extra photos on the
second page. The concert itself was a sensation. And after having heard
recordings of the other events in this BBC Radio 3 series of East
Meets West concerts, the BBC CO / The Burning Bush one stands out even more as clearly and far and away the best and most
successful of them, which certainly also seems to be born out by audience
reactions on various online message boards. Perhaps the less said about
the other concerts in this series the better, and instead to concentrate
on the positive side and the BBC Concert Orchestra with The Burning
Bush event. It was a most memorable occasion indeed, where East really
did meet West in a musically productive way, with an excellent selection
of orchestral pieces by Jewish composers or on Jewish themes, an orchestral
arrangement of traditional Sephardi pieces by conductor Robert Ziegler,
traditional Yiddish songs, klezmer tunes, Ladino songs and Chassidic nigunim
from The Burning Bush, and a world premier of a specially commissioned
work by Roderick Skeaping, The Vanished Shtetl, for band
and orchestra, and more.
Associated with this splendid concert was a series of pre-concert performances
in the Royal Festival Hall foyer, presented by the BBC Concert Orchestra as part of Concert Connections / BBC CO Learning under the
title Vessels of Sound. Featuring a number of performances
by students who were the beneficiaries of the BBC CO's learning
programme as well as a spoken word poetry performance by the most excellent Leah
Thorn, one of the facilitators in the learning programme, Vessels
of Sound was an outstanding event celebrating Jewish culture and
surely an occasion for Jewish pride. This delightful celebration is therefore
given its own illustrated review.
While some long overdue artists' profiles had to wait yet again (the
drafts are still awaiting retrieval from a dieing hard disk), there's a
whole bunch of equally long overdue album reviews at least, with more to follow very shortly now.
Even though not coming under the umbrella of "Jewish music" per se,
Afro-Latin Jazz legend Mark Weinstein's latest superb album Tudo
de Bom, a selection of compositions from leading Brazilian
composer Hermeto Pascoal's Calendario do Som series, is
mentioned here by way of a "lead-in". With his previous album, Shifra
Tanzt, Mark Weinstein entered a deeply personal exploration
of his Jewish musical roots, and a review of this exquisite recording will
be included in the next site update.
David Chevan's latest album, The Days of Awe, is
a series of truly awesome instrumental interpretation of prayers from the
High Holy Days. A sensitive blend of Jewish liturgical material and styles
with contemporary jazz, this album is sub-titled Meditations for Selichot,
Rosh Hshanah and Yom Kippur, and also features Warren Byrd and
other members of Chevan's band The Afro-Semitic Experience as well
as ace trumpeter Frank London. More from The Afro-Semitic Experience next time. Also reviewed is Wolf Krakowski's
extraordinary English language singer-songwriter album, Unbounded - not to be missed! A young singer-songwriter talent definitely to look
out for is Lenka Lichtenberg, whose debut album Deep Inside and 2003's Open The Gate are reviewed here. A big-hearted and gifted singer both of traditional Yiddish as well
as Ladino material and her own original material, Ms. Lichtenberg's albums
are a delightful blend of traditional Yiddish and contemporary singer-songwriter
and world music styles. And last but by no means least, it's nostalgia
time with two excellent abums distributed by Simon Rutberg's Hatikvah
Music. Our Way! The Barry Sisters Sing "Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn" is a wonderful compilation of mainly 1960s hits and show tunes sung in
Yiddish by the famed Barry Sisters, while Joe & Paul -
The Best of The Barton Brothers puts together the most popular
and successful of The Barton Brother's Yiddish musical comedy sides
from the late 1940s.
Also coming up soon, illustrated reviews of two of the concerts in the
excellent Nomadica - Roots Revisited series presented by
the Jewish Music Institute in association
with MultiCulti at London's
South Bank. First, the brilliant Daphna Sadeh and the Voyagers concert
at the Purcell Room, then the excellent The Soul of the Fiddle concert
at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, both having taken place at the end of March.
The Classical Music Reviews index page is now also active and lists all reviews of music broadly falling
into the classical category or overlapping with it.
The Jewish Music UK Calendar page continues
to be constantly updated, and there will be another "silent" update in
the coming days.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/03/04
Just another quick interim update. Regrettably, I've been falling further
behind, not least thanks to an uncooperative computer that insists on being
on its last leg (a couple of its aging disks have been failing intermittently).
However, things are running reasonably smoothly again now (for now!), and
a whole bunch of album reviews should be up in the early part of next week.
Some real gems among them, too.
Also coming up very shortly, an illustrated review of the Lucie Skeaping
and The Burning Bush with The BBC Concert Orchestra concert, with conductor Robert
Ziegler, at London's Royal Festival Hall last week. If you missed this
outstanding performance you can listen to it on BBC Radio 3 90-93 FM (also
online at the BBC web site) on
10th March, 7.30pm (BST). Presented alongside the main concert was an excellent
series of free pre-concert recitals in the Royal Festival Hall main foyer
as part of the BBC Concert Orchestra's Concert Connections,
the BBC CO Learning Programme, entitled Vessels of Sound,
and there will be seperate review of this as well. The Vessels of Sound performances will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during the week of 8-12
March as part of the BBC Radio 3 'Diverse Orchestras' Project. Taken
altogether, the evening was a superb celebration of Jewish culture on which
the BBC CO really cannot be congratulated, and indeed thanked enough.
Whilst on the topic of broadcasts, also don't miss Daphna Sadeh and
the Voyagers live on Charlie Gillett's The Sound of the
World show on BBC London Radio (94.9 FM) on Saturday, 13th
March, 8-10pm. If you're not in the London area, you can listen anywhere
on the planet online anytime during
the week following the broadcast.
The calendar page is being updated as
frequently as possible and as dates come in. Dates in Western Europe can
also be included, as of course any radio and TV broadcasts, workshops,
and the like.
Finally, anybody I owe email, please accept my apologies, I'll try and
catch up as quickly as I can after Shabbes. I estimate I should be more
or less up-to-date with mail by the end of next week, with a bit of luck.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/02/15
Just an interim update today, but what an update! There's the review of the legendary Gilad
Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble's fabulous gig at London's
Pizza Express Jazz Club last month, held over from last time and lavishly
illustrated with photos from the gig. This amazing jazz colossus just keeps
on surprising with his innovative and adventurous genius and through his
uncanny ability to keep on surpassing himself. Atzmon's gigs recapture
all the raw excitement of past greats like Bird (Charlie Parker) and 'Trane
(John Coltrane) and add considerably to it. Regardless of what one makes
of his politics, it's impossible to ignore Gilad Atzmon's musical genius.
Also, the "All Live Music
Reviews" (index) page is now active and lists all current
reviews of live gigs available on Rainlore's World of Music.
Finally, this page has been trimmed somewhat and its older content fully
archived.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/02/04
A total of seven album reviews have made it onto
the site, however, due to time constraints and in order to not delay the
current update any further it had to be curtailed somewhat, leaving some
artists' profiles and an illustrated review of the phenomenal Gilad
Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble live at the Pizza Express
Jazz Club, Soho, London, to be added ASAP.
However, the current crop of albums reviewed is a veritable treasure trove! Back in 1984, a remarkable performance of Shostakovich's
song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry, Opus 79, took place
in London as part of the first London Festival of Jewish Music. What was
so remarkable about this performance was that the songs had been translated
back into Yiddish from Russian. Fortunately, this performance in Yiddish
was recorded shortly afterwards with the same performers and released on
audio cassette by B'nai B'rith Recordings. The performers were Helen
Lawrence, soprano (now mezzo), Carole Rosen, mezzo, Louis
Garb, tenor, Louis Berkman, baritone, and Antony Saunders,
piano. In addition to the Shostakovich cycle, the recording included extracts
from Samuel Alman's Yiddish opera King Ahaz, with
piano accompaniment. This historical release is still available in limited
quantities and is now reviewed, along with another
historical B'nai B'rith Recordings release from the same year, featuring Sybil
Michelow, soprano (now alto) and the late Master of the Queen's Music Malcolm
Williamson In Recital. This features an outstanding
selection of songs covering the period from the late Romantic to the late
20th century, all by Jewish composers or on Jewish themes. Both of these
historic releases are available from Jewish
Music Distribution UK, and CD re-issues are being contemplated by the JMI,
who own the rights.
If you're even vaguely into chansons and cabaret song, don't miss the
fabulous Alexandra Yaron's stunning album, Irgendwo Auf Der
Welt..., and most of all, don't miss this incredible performer! Alexandra
Yaron will already be familiar to regular visitors through the review
here of her recent cabaret
date at The Spitz. The zany Aussie band Monsieur
Camembert who won their second ARIA Award for Best World Music
Album for their 2003 release Absynthe provide a super taster of their live performances on the 2002 ARIA Award-winning Live
On Stage. One-time keyboardist/sideman for Tom Waits, Willy
Schwarz is an incredibly versatile multi-instrumentalist as well as
an accomplished singer who takes us on a musical travelogue to explore
most major traditions of Jewish music throughout the diaspora with his
album Jewish Music Around The World, distributed in the
US by Hatikvah Music. One of
the best aspects of this album is also that it presents Ashkenazi as well
as Sephardi and Mizrakhi traditions together and all mixed up nicely. It
also highlights the fact that sadly at present, Sephardi and Mizrakhi traditions
are seriously under-represented in reviews on this site. This is by no
means by design or any kind of bias or preference but simply because artists/bands
(and/or their distributors/labels etc.) have been somewhat backward in
coming forward. A very regrettable state of affairs in my opinion.
Asaf Sirkis, more familiar perhaps as the drum genius at the
heart of the rhythm section of Gilad
Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, can be heard with his own
trio, Asaf Sirkis & The Inner Noise with their recent outstanding
album Inner Noise. A kind of fusion for the 21st century, Inner
Noise goes far beyond the fusion familiar from Miles Davis and
John McLaughlin and followers, combining elements of jazz, progressive
rock, classical and Middle Eastern music and influences as diverse as Olivier
Messiaen and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The trio comprises in addition to
Sirkis on drums, organist Steve Lodder on church organ and guitarist Mike
Outram. The work was recorded at St. Michael's Church, Highgate, North
London. While perhaps not falling under the umbrella of Jewish music, this
album is nonetheless of interest here as not only is Sirkis Israeli and
the work was originally partly commissioned by the City of Tel Aviv's Art
Department, but also because of the Middle Eastern elements of the music.
Last but not least, there's more from clawhammer banjo klezmer extraordinaire Andy
Rubin, with his regular band The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band and their 1998 debut album The Flower of Berezin, a joyful
blend of klezmer, American Old Time Dance music, Irish music and more.
This stuff is highly infectious!
Some of the major annual klez fests have also been listed
in the Info section and on the links page. If those that are still not mentioned would like to send me details,
I'll gladly add them ASAP.
Finally, with the next (partial) site update it is about time to move
some of the news content of this page to the archives.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/01/17
No less than five album reviews this time, with
lots more in preparation. Be sure not to miss the extraordinary Wolf
Krakowski's albums, Transmigrations - Gilgul and Goyrl:
Destiny. Krakowski re-intepretes traditional Yiddish songs in a
modern blues based idiom that blends blues, R&B, folk-rock, country-rock,
reggae and Latin flavours in his own inimitable style while fully preserving
the Yiddish essence of the songs. At the height of her career, Yaffa
Yarkoni was probably Israel's most popular singer. Thanks to the endeavours
of Simon Rutberg and his Hatikvah
Music label, a collection of her singing Yiddish songs is for the
first time available on CD in the form of Yaffa Yarkoni Sings Yiddish
- Rumania, Rumania. Whether you're into "Early Jewish Music" period
style performances, tsimbl, or you just like klezmer duets, Pete
Rushefsky and Elie Rosenblatt's Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music
For Hammered Dulcimer And Violin is guaranteed to offer everybody
something. Finally, the recently released Shalom Ireland by CeiliZemer is the soundtrack of the documentary movie of the
same name and there simply aren't enough superlatives to describe this
fantastic album - it's a real blast! CeiliZemer of course features among
others Andy Rubin and David Kidron of The
Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band, of whom more next time.
Coming soon is a live review of a recent Gilad
Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble date at the Pizza Express
Jazz Club, Soho. It's easy to see why they're fast acquiring the status
"legendary"!
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
2004/01/01
A Happy C.E. New Year!
Long overdue, a profile of eclectic Aussie band Monsieur
Camembert is finally up. Hoping to catch up with a few more over the
next couple of months.
Also up, a full six album reviews. While not
strictly speaking falling under the umbrella of any kind of Jewish music, The
Amazing Assaf's Explicit
Lifestyles and Damned
If You Do, Damned If You Don't are nevertheless relevant here.
For starters, they are fine music, period. Moreover, they are very rare
beasts in the present day and age - popular music, in this particular case,
Hip Hop, that actually qualifies as original, inventive, creative and even
accessible and eminently listenable-to. Even if Hip Hop is not your usual
"bag", I'd urge you to give The Amazing Assaf's albums a listen.
This Hip Hop and percussion genius takes the genre and turns it upside
down and inside out with very interesting results. And there isn't even
a loop in sight. Last not least of course, The Amazing Assaf will
already be familiar to regular visitors of these pages as the percussion
wizard of the all-star supergroup Daphna
Sadeh And The Voyagers. For more on The Amazing Assaf and his albums
also check here.
Then there are two more albums from Stewart
Curtis, the multi-woodwind phenomenon also already familiar through
his association with Daphna Sadeh And The Voyagers as well as his previously
reviewed debut album with Stewart Curtis' K-Groove. Smoked
Salmon Salsa is K-Groove's most recent album, and Curtis faces
the trio trial on Saracubana
- The Stewart Curtis Trio Plays B.B. Cooper; extraordinary
albums both. Equally extraordinary are two more albums from Dutch duo Mariejan
van Oort and Jacques Verheijen, their debut album Brikele
- A Concert of Yiddsh Songs, and their latest release, Mayn
Fayfele - Songs of Gebirtig, a tribute to Mordekhay Gebirtig that includes material only recently discovered.
Several new musical categories and links to them are starting to appear
on these pages. There is a lot of material that is relevant to more than
one sphere of interest, e.g., a lot of klezmer and other Jewish music involves
fusion with jazz and it would therefore be of interest to general jazz
aficionados. Adding other categories and cross-referencing material is
aimed at broadening the appeal of such material. Also of course, there
will always be other material that I find of interest but that doesn't
really fit into the previous limited categories. However, rest assured
that the primary focus of this site will firmly remain all forms of Jewish
music, and a bit of steel pan (which will finally come along real soon
now). The first of the new categories to become "active" are Jazz and Other Music. The latter will
cover all forms/genres of music not already encompassed by a seperate category.
Finally, a "silent" update of the Jewish
Music UK Calendar page will follow, it is hoped, in the next few days.
More soon.
Rainlore's World of Music
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Info
Annual Jewish Music Festivals, Workshops and
Similar Events
Sources for Buying Jewish Music Recordings
Annual Jewish Music
Festivals, Workshops and Similar Events
KLEZCALIFORNIA is an annual five day celebration of Klezmer Music,
Yiddish Language, Literature, Dance and Folk Arts, with evening events
and a full children's program, held every summer in San Francisco, California.
Course offerings, teachers, registration instructions and other details
are available from the KlezCalifornia web
site as well as by email or phone on (+1) 415-789-7679. The 2004 event takes place from June 20th
to 25th 2004.
KlezFest is the UK's annual five day celebration of Yiddish and
klezmer music and culture with a full programme of courses, workshops,
concerts and more. Held in London based at the Jewish
Music Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
of the University of London every summer, KlezFest is usually preceded
by a week long Yiddish language and culture course. Full details and online
registration forms are usually available in the early part of each year
at the JMI website. The 2004 Yiddish
language and culture course is slated for Sunday 1st to Friday 6th August
2004, while KlezFest will take place Sunday 8th to Thursday 12th August 2004.
KlezKamp is the grandaddy of all klezmer and Yiddish culture
fests. The brainchild of Henry Sapoznik of Kapelye and The Jewish Radio Project fame, and acclaimed author of one of the modern standard texts on klezmer and the klezmer renaissance of the late 20th century, Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World, KlezKamp was first held in 1984 and takes place annually in December in the Catskills of New York State. Now also known as the Yiddish Folk Arts Festival, KlezKamp features "innovative classes, great teachers and the finest schedule of Yiddish culture programs in the world", to quote the official blurb. Full details of each year's event and online registration are usually available on the official KlezKamp web site in the autumn, or you can email for a printed brochure.
Sources for Buying Jewish Music Recordings
Your local HMV, Tower, Virgin or whatever CD mega store is extremely
unlikely to carry any sort of Jewish music recordings. Amazon and Barnes
& Noble and similar online outlets have the odd few releases in their
catalogues, but you'd have to be very lucky to find everything you want
there.
However, there are very much better sources from which to obtain CDs
(and/or audio cassettes etc.) - for a start, two wonderful specialist
Judaica outlets, one in the USA and the other in the UK. Both are run at
least as much as a labour of love as as a business, and are certainly deserving
of every Jewish music connoisseur's support and patronage. Their respective
owners are not only extremely knowledgeable in the field of Jewish music
and recordings, but are also extraordinarily helpful and will go the extra
mile to try all they reasonably can to track down an obscure recording
that they might not have in stock (and their range of stock is nothing
short of amazing anyway!) - if it's out there and at all obtainable, these
dedicated people are your best hope of getting it!
Specialist outlets like this are always at best marginal and often struggling
to survive, while providing an invaluable service, so if you love Jewish
music and are looking to buy, may I urge you to please take your custom
to :
is based at: 436 N. Fairfax, L.A., Ca. (USA)
(323) 655 7083
Simon, Hatikvah's friendly helpful owner, carries every imaginable kind
of Jewish music and then some. You can also contact Simon by email with any specific queries you might have, for example concerning a recording
you're looking for that isn't listed on his web site.
Hatikvah Music also take particular pride in offering the largest selection
of Sephardic music in the world, seperated into "Ladino" (Judeo-Spanish)
and (non-Spanish) Sephardi categories, and here are the two direct links
to the start of those respective pages:
 
Sephardic and Ladino recordings tend to be especially hard to find generally,
so the above should provide a convenient shortcut.
is based at: PO Box 67, Hailsham, BN27 4UW (UK)
Tel/Fax: (+44) (0)1323 832863
(between 8.30am and 6pm UK time)
JMD UK is run by the friendly helpful Noa and carries an incredible
range of all kinds of Jewish music, in fact, probably the widest range
of recordings available anywhere uner one roof. For any specific queries
concerning e.g. recordings that you are looking for (chances are, Noa's
got it!), you can also contact Noa by email.
Previously hosted by the Jewish Music Institute (SOAS), London, Noa's own brand new web site is now online and also
offers secure online ordering.
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. All rights reserved.
HATIKVAH
Music International
Jewish
Music Distribution UK