The Klezmatics

Wonder Wheel (with Lyrics by Woody Guthrie): With Special Guests Susan McKeown & Boo Reiners; Release Date: July 2006; Label: Jewish Music Group; Wonder Wheel, a record seven years in the making, reflects Woody Guthrie’s political stance and social agenda into a larger, global mirror, and brings a 20th century American figurehead to a 21st-century audience. The Klezmatics vibrantly bring Woody’s lyrics to life, filling them with Eastern European, klezmer, Latin, Celtic, Afro-Caribbean and folk flavor, giving them a universal life of their own. Featuring Celtic vocalist Susan McKeown and multi-instrumentalist Boo Reiners and produced by GoodAndEvil (Sex Mob, Elysian Fields, Felix Da Housecat), Wonder Wheel is an intense combination of the familiar and the exotic. But above all, it’s completely natural, all-encompassing, and intensely human.

Brother Moses Smote The Water: Featuring Joshua Nelson & Kathryn Farmer; Release Date: 2005; Label: Piranha / Harmonia Mundi; Only in America could Jewish slaves in Egypt inspire White Southern Christians who in turn stirred Black Christians to sing about emancipation who in turn inspired an African-American Jewish gospel singer named Joshua Nelson.

Rise Up! Shetyl Oyf!: Release Date: 2002; Label: Rounder / Piranha; 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.

The Well
A Collaboration with Chava Alberstein: Release Date: 1998; Label: Rounder; 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.

Possessed: Release Date: 1997; Label: Rounder / Piranha; Much of Possessed is a collaboration with Tony Kushner (the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning playwright of Angels in America). He contributes lyrics to two songs, and the second half of the album was designed as a musical score for his play A Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds (an adaptation of Jewish folk tales by S. An-ski). The marriage of artistic sensibilities is perfect.

In The Fiddler's House: Release Date: 1995; Label: Angel; One of the finest classical crossover albums ever, and wouldn't you know it, it's Jewish! Violin maestro Perlman convened the brightest lights of today's klezmer scene for his exploration of shtetl soul, a collaboration that birthed a PBS special, a video, and a sequel of sorts, TRADITION, focusing on more religious fare. But IN THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE, there's a party going on as the classical master applies his finely filligreed tones to the rough-and-ready rhythms of Eastern-European dance music. With clarinetist/mandolinist Andy Statman, the Klezmatics, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and Alan Bern's Brave Old World on hand, Perlman proves himself an amiable host. He's not afraid to give the estimable company their share of the spotlight. You never get the feeling that Perlman is slumming it with his young colleagues or that the klez kats are indulging a game but hopelessly square uncle. While it would be wrong to call IN THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE a klezmer album, with its unique fusion of culture high and low -- not to mention blazing instrumental work -- Perlman's project achieves that rare crossover dream. There's something for klezmer fans in his limpid virtuosity, to be sure. But by opening up the lyricism of these rambunctious tunes with his liquid bowing, Perlman gives one weighty argument for the serious need to preserve the klezmer repertoire, one that's essentially been consigned to bar mitzvah entertainment and wedding bands. IN THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE is one place where Jews, non-Jews, klezmer fans, and fiddle buffs can all feel at home. Mark Schwartz (Barnes & Noble Editorial Staff)