World: The Klezmatics
The Klezmatics:"Rise Up! Shteyt Oyf!"
File under: Klezmer music with postmodern attitude.
The Klezmatics take surprising turns on every track of their spirited new collection. The New York ensemble - vocalist- accordionist Lorin Sklamberg, trumpeter Frank London, fiddler Lisa Gutkin, wind player Matt Dariau, bassist-tsimble player Paul Morrissett and drummer David Licht - boldly mixes Jewish traditions with contemporary techniques. They jazz up an old East European klezmer tune with a dash of salsa. They create a graphic homoerotic love song by changing the gender of a poetic text about a hebrew tutor. They integrate a live recording of a 1960s Jewish wedding celebration into a raucous new interpretation. They express the album's fearless theme in a 1920s worker song and a gospel arrangement of Holly Near's "I Ain't Afraid," sung in English and Yiddish. The collection also features haunting pieces composed for Pilobolus Dance Theatre and Tony Kushner's adaptation of the classic Yiddish play, "A Dybbuk." A large cast of supporting musicians, including Cleveland Klezmer fiddler Steven Greenman, gets into the fray and brings back vivid mimories of the ensemble's electrifying performance last summer at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Grade: A
05/25/03