klezmer

Track 1 from my album, "Echoes of the Shtetl". This album is my attempt to recreate the wonderful sounds of the traditional Jewish Klezmer fiddle, which once wafted through the many Shtetls of Eastern Europe, prior to the ravages wrought on Eastern European Jewish musical culture by the Holocaust.

The first couple of tracks on this album are particularly poignant.  "Khosid Dance" (track 1) & "Dance From Maramaros" (track 2) - these melodies uniquely demonstrate the fusion of Jewish and Romanian-style Gypsy Music which existed in Hungary, prior to the totally pointless, barbaric destruction of both these communities and their centuries of fabulously rich and diverse musical culture, during the sheer horror of the Holocaust. I first learnt them by ear from a fantastic recording called "The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania" (Hannibal 1973).

This recording uniquely features Hungarian Jewish Klezmer melodies, thankfully remembered by a handful of surviving Hungarian Gypsy musicians, who played these very melodies with Jewish musicians, and also at Jewish Weddings in Hungary before World War II - thus preserving a precious remnant of the amazing Hungarian Jewish/Gypsy culture which once so wonderfully merged & thrived together for literally centuries...

In my own personal arrangement of "Khosid Dance", I have attempted to covey this fusion of Romanian Gypsy and Jewish Klezmer fiddle styles, by beginning and closing the piece passages in the style of a typical, mournful Romanian "Doina" - a free improvisatory style of fiddle playing, which the Klezmer musicians seem to have directly adopted and adapted from the Romanian-style Gypsy music they heard. In certain parts of "Khosid Dance", hints of the familiar Jewish Klezmer "Ahava Raba" mode can be heard (AA#C#DEFGA), but the Gypsy/Romanian influence can clearly be felt in both the phrasing and general "mood" of the music. The fiddle playing heard in these precious few surviving Hungarian Klezmer melodies (as performed on the Muzikas recording) has a much "fuller" fiddle style/sound, than the much more ornamented, sinuous, almost "vibrato-free" fiddle styles of Jewish Eastern European Klezmer .

Another fascinating recording I can recommend is called "Like a Different World", by the late Leon Schwartz. In this unique recording, can be heard a Jewish fiddle player who was born in Poland in 1902, and was actually taught to play fiddle by the local Gypsy musicians who lived near his village - a fantastically beautiful fusion of styles.

 In my intention to covey the terrible loss of the Hungarian Jewish & Gypsy cultures which once so harmoniously blossomed together in Hungary for centuries, until their almost total destruction in the holocaust, my arrangement of the melody is much slower and mournful than the dance-style rendition heard in the performance of this piece by Muzsikas.
I also attempt to emphasis this sadness by means of the fiddle technique often heard in traditional Jewish Klezmer music, which is known as a "cretche" - literally attempting to create a "sobbing" effect on the fiddle, by means of lightly stopping the strings at the end of playing certain notes in the melody...which has the effect of "cutting short the breath" of these notes, just like the sound of someone sobbing.

This fascinating cultural exchange of musical ideas is certainly not unique to Jewish Klezmer music - it seems to have happened throughout all of History, whenever two entirely different cultures find themselves living side by side, for example, Cajun music - an absolutely incredible fusion, of quaint French Dance Music...and Louisiana Blues!

Above all the musical styles which influenced the traditional Klezmer musicians of Eastern Europe, the Romanian influence seems to be the strongest and most enduring. This fact is reflected in the dance forms found throughout the entire surviving Klezmer music repertoire, e.g. Horas, Doinas, and Bulgars etc. I have also featured examples of such piece on the album, for example   & "Oriental Hora" (track 5) & "Oriental Hora" (track 6). This influence on the old Jewish Klezmer music of Eastern Europe may again be due to the sounds of Romanian Gypsy music heard on the fringes of Eastern European society, near to the old Jewish Shtetls, which the Klezmer musicians heard, adopted and adapted.

It is so often overlooked, that the fact that any Klezmer music has survived today, is mostly thanks to the emigration to America of Jewish musicians from Eastern Europe, prior to the advent of World War II. Some of these musicians recorded the traditional Klezmer melodies they took with them, (their  “invisible baggage”), mostly during the 1920s. It was thanks to these crackly vintage recordings, that the revival of Klezmer music, starting in the 1970s, was made possible. "Oriental Hora" (track 5) is an example of one of these traditional Klezmer melodies which survived, thanks to an early recording of it in the USA, made by the Klezmer violinist, Max Liebowitz.

The rather rustic "rough edges" in my fiddle playing, (which the classically trained violinist will no doubt detect), is simply a consequence of the fact that I am totally, entirely self-taught - just like most of the Eastern European Jewish Klezmer musicians of old, I never had either the money or the opportunity to take violin lessons. In my own opinion, folk music played by a classically trained violinist, simply no longer sounds like authentic folk music.

If music can "Capture the Soul" of a People, then may this recording be my tribute to the Jewish & Gypsy musicians of Eastern Europe who were so brutally & pointlessly butchered by the Nazis during the Holocaust - at least this little selection of Klezmer melodies which some of them once played, will now, forever, live on...

My passion for recreating the sounds of the music of the ancient world originates mainly from my many years as a self-taught Klezmer fiddle player - I became increasingly intrigued by the timeless, ancient musical modes I was so familiar with in Klezmer and it was my desire to "get back to the root of the olive branch", to delve deeper into the actual origin of these haunting, ancient modes, which since discovering the little-kown work of the late Suzanne Haik Vantoura, I discovered that they may indeed turn out to be as ancient as the Hebrew Bible itself.

Indeed, most of the repertoire from my first 2 albums,"King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel" & "Lyre of the Levites" was derived from the traditional Klezmer repertoire, uniquely arranged for replica 3000 year old Biblical Lyre. My 2 albums "Echoes of the Shtetl" & "The Klezmer Fiddle" attempt to evoke the sounds of the tragically lost Shtetls of Eastern Europe - the entrancing refrains, of the traditional Jewish Klezmer Fiddle... 

For full details, including a PDF booklet of the album  notes, please see:

http://ancientlyre.com/albums_for_solo_klezmer_fiddle/

Khosid Dance (Rare Surviving Hungarian Klezmer Melody)

Track 2 from my album, "Echoes of the Shtetl". This album is my attempt to recreate the wonderful sounds of the traditional Jewish Klezmer fiddle, which once wafted through the many Shtetls of Eastern Europe, prior to the ravages wrought on Eastern European Jewish musical culture by the Holocaust.

The first couple of tracks on this album are particularly poignant.  "Khosid Dance" (track 1) & "Dance From Maramaros" (track 2) - these melodies uniquely demonstrate the fusion of Jewish and Romanian-style Gypsy Music which existed in Hungary, prior to the totally pointless, barbaric destruction of both these communities and their centuries of fabulously rich and diverse musical culture, during the sheer horror of the Holocaust. I first learnt them by ear from a fantastic recording called "The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania" (Hannibal 1973).

This recording uniquely features Hungarian Jewish Klezmer melodies, thankfully remembered by a handful of surviving Hungarian Gypsy musicians, who played these very melodies with Jewish musicians, and also at Jewish Weddings in Hungary before World War II - thus preserving a precious remnant of the amazing Hungarian Jewish/Gypsy culture which once so wonderfully merged & thrived together for literally centuries...

In my own personal arrangement of "Khosid Dance", I have attempted to covey this fusion of Romanian Gypsy and Jewish Klezmer fiddle styles, by beginning and closing the piece passages in the style of a typical, mournful Romanian "Doina" - a free improvisatory style of fiddle playing, which the Klezmer musicians seem to have directly adopted and adapted from the Romanian-style Gypsy music they heard. In certain parts of "Khosid Dance", hints of the familiar Jewish Klezmer "Ahava Raba" mode can be heard (AA#C#DEFGA), but the Gypsy/Romanian influence can clearly be felt in both the phrasing and general "mood" of the music. The fiddle playing heard in these precious few surviving Hungarian Klezmer melodies (as performed on the Muzikas recording) has a much "fuller" fiddle style/sound, than the much more ornamented, sinuous, almost "vibrato-free" fiddle styles of Jewish Eastern European Klezmer .

Another fascinating recording I can recommend is called "Like a Different World", by the late Leon Schwartz. In this unique recording, can be heard a Jewish fiddle player who was born in Poland in 1902, and was actually taught to play fiddle by the local Gypsy musicians who lived near his village - a fantastically beautiful fusion of styles.

 In my intention to covey the terrible loss of the Hungarian Jewish & Gypsy cultures which once so harmoniously blossomed together in Hungary for centuries, until their almost total destruction in the holocaust, my arrangement of the melody is much slower and mournful than the dance-style rendition heard in the performance of this piece by Muzsikas.
I also attempt to emphasis this sadness by means of the fiddle technique often heard in traditional Jewish Klezmer music, which is known as a "cretche" - literally attempting to create a "sobbing" effect on the fiddle, by means of lightly stopping the strings at the end of playing certain notes in the melody...which has the effect of "cutting short the breath" of these notes, just like the sound of someone sobbing.

This fascinating cultural exchange of musical ideas is certainly not unique to Jewish Klezmer music - it seems to have happened throughout all of History, whenever two entirely different cultures find themselves living side by side, for example, Cajun music - an absolutely incredible fusion, of quaint French Dance Music...and Louisiana Blues!

Above all the musical styles which influenced the traditional Klezmer musicians of Eastern Europe, the Romanian influence seems to be the strongest and most enduring. This fact is reflected in the dance forms found throughout the entire surviving Klezmer music repertoire, e.g. Horas, Doinas, and Bulgars etc. I have also featured examples of such piece on the album, for example   & "Oriental Hora" (track 5) & "Oriental Hora" (track 6). This influence on the old Jewish Klezmer music of Eastern Europe may again be due to the sounds of Romanian Gypsy music heard on the fringes of Eastern European society, near to the old Jewish Shtetls, which the Klezmer musicians heard, adopted and adapted.

It is so often overlooked, that the fact that any Klezmer music has survived today, is mostly thanks to the emigration to America of Jewish musicians from Eastern Europe, prior to the advent of World War II. Some of these musicians recorded the traditional Klezmer melodies they took with them, (their  “invisible baggage”), mostly during the 1920s. It was thanks to these crackly vintage recordings, that the revival of Klezmer music, starting in the 1970s, was made possible. "Oriental Hora" (track 5) is an example of one of these traditional Klezmer melodies which survived, thanks to an early recording of it in the USA, made by the Klezmer violinist, Max Liebowitz.

The rather rustic "rough edges" in my fiddle playing, (which the classically trained violinist will no doubt detect), is simply a consequence of the fact that I am totally, entirely self-taught - just like most of the Eastern European Jewish Klezmer musicians of old, I never had either the money or the opportunity to take violin lessons. In my own opinion, folk music played by a classically trained violinist, simply no longer sounds like authentic folk music.

If music can "Capture the Soul" of a People, then may this recording be my tribute to the Jewish & Gypsy musicians of Eastern Europe who were so brutally & pointlessly butchered by the Nazis during the Holocaust - at least this little selection of Klezmer melodies which some of them once played, will now, forever, live on...

For full details, including a free PDF booklet of the album notes, please see:

http://www.ancientlyre.com/albums_for_solo_klezmer_fiddle/

Dance From Máramaros (Rare Surviving Hungarian Klezmer Melody)

Riverboat Records: Celebrating 25 years of making music from around the world

For more information, visit: http://www.worldmusic.net/store/item/TUG1082/

Riverboat Records celebrates it twenty-fifth year in 2014. Since its founding in 1989, the independent label has supported creative new music from far-flung corners of the globe.
This limited edition compendium offers a taste of the excellently eclectic Riverboat sounds from across the years.

Music From The Source includes music from thirty-three bands spanning across two bumper discs. Spotlighted artists include Greek folk duo Kristi Stassinopoulou & Stathis Kalyviotis who kick off proceedings with a track from their album Greekadelia which reached number one in the World Music Charts Europe. Monoswezi’s haunting minimalist sound fuses the music of Mozambique, Norway, Sweden and Zimbabwe together in seamless interplay. Indian slide-guitar maestro Debashish Bhattacharya expands his otherworldly sound Beyond The Ragasphere on virtuosic yet quirky track ‘Indospaniola’. Jaipur Kawa Brass Band’s bombastic party music presents an infectious exploration of Indian military music spun together with refigured Bollywood classics.  Lesotho-based ‘junk funk’ renegades Sotho Sounds craft their own instruments as heard on ‘Ba Ea Bojoa (Part 1)’.

Lala Njava’s offering is a Malagasy marvel featuring her silvery wandering voice, lush rolling guitars and rippling percussion. Nigerien nomad bluesmen Etran Finatawa contribute their Wodaabe-Tuareg musical melt. Shiyani Ngcobo acoustic guitar picking illuminates his mastery of the wonderful Zulu maskanda dance style. Boris Kovač & La Campanella’s melody ‘Pearl’ aches with their distinctly Balkan nuance. Klezmer troubadours She’Koyokh spoon out their re-imagined Eastern European folk on ‘Esmera Min’. 

Kardemimmit’s song ‘Ahven (Perch)’ is played by the fresh folksy kantele quartet from Finland. Cuban son band Sierra Maestra deliver their personal account of the nation’s infamous enveloping dance style. Koo Nimo’s lilting palm-wine music flies the flag for Ghana and village ensemble Wayo summon the ancient polyrhythms of Africa’s newest nation, South Sudan. Yunnanese ‘Mountain Men’ Shanren close the set with ‘Drinking Song’ from their new album, which has the UK media hailing them as ‘Chinese folk-rockers to watch’ (The Guardian).

Riverboat Records would like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank our supporters. Music From The Source is not only a resplendent retrospective but also highlights the breadth of talented artists that have been given an international platform thanks to Riverboat Record’s ongoing work since 1989.


Samba Touré: Alabina (taken from Music From The Source)

Everybody Wants To Be A Cat

Abò Mie Zabiją / Either they kill me, or they hang me

Nadya's 101 Candles Orkestra - Je Ne Regrette Rien

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/swing-de-gitanes/id926329569
https://www.amazon.com/Swing-Gitanes-Miki-Gavrielov/dp/B00O8Z3U64

Miki Gavrielov and Swing de Gitanes - Dropping Lights

https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/go-team-go-ep/id485454969
https://www.amazon.de/Go-Team-The-Asthmatix/dp/B006HI9B7M

The Asthmatix - Latke

Hallel from Zohar's Nigun's 2012 debut album 'The Four Questions'.

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/zoharsnigun
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-four-questions/id566729603
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Questions-Zohars-Nigun/dp/B009FB3XFE

Zohar's Nigun - Hallel

Bulgar from Odessa

First demo tracks - recorded by Karsten Troyke at Studio Zauberton - of the seminal Berlin Gypsy-jazz collective 'Radio Django'...

Radio Django - Softly

Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra (BGKO) has become the household name in Balkan, Gipsy and Klezmer music in Spain. This vibrant international sextet will be presenting a unique Balkan Reunion featuring guest stars such as legendary Romani saxophone player, King Ferus Mustafov, for the first time in Spain, as well as Slovenia’s most renowned gipsy music singer, Vlado Kreslin, which has collaborated with R.E.M., amongst many others. Special guests also include Nihan Devecioglu, a soulful Turkish singer who has also performed with Bobby McFerrin, as well as an additional string section by BGKO Family musicians, Oleksandr Sora (violin), Sasha Agranov (cello), joining BGKO’s exceptional Balkan Reunion with a special repertoire for this show.

BGKO is made of six musicians from Serbia, Italy, France, Spain, Greece and India, who joined together in Barcelona over their passion for Balkan music from a special perspective. Their particular style comes from Klezmer music, Gipsy Jazz and Romani music as well as from their exploration of forgotten music styles, specific timbres and flavours from regions around Eastern Europe. BGKO is comprised of clarinet, double bass, accordion, guitar, lead vocals, percussion etc. The group has also been inspired by Barcelona’s eclectic music scene, from Latin-American melodies, traditional Catalan and Middle Eastern music to electrifying Jazz and Rockabilly.

Their debut album, IMBARCA (Satélite K), was launched in 2014. BGKO has toured internationally, while currently preparing to record their second album with special guests from Macedonia, Slovenia and Turkey.
BGKO consists of Robindro Nikolic (Serbia-India: clarinet, bass clarinet, duduk), Mattia Schirosa (Italy: accordion), Ivan Kovacevic (Serbia: double bass), Julien Chanal (France: guitar), Stelios Togias (Greece: percussion, tzouras), Sandra Sangiao (Spain: lead vocals).

As in the best Gypsy and Jewish traditions, ever enriched by exchanges with other migrant musicians, BGKO has also created a large musical family of artists, musicians, singers, from countries such as Israel, Iran, Moldova, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, etc.


Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra (BGKO)- Sala Apolo Barcelona - 2015

ALETCHKO BALKAN

Composed by Opher Schneider

Elie Rosenblatt - violin
Lior Grosman - accordion
Opher Schneider - bass

Husidl #1

Elie Rosenblatt - violin
Lior Grosman - accordion
Opher Schneider - bass

Sher

Husidl #2

Freylekh

Heymisher Bulgar, Sol Sayn Gelebt, Autumn Leaves (klezmer) and Autumn Leaves (Jazz standard), with a twist.

Autumn Leaves Set

Forshpiel into Happy Nigun

Song from the Yiddish Film of the same name. A young woman who adores her violin disguises herself as a boy so she and her father can seek their fortunes as klezmer musicians. Adventure ensues. This song is from a scene where they are traveling on the back of a hay wagon. They meet a goat and a bird as they go along.

klezmer

Mob Satyo