…as well as the good stuff. I want the bad stuff (or at least the songs or bands you personally dislike) so I can know what to avoid, and I can appreciate the good stuff.
I’ve taken a look at my music library, and realize I don’t have a lot of klezmer and polka music (part of my heritage) represented. The relatives who used to listen to the stuff have passed on, so I can’t ask them for recommendations, at least not without a Ouija board.
I’ve looked at Amazon, but I can’t afford 318 items, either in money or time invested. And I am not sophisticated enough to tell the differences in klezmer bands: I don’t want to get the Longines Symphonette when I have the London Symphony Orchestra right in front of me. Or end up buying the equivalent of “Mantovani plays the music of The Rolling Stones”. Know what I mean?
Heck, if you can recommend some good (and bad) polka bands (same reasons as above), have at it.
Pretty much all of my Klezmer experience has been live so it’s hard for me to recommend any CD’s, but one band that I’ve seen live about a million-gazillion times 'cuz they’re awesome would be The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars (the link takes you right to the page where you can buy their CDs).
Itzak Pearlman put out a CD of all Klezmer music a few years ago. It was called “In the Fiddler’s House” (or something like that). I saw him doing some T.V. performances to promote it and he sounded great.
But, again, when I need a Klezmer fix I usually go out to find a band playing somewhere- sorry I can’t be of more help suggesting CDs!
(By the way, I thought Milla Jovovich’s band in Dummy kicked ass!)
Very strange: For the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars link I pasted the Merch Page but the link takes you to the Home Page. I don’t know why that is, but I trust you’ll find your way to the page you need.
In the Fiddler’s House was the CD to accompany the PBS special of the same name a few years back, about Perlman exploring klezmer music and preparing for (and performing) the first klezmer concert in Poland in decades. Besides excellent performances by Perlman, he plays with a Who’s Who of the contemporary klezmer scene, including the Klezmatics, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Brave Old World, and Andy Statman. The selections are quite representative of the range and sub-types of klezmer music, and the liner notes are extremely informative, providing a solid introduction to klezmer. As a bonus, you should have some idea which of the bands represented here most appeals to you (I’m sort of a Klezmatics man, myself).
Less adventurous, but a lot fun (and perhaps truer to the Eastern European tradition of klezmer as music for simchas) is Chicago’s Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. They’re highly capable musicians, in many cases with very impressive “outside” credentials, but they’re also still very close to the tradition of being entertainers at weddings and such. Accordingly, they never take themselves too seriously. The one of their recordings I own, You Should Be So Lucky!, serves as a nice counterpoint to In the Fiddler’s House, including as it does another batch of traditional standards without really overlapping.
And if you’re really interested, Ari Davidow’s Klezmer Shack site has plenty more. If that doesn’t satisfy your thirst, then the Chicago Public Library’s Jewish Music Archives might.
Thank you, folks. Not only will I have some cool music, but it will be a nice antidote to the stuff blasting out of the cars next to me. (Funny one time - I was listening to some soprano arias while driving, and (of course!) the car next to me had the bass turned up to eardrum bleed level. Odd though, the beats for both songs meshed exactly. Opera hip-hop. Whoda thunkit?)
Wish I could find the copy of “Sound and Spirit” I taped from the radio where they did a version of “The Nutcracker” in klezmer. That was a hoot.
First of all, let me be clear that I know next to nothing about klezmer music.
But I have a good guidebook – The Rough Guide to World Music, which is a hefty compendium of music styles from, well, all around the world, and highly recommended for anyone interested in roots music or just to expand beyond one’s national boundaries. I have the first edition of the book (published 1994), which has since been updated and expanded into twovolumes for even more comprehensive coverage.
Wow, that sounded like a commercial. Anyway, from its klezmer section, these are the recommended recordings from the contemporary US scene (record label in parenthesis):
[ul][li]Various, Doyres 1 and Doyres 2 (Trikont)[/li][li]Brave Old World, Klezmer Music (Flying Fish)[/li][li]Don Byron, Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz (Elektra Nonesuch)[/li][li]Epstein Brothers, Zeydes un Eyniklekh (Wego)[/li][li]Giora Feidman, The Magic of Klezmer (Delos)[/li][li]Kapelye, Chicken (Shanachie)[/li][li]The Klezmatics, Rhythm + Jews (Piranha) – recommended as the best introduction to the genre.[/li][li]Klezmer Plus!, Klezmer Plus! (Flying Fish)[/li][li]Klezmorium, Metropolis (Flying Fish)[/ul][/li]Hope that helps. Speaking of odd pairings with operatic music, one of my CDs is from former Sex Pistol Malcolm McLaren re-doing Puccini arias. Actually, I just put the disc into my computer and I’m listening to his version of O mio babbino caro now. Opera punk. It’s great. ;j
I have to get this to go with my “Texas Chainsaw Orchestra” (doing “Sabre Dance” on chainsaws), “Rondellus - Sabbatum” (Black Sabbath music in medieval style) and “The Glory of the Human Voice” (the world’s worst soprano).
