the KlezmerShack

I can tell by the weather that Khanike is fast approaching. Even with daylight "savings" time (body clock confusion time), the sun doesn't rise until long after I wake, and sets before I am able to depart from work. Recognizing the need to keep the artists in business who make the music that keeps me going, I have tried to catch up with a few new reviews. The stack of new music I want to tell people about is even larger than this short list, but, as the Talmud says, the task is long and will not be completed in my lifetime (as if I would ever want to see an end to new music worth shouting about), but time to shoulder on, regardless. Or, something like that.

• I was entranced the first time I heard this 2022 recording from young violinist Zoë Aqua / In Vald Arayn (Into the forest). Recording in Transylvania with local musicians, this is my favorite klezmer fiddle album in a long time.
• Sarah Aroeste has been a one-person powerhouse in popularizing and making Sephardic culture, and in particular, Ladino music accessible. In trying to catch up, I thought I would highlight a 2021 album of Ladino songs for this season: Sarah Aroeste / Hanuká!.
• Whenever I attend an event where he is speaking, I always make a special effort to hear Klezmer Conservatory Band founder Hankus Netsky. And, whenever he puts together a concert, even moreso. Rather than play old favorites, Netsky has focused on bringing to light lost gems of the past. With his New England Conservatory co-department chair Eden MacAdams-Somer, this is a reminder of why I make that effort, and a delight: Eden MacAdams-Somer & Hankus Netsky / Give me back my heart.
• I can't keep track of the many innovative, exciting projects in which Jeremiah Lockwood is involved. But it is the season, and he is about to issue a vinyl version of this new classic collection of Khanike guitar soli: Jeremiah Lockwood / A great miracle.
• last, for the moment, the recording that I have been most actively sharing with friends, handing out as party favors, inflicting on the afflicted to make them joyful, let me introduce a new Yiddish vocal trio based in my current home town of Boston: Levyosn / Levyosn's Lullaby.

Khanike recordings, a starter list

Given how important music is in this time of darkness, you'd think that I'd have compiled this list years ago. So, to get things started, let me catch at least some Khanike recordings that I've written about in years past. If you have a favorite recording, please post to the Jewish-Music mailing list, or post to the KlezmerShack group on Facebook, and share with all of us, .

• Sarah Aroeste / Hanuká!, 2021. Children's holiday songs in Ladino. Includes a lovely Ladino "Maoz Tzur" and the Flory Jagoda Ladino favorite, "Ocho Kandelikos".
• Lori Cahan-Simon Ensemble / Chanukah is Freylekh! A Yiddish Chanukah Celebration. Songs My Bubbe Should Have Taught Me: Volume Two, 2006. A wonderful singer captures some of the Yiddish holiday repertoire.
• The Klezmatics / Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah, 2006. One of the greatest klezmer bands, let loose in the Woody Guthrie archives and demonstrating their Americana chops. There's a reason why several of these songs remain in the band's active repertoire.
• The LeeVees / Hanukkah Rocks, 2005. Great holiday fun for those of us who have questions. (Can you be Jewish if you have no questions?)
• Jeremiah Lockwood / A great miracle, 2021. Eight guitar soli modeled on a classic John Fahey guitar album.
• Sruli and Lisa Oy Vey! Chanukah!, 1999. Surely there are still copies of this classic still available. Just about the all-time greatest kids Khanike album, EVER.

Compilations

• A Chanukah Feast compilation, 2004. A fundraiser with wonderful songs by a wide variety of really wonderful bands.
• A Chanukah Feast, Vol. II, 2006. One good compilation, deserves another! I wish they had kept producing these.
• Festival of Light, 1996. Not so much Khanike, but worth finding if you can.
Mark Rubin presents Hill Country Hannukah, 2001. Big fun, curated by everyone's favorite Jew from Oklahoma (and current New Orleans resident), Mark Rubin.