Registration open! Yiddish Summer Weimar, Jul 21 - Aug 21, 2012
Registration is now open at the website for Yiddish Summer Weimar 2012 (July 21 - August 21). This summer's topic is "The bridges of Ashkenaz"—connections in song, instrumental music, dance and language between the Western European origins of Yiddish culture and its great flowering in Eastern Europe many centuries later. Whether you're a beginner, a pro, or somewhere in between, we invite you to join an incredible international community of artists, scholars and students from all walks of life. Check out the website for this year's exciting program of dance, music, song and more: www.yiddishsummer.eu
Warm greetings to all,
Alan Bern
Welcome to Yiddish Summer Weimar 2011, July 6 - August 14!
(2008) by Jeffrey Shandler). In short, KlezKamp represents neither a dying culture, nor its most dominant current form. It does provide wonderful access to a culture that was, and to a wonderful, very alive current culture in which "Yiddishkeit" is a significant component. Anyway, that's my take. Here's what the NY Times has to say. You can find out for yourself, of course, next month, at 
KlezKamp 2010 will be held December 26-31, 2010 at the Hudson
Valley Resort and Spa in New York's Catskills Mountains.
Time-Travelers From a Golden Age—'Cantors, Klezmorim and Crooners 1905-1953,' a 3-CD set of U.S. recordings, brings the past to vivid life, by Nat Hentoff, Wall Street Journal, Aug 7, 2010.
Those of us (and the house was pretty full, so it wasn't a small crowd filling out the National Yiddish Book Center's new auditorium--I'd give you the donors' names, but the new NYBC website seems particularly opaque on such details) who attended the Amherst debut of Hankus Netsky's new band, "Branches" on Monday night had a subversively pleasant evening.
One of the most special New England events occurs not during the Fall leaf-gawking season, but in mid-July—starting today, in fact—when the National Yiddish Book Center opens its annual "Paper Bridge" festival, a week-long celebration of Yiddishkeit with lectures, workshops, film screenings, and of course, Jewish music new and old.
National Yiddish Book Center
First up, Daniel Kahn and his Painted Bird ensemble have made a sort of hipster antiestablishmentarian "Yiddish as implicit protest" statement from the beginning. With this 2009 recording, I think the ensemble is coming into its own as a powerful voice for activism. I was corresponding with someone on Facebook last week and he mentioned this recording as one of his favorite recent recordings, so I knew it was time to actually tell people about 
I saw 
And now for an entirely different sort of attitude, perhaps appropriate for posting on a Shabbes before I hit the road to visit friends, we have the aptly named 
What a concert! Yiddish Princess is my new favorite band. To my intense pleasure Sarah Gordon sounds like a Yiddish-singing Kate Bush; indeed, her singing on band's hard rockified version of "Oy Avram" is instantly recognizable from "Hounds of Love" or LP of similar vintage.
25th Anniversary
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts proudly announces the 1st Montreal International Yiddish Theatre Festival, June 17-25, 2009
Yiddish Film Project
It's hard for me to imagine a more pretentious name for a Yiddish art song CD than "A Song is Born," especially when the haunting sound of didgideroo is heard in the opening bars. But Mitch backs it up. The former director of Toronto's acclaimed 
For those lucky folks who live in Toronto, tonight is the CD release of the first solo release by talented Jazz musician Lorie Wolf: 
Drummer Matt Temkin goes in a different direction, entirely. To those who know him, this is no surprise, nor is the delicious serving of older-style klezmer-jazz á la Epstein Brothers, with welcome side trips to Second Ave. and to the music of the late German Goldenshteyn. Anchoring it all in "today" is the way he transposes the concept of "jam band" to klezmer, and how obvious and delightful it all sounds together. Check out Keith's review of 
Finally, Keith introduces a band that is entirely new to me, the high-energy Polish ensemble, 
The Jewish Theatre of New England at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center 
Diwon has produced countless electro and hip hop mixes. His use of traditional Yemenite and Sephardic music, however, sets him apart from other artists in the genre. Influenced heavily by his family's roots in Yemen, Ethiopia and Israel, the multicultural maestro is always full of suprises and his latest release, The Beat Guide to Yiddish, is no exception. Diwon's Beat Guide mixes some of his own music into forgotten sounds from Eastern Europe.
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to be able to announce the launch of my website 'Der yidisher gramofon' at: 
Over on the Mendele list, Leonard Fox writes:
There is still room to register for KlezKanada 2008, to be held from August 18 to 24. Act quickly to be part of the richest, most intense experience of Yiddishkeit in North America.
Follow these links to download KlezKanada's
Starting today, and continuing through July 17th, the place to be is on the campus of Hampshire College at the National Yiddish Book Center, for their Paper Bridge Festival. We're talking lectures, dance, music, discussions—an incredible gathering to get a sense of Yiddish culture today. Featured performers/bands include Eleanor Reissa (tonight!), a super-group featuring Hankus Netsky, Michael Alpert, and stars from Eastern Europe, the Ribs and Brisket Revue, Hank Sapoznik and the Youngers of Zion, SoCalled, and Margot Leverett. Oh, and did I mention that most of these folks will be holding workshops, and that Jeffrey Sandler will be doing some amazing stuff, as will be the infamous Michael Wex? They'll even be showing movies and TV—they'll even be playing a movie produced by my own 
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Suppose Mickey Katz were alive today. Not alive in tribute. Not alive as a mere incredible clarinet player, but suppose someone could play like Mickey Katz, someone who got how Mickey would sound today and made his music sound like today's hip R&B. Then suppose that this person could convey the craziness of Katz, even better, could channel the earlier craziness of Slim Gaillard, Cab Calloway, the Barton Brothers, even add to it….
Oh, man. A new disk from Australia's answer to the Klezmer Conservatory Band crossed with digideroo arrived today, and this one doesn't even feature didgideroo (although ears better than mine will catch it's use on a couple of cuts). I should wait and listen to 
KlezKamp Roadshow: July 30-August 6, 2008 
KLEZMER PARIS - 2008
Musique juive d'Europe centrale / Jewish music from Central Europe
Stage de musique instrumentale / Music workshop
Stage de chant yiddish et de danse / Yiddish song and dance workshop
Stage pour enfants et juniors / Kids and juniors classes
Du 7 au 11 juillet 2008 - July 7th - 11th, 2008
INSCRIVEZ-VOUS VITE ! REGISTER NOW !
Informations détaillées et bulletin d'inscription / more information and application form:
YUGNTRUF presents our year's week-long retreat, where we strive to speak only Yiddish, will be held WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 through TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2008 at the Berkshire Hills Emanuel Adult Vacation Center in Copake, New York. 
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008
One of the themes of my recent reviewing concerns how much incredible music is coming from Eastern Europe. This week, as I double my output from last week, I have managed to tackle two of the most urgent CDs from my "review me now!" table. Alex Kontorovich was born in the former Soviet Union, but has grown up here in the States. While gathering a PhD in math in his spare time, he has also been one of the most exciting of the young musicians who have grown up since the revival. In Kontorovich's case, this means cooking up a delightful stew that melds klezmer with avant garde jazz in "born native" ways that older members of the Radical Jewish Music crowd can't do. His first solo CD, on Europe's "Chamsa" label is exciting, delightful, and features some of the other exciting leaders of this youthful surge. Check out 
In another mode, entirely, the most recent CD by the Polina Shepherd Vocal Experience manages to use traditional (and "traditional art song") forms to set a plethora of Yiddish poetry to music for the first time. The album is a celebration of vocal pyrotechnics, and a thorough-going pleasure, and demonstrates the originality of grounding of another artists born in the former Soviet Union (now residing in the UK). It is impossible not to love this CD, 
and while I'm at it, Christian Dawid, posting as the spokesperson for the Ukrainian world music supergroup, 
This was a good Ashkenaz. It doesn't have that edge that the early festivals had, but Mitch Smolkin managed to pull together an incredibly diverse festival, one that contained a lot to please the crowds, but which also provided a neat snapshot of Jewish music, primarily of that side of Jewish music that derives primarily from Eastern Europe. It was the sort of festival where we went from Marilyn Lerner and 
To everyone who was a part of this concert, audience, workshop participant, performer, I just have to say, "thank you". It was sold out. The band was fabulous. The workshops were crowded and had a lot of fun (especially the one that I was co-moderating). Wow!
I first heard this on NPR, but Dan Peck was kind enough to post details to the Jewish-music mailing list. It is a wonderful series, and I am very excited that it won this recognition. There are some interesting ironies that I'll get to after the announcement:
Andreas Rohde, of the wonderful German Klezmer/folk band, 