The Return of the Immortal Khazntes
The Return of the Immortal Khazntes, 2025
CD or digital download available from Bandcamp.
A funny story about this wonderful recording from a new label, Khazones Underground, of Khazntes: women singing liturgical music on the radio and on any stage but the synagogue bima during the "Golden Age of Cantorial Music" during the first part of the 20th century. In the middle of this year's Yiddish New York Festival, my wife and I found ourselves babysitting a six-week-old grandniece in the City. Sad that we were missing the "Khazontes" CD release concert, we got the infant to sleep, hooked up the computer, donned headsets so as not to wake the baby, and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Then, the baby woke up. Not sure what else to do, we took the headsets off and shared the beautiful music with her. She was entranced. Enchanted. We had a very happy six-week-old baby.
The pairings of some of these pieces: Cantor Judith Berkson with the Kronos Quartet, for instance, are amazing. Berkson's singing on "V'hu Yashmiyeynu" proves that she has a voice every bit as powerful as her better-known male counterparts. Berkson then turns around and plays organ in turn for Riki Rose singing a powerful "Acheynu." British Cantor Rachel Weston is accompanied by avantgarde folk favorites, Fran & Flora.
What's revelatory about this recording is what we have known all along. The best women can and do sing Ashkenazic Jewish liturgical music every bit as wonderfully and soulfully as the best men do. And, despite my own secular prejudices, that Ashkenazic Jewish liturgical tradition is wonderful, spiritually uplifting, soulful, tuneful.
Of special note (beyond the pieces cited earlier) are the "Berdichever Kaddish" by researcher/musician Shahanna McKinney-Baldon, a piece that includes English narrative in with the Kaddish; and a pleading, soaring "Sim Shalom" (Cantor Rachel Weston). If there is a revival of interest in khazones, I lay the blame here.
Reviewed by Ari Davidow, 2-Jul-2026.
Songs
- V’hu Yashmiyeynu—Judith Berkson (with Kronos Quartet) 4:49
- Acheynu—Riki Rose (Judith Berkson, organ) 6:42
- etsey B’menuchaseynu—Rachel Weston (with Fran & Flora) 3:55
- Zorea Ts’dokos—Shahanna McKinney-Baldon (Stephanie Lippert, piano) 3:09
- Retsey—Judith Berkson 2:20
- Ikh Benk Aheym—Rachel Weston (with Fran & Flora) 5:25
- Habeyn Yakir Li—Judith Berkson 3:17
- V’hu Rachum—Riki Rose (Judith Berkson, organ) 4:35
- Sim Shalom—Rachel Weston (with Fran & Flora) 5:16
- Berditchever Kaddish—Shahanna McKinney-Baldon (Stephanie Lippert, piano) 3:09
