Dienstag, 5. Februar 2019

Brave Old World - Dus gezang fin geto Lodzh / Song of the Lodz Ghetto

Klezmer music traces back to the dance music played by itinerant Jewish music that traveled throughout Europe in the nineteenth century. The tradition is brought up to contemporary standards by Brave Old World, a group that includes members from California, Chicago, New York and Berlin. "The Washington Post' called Brave Old World "the revival's first supergroup. Every player is a virtuoso". "The Boston Globe" explained that Brave Old World "plays a klezmer music that is entirely grounded in the present, so intensely evolved from the music as it was, and, yet, so clearly, obviously, entirely klezmer that one could not seperate out many of the influences".

The original lineup of Brave Old World featured Joel Rubin on clarinet, Ben Bazyler on drums, Stu Brotman, a former member of 1960s' rock band, Kaleidescope and an ex-sideman for Canned Heat, Geoff and Maria Muldaur and Ry Cooder, on bass, cymablom, tilinka and percussion, Indiana-born and Berlin-based Alan Bern on keyboards and Michael Alpert, a founding member of Kapelye and a research associate at the YIVO Institute for Jewish research, on violin, accordion and vocals. Rubin was later replaced by Kurt Bjorling, musical director of the Chicago Klezmer Ensemble since 1984. In 1992, the group won first prize at the International Klezmer Festival in Sofed, Israel. In addition to their recordings, Brave Old World has been featured on two albums with violinist Itzhak Perlman.

This album was recorded live in Bordeaux. Song of the Lodz Ghetto is a unique musical work, a song cycle in which memory and imagination freely interact to create a Proustian journey between present and past. At the center are Brave Old World's arrangements of the rare Jewish street and cabaret songs from the Nazi ghetto of Lodz, Poland, 1940-44. Leading through the Lodz repertoire like stepping-stones through the river of memory are Brave Old World's own original compositions, reflections on 17 years of performing Jewish music. Michael Alpert's moving Berlin 1990 forms the emotional and musical counterpoint to the passionate and ironic street songs of the bard of the Lodz ghetto, Yankele Herszkowicz. A musical and spiritual journey of resistance, love, and reconciliation.

Tracklist:


1Rumkovski Khayim/Lodzh-Fidl2:43
2Lodzh-Overtur4:02
3A Gants Fayn Mazltov4:35
4Nisht Nor Simkhe/Veynendiks4:57
5Vayl Ikh Bin A Yidele3:28
6S'iz Kaydankes, Kaytn4:08
7Kimts In Herts /Rumkovski Khayim4:03
8Yikhes/Vinter 19425:58
9Makh Tsi Di Eygelekh3:11
10Berlin 19901:19
11Es Geyt A Yeke4:03
12Ver Klapt Du Azoy?/Geto Varyant4:24
13Geto, Getunya4:06
14Kuyavyak2:22
15Amerike Hot Erklert/Kemfn!4:20
16Berlin 19902:28
17Lodzh-Coda2:25
18Bobover Khupe-Marsh/Rumkovski Khayim6:56

Brave Old World - Dus gezang fin geto Lodzh / Song of the Lodz Ghetto
(192 kbps, cover art included)

6 Kommentare:

Feilimid O'Broin hat gesagt…

Many, many thanks for this and your ongoing willingness to post klezmer music and music from the inhabitants of the concentration camps. Not only is the music great, but to remember is so critically important. Remembering and considering the warning signs and events that preceded the descent info fascism becomes especially significant now in my country given the recent "election" of an authoritarian demagogue who routinely makes bigoted, racist, and misogynistic statements and denounces the media in an effort to suppress access to information conflicting with the propaganda efforts of his regime. I think one can only benefit from recalling and learning from the courageous efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, of prior generations to resist oppression and brutality.

My great-grandfather, an undocumented immigrant, frequently admonished his children to "remember what was done to us there (in his native country) and here, and never do it to others." I was fortunate that several of his children were alive during my teenage years and early adulthood, and, consequently, remembered his words and, too, developed a passion for world and American history, especially the histories of ordinary people, minority peoples, labor, and resistance that are so often not recounted in school texts. I love this blog because your posts and reposts so often serve the same purpose whether you are reminding us of the assassination of democracy in Chile on September 11, 1973, the lost struggle to overcome fascist traitors and concomitant betrayal by the Stalin-supported communists in Spain in the late 1930s, or the tragedy of the Holocaust and the effort to eradicate the cultural contributions of European Jews, Roma, and dissidents.

Equally important, you remind us of the efforts of ordinary people to achieve change and a better world. One draws sustenance from remembering their willingness to sacrifice, as well as their strength and commitment to a long-term struggle to effect change. On a much lighter note, I also appreciate the recent posts featuring musicians from the bayous of south Louisiana, Hugh Masakela, and Ras Michael. This blog continues to be my favorite blog and also allows me to maintain my very rusty and passive German and French, as well as my questionable Spanish. Thank you for the time and effort you expend and the willingness to continue when so many other blogs have disappeared because their creators have tired from all the work required to maintain them.

zero hat gesagt…

Thanks a lot for your thoughts and your uplifting feedback. It´s great that there are folks like you out there in the www.

Cri hat gesagt…

Hello Zero, following O'Broin amazing comments and looking into Pegida and similar, political parties such as A... and the lots of "besorgte Bürger" I would ask for a fresh link. Thx a lot for you blog ...

zero hat gesagt…

Yes, that´s a good description of the bad situation. Link is refreshe...

Cri hat gesagt…

Thanks Zero, Danke Zero.

Anonym hat gesagt…

Restore?
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