Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
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The Schmooze Bernstein’s ‘MASS’ Gets Rare Performance at Queens College
Getty Images In 1971, the first time Maurice Peress conducted Leonard Bernstein’s “MASS,” the monumental piece echoed the life and death of John F. Kennedy, the social upheaval of the 1960s, and the morass of Vietnam. Spectators today might see “MASS” in a very different light — as a tragic commentary on U.S. involvement in…
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The Schmooze Jay Black’s 7 Favorite Songs
Jay Black has been singing professionally for 51 of his almost 76 years. That “almost” comes out November 2. He’ll be celebrating that birthday with a pair of concerts, one at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, N.J., and the other at NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Long Island. We chatted with him about…
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The Schmooze Brothers in Minimalism Came Together at BAM
Photo: Alex Rivas/Twitter “Hiney ma tov u’ma-na’im shevet achim gam yachad.” “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers sit together.” That campfire classic came to mind as I sat in the Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this month for the second of three concerts featuring Steve Reich and…
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The Schmooze 12 Underappreciated Leonard Cohen Songs
Leonard Cohen is not a very prolific artist. In a 47-year music career he has made just 13 studio albums, along with a passel of live releases. (Compare that with Bob Dylan’s 35, or Neil Young’s 39 solo records.) But despite the relatively small size of Cohen’s catalog, it still has a lot of underappreciated…
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Opinion Would Talmud Approve of 91 Lashes for Iranian ‘Happy’ Dancers?
A still from the Iranian version of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” music video / YouTube It’s a weird aftereffect of a Jewish day school education that, when I see a headline like “Iran Court Sentences ‘Happy’ Dancers to 6 Months and 91 Lashes,” I immediately ask myself: WWTDD? Or: what would the Talmud do? You might…
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The Schmooze How Isabel Rose Went From Acting to Writing to Music
The first song on Isabel Rose’s new CD is “Lot of Livin’ To Do,” an especially appropriate choice. She has already packed a lot of living into her, uh, years on planet Earth. “I don’t want to distract people,” Rose said about her age. In a phone interview with the Forward, she added, “I prefer…
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The Schmooze Cutest Maccabeat Goes Solo
Noah ‘Noey’ Jacobson, 24, part owner and member of The Maccabeats, launched his solo career yesterday when he posted a medley covering Clean Bandits Rather Be and Nico & Vinz’s hit single “Am I Wrong.” “I’ve been singing with the Maccabeats for five years,” he said. “At some point I said to myself, ‘I’m happiest…
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The Schmooze Yiddish Supergroup Pays Homage to Nathan ‘Prince’ Nazaroff
Photo: Fumie Suzuki So, there in a gazebo on the boardwalk in Coney Island are The Brothers Nazaroff, taking refuge from the steamy afternoon sun. It is 92 degrees and horribly humid outside as the five Nazaroffs start playing and singing. A Hungarian documentary crew is shooting with two cameras as the brothers sing “Lucky…
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