This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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The Schmooze Monday Music: God Bless the Christmas Jews!
Bah humbug! This is a trying month for those of us with sensitive ears. Which is worse: the saccharine “holiday” drivel saturating the airwaves, or the ceaseless griping of those cheerless snobs who make a winter sport of proclaiming their distaste for the season’s musical offerings? It hardly takes a musical genius to wince at…
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The Schmooze Great American Songbook on Display
Wherever we go this time of year, we can’t escape hearing Christmas songs — be they on the radio, sung by carolers, or piped in as Muzak in stores and public spaces. It gets to the point at which it seems there is an audio loop of holiday classics running non-stop in our heads. What…
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The Schmooze In the Recording Studio with Itzhak Perlman
Photo by Mark Berney Itzhak spoke to Yitzchok in Hebrew. Hankus spoke to Yitzchok in Yiddish. The conductor made puns in English with a heavy Australian-South African accent. And this all happened in the recording studio where Bruce Springsteen recorded “Born to Run” and Madonna laid down her vocal tracks for “Like A Virgin.” We’re…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Songs for the Jewish Jet Set
A non-for-profit organization comprised of music-loving Jews, The Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation illuminates the forgotten corners of Jewish music in America. The Society is perhaps best known for “Jewface,” a collection of vaudeville-era minstrelrsy like “Cohen Owes Me 97 Dollars” — songs that strike present-day listeners as the Jewish version of Uncle Tomming. Other…
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The Schmooze An Unscripted Moment With Stephen Sondheim
Last night, as a performance of “An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin” drew to a close, one of those unscripted, magical moments on Broadway unfolded before an appreciative crowd at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. As the audience cheered wildly and applauded the veteran stars for their musical theater revue of songs from such…
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The Schmooze Israeli Producer Nominated for Grammy Award
Brooklyn-based Israeli-American producer Jonathan Dagan’s J.Viewz multi-genre electronic music project has been nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award. Dagan is being recognized in the Best Recording Package category for J.Viewz’s latest album, “Rivers and Homes.” Dagan collaborates with diverse musicians and vocalists in the studio, creating a unique blend of Breakbeat, Jazz, Folk, Old-Nu Wave,…
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The Schmooze ‘Massive Liquidity’: Poetry and Art Rock
“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music” Walter Pater famously wrote. While this statement is usually understood in terms of an author’s subconscious intentions, and an artwork’s ability to transcend its form and content, there are some artists who purposefully make their works musical. This is certainly true of Steve Dalachinsky, and not…
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The Schmooze Montserrat Figueras, Sephardic Music Pioneer
On November 23, the Catalan singer Montserrat Figueras died at her home in Bellaterra, near Barcelona, at the age of 69. Together with her husband, the legendary early bowed strings master Jordi Savall, Montserrat brought Sephardic music to the attention of a wide and appreciative audience of listeners, many of whom were unlikely to have…
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