This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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The Schmooze Jimi Hendrix of the Desert
Crossposted from Haaretz “Bombino” is the nickname of Omara Moctar, a singer and virtuoso electric guitarist from the wandering Tuareg tribes of the Sahara Desert in the African country of Niger. Thanks to his special style of playing, combining an ancient musical tradition with influences of electric blues and Western psychedelics, his fine debut album,…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Rosi Golan’s Pitch-Perfect Bubblegum Pop
Rosi Golan has a very pretty voice. With seeming effortlessness the Israeli singer-songwriter pours out soulful pop ballads, hitting each note perfectly. Her second full-length album, “Lead Balloon,” features 12 songs that affirm her ability to deliver an entirely pleasant record. From “Paper Tiger,” a playful, upbeat number, to the album’s slightly more reserved title…
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The Schmooze The Jews of Def Jam
Image Courtesy of the Adler Archive This week “Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label” arrives in book stores. The 300 page hardcover tome is 12” X 12,” the same size as an old school LP and has a cover price of $60. It may be chock full of…
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Culture New ‘Maus’ Is Virtual Memoir of Father
Metamaus, A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus By Art Spiegelman Pantheon, 300 pages, $35 Sitting forlornly on my bookshelf is a dusty, book-shaped box containing an antiquated item known as a CD- ROM. Titled, “Maus,” it was produced in 1992 and epitomized the cutting edge of hypertext at that time. Containing digitized versions of…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Mandy Patinkin on Yiddish and the CIA
Mandy Patinkin has yet to meet a medium he cannot conquer. He first hit national prominence as Che Guevara opposite Patti LuPone’s Eva Perón in the Broadway production of “Evita,” for which he won a Tony Award. His film credits include “The Princess Bride,” in which he uttered the iconic lines: “My name is Inigo…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Russian Klezmer Orchestra Tours Stateside
It’s no coincidence that The Klezmasters are highly reminiscent of The Klezmatics. The former band, which bills itself as Russia’s only klezmer orchestra, was inspired by the latter. Having been created in 2003 by a group of classical music students who met through Hillel in Moscow, The Klezmasters have been gaining notoriety in recent years…
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The Schmooze Not in Her Sister’s Footsteps
Crossposted from Haaretz “I come from a very musical home, but one that is also quite traditional in its approach to art and did not push me to ask a lot of questions,” says Odeya Nini in an attempt to find the source of the contemporary art she is creating in the United States, in…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: Iraq, Israel, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Courtesy of Ruth Diskin Films An intergenerational connection through music is at the heart of “Iraq n’ Roll,” a new Israeli documentary by Gili Gaon, which screened this year at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and is out on DVD next month. In the 1950s, brothers Saleh and Daoud Al-Kuwaity made aliyah to Israel. They…
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