This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Swedish Fleshquartet Plays Steve Reich in Jerusalem
Nikita Pavlov Steve Reich’s 1988 composition “Different Trains” is immediately recognizable, even to those with just a passing interest in modern music. The piece has technical virtuosity, a melody intricately constructed using archival speech recordings, and indisputable aesthetic soundness. Beyond these virtues, one senses that deeply personal undertones inform the work. These include Reich’s peripatetic…
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The Schmooze Scandal at ‘Israeli Idol’ Raises Ratings Overnight
Crossposted From Haaretz “A Star Is Born,” Israel’s version of the hit TV show “American Idol,” has found itself at the center of a scandal over voting as its ninth season comes to a close — and its popularity has increased overnight. Tamar Yahalomi, a 17-year-old contestant with a sweet voice and an agreeable disposition,…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: Do You Know Where the Party’s At?
Purgar Peter It would not be hard to make a party game of picking out the global influences in the New York-based band Hazmat Modine’s new album, “Cicada.” There’s a Latin groove here; a klezmer-ish flourish there; a hint of Jamaican rocksteady; an intermittent country twang; whole tracks featuring a West African brass band. Music…
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The Schmooze Are Hasidic Singers Exploiting Leiby Kletzky’s Death?
There is a time for mourning and there is a time for PR. The shocking murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, z”l, in Borough Park this week, is an unspeakable horror. And yet, with what seems to be a total lack of sensitivity regarding what kind of public reaction is or isn’t appropriate, Haredi artists are…
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The Schmooze Tel Aviv Brings Out the DJ in Moby
Crossposted from Haaretz Moby began his career as a DJ in the United States 20 years ago. At the end of the ’90s he turned, surprisingly, into a pop star who liked to wield a guitar — even though he doesn’t really know how to play. He was, and remains, a record spinner — although…
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The Schmooze A Music Video Eulogy for JDub Records
Crossposted from New Voices Magazine I actually gasped out loud when I read the press release from JDub Records President and CEO Aaron Bisman this morning: I’m writing to let you know that after almost 9 years in operation, JDUB’s Board of Directors has decided to wind down the organization. There are Jews all over…
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The Schmooze Singers From Outer Space Descend on New York
Photo by Leon Sokoletski A crash is heard at the Westside Theatre. Something unidentified, something flying, lands with a thud on the stage, and from the wreckage emerge eight figures. Bright white from head to toe except for ruby red lips, these creatures are from the planet Voca, a strange and exotic land where “life…
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The Schmooze When Yiddish Came to North Korea
On September 4, 1965, Lin Jaldati stepped onto a stage in Pyongyang, North Korea and quite possibly became the first person in Communist North Korea to sing in Yiddish. As I will discuss in a July 13 talk at the Yiddish Book Center’s Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival in Amherst, Mass., Jaldati and her husband,…
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