This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish music, including klezmer and other traditions.
Music
The Latest
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The Schmooze Shemspeed Albums from Bands That Start with “D”
The Brooklyn-based music label Shemspeed attracted international attention recently with their “Israeli remix of the Keffiyeh” (more of a tempest in a teapot, really, than a full-blown controversy), but that shouldn’t distract anyone from what the Jewish music production company spends most of its time doing: producing music. Shemspeed has put out no less than…
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The Schmooze Vampire Weekend Called Out for Being WASPy
When is a Jewish kid from the Upper West Side actually an Ivy League White Anglo-Saxon Protestant? Apparently when the Chicago Reader decides that they don’t like the band Vampire Weekend. Music critic Jessica Hopper called out the band, fronted by the very Jewish Ezra Koenig, last week in an article that accused the band…
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Books And Dylan Saw That It Was Good
Children’s books written by celebrities are pretty conventional these days. So it’s strange that Bob Dylan — who’s gotten nothing if not weirder over the past few years — is publishing one. But in reality, Dylan’s latest children’s book was already written, back in 1979. According a recent press release, “Man Gave Names to All…
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The Schmooze Greg Wall’s Kosher Brass
Saxophone/clarinet player Greg Wall, described by Time Out NY as the “fiery, eclectic Jewish-jazz luminary,” has, more recently, been ordained as an Orthodox rabbi. Aside from playing in a number of well-known klezmer projects (Hasidic New Wave, Later Prophets, etc.) he has been appointed to lead the Sixth Street Community Synagogue. On most Monday nights,…
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The Schmooze Koch vs. Cohen
Septuagenarian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen recently wrapped up a triumphant world tour (though he’ll be back on the road in March,) including a much-praised show in Tel Aviv in September. But apparently not everyone is a fan. In a recent review of “Leonard Cohen: Live at the Isle of Wight” for The Atlantic, former New York…
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The Schmooze George London, a Singer of Russian-Jewish Majesty
On February 7, the George London Foundation will present a special recital at the Morgan Library in New York, with pianist Jeffrey Cohen accompanying singers June Anderson and Sean Panikkar, as prelude to this year’s George London Competition Finals on March 19 also at the Morgan Library. The family of Canadian-Jewish baritone George London (born…
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The Schmooze I’m Sorry, Is That Mp3 Kosher?
You might check a bag of Skittles to see if it’s kosher, but did you check your latest Bruce Springsteen album? A committee in Israel would like you to. The Jewish news website Matzav reported this week that the Organization of Rabbis for the Purity of Jews released a list of offenses that would deem…
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Music The Lilith Fair Returns; Feminists Shrug
The 1990s era music festival Lilith Fair — like The Sisterhood’s fellow Jewish women’s magazine Lilith — derives its name from the Jewish medieval myth about the first woman on earth, exiled because of her refusal to submit to Adam’s rule. A nebulous character who shows up in various cultural myths, the Lilith figure has…
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