Yiddish World Music. A baker's dozen Yiddish folk and popular songs re-contextualized in contemporary and unique musical settings including reggae, tango, jazz, country-swing, blues, traditional -- and more.

13 MP3 Songs
WORLD: Judaica, WORLD: World Fusion



Details:
Yiddish World Music

The Eternal Question (Di Alte Kashe) presents thirteen Yiddish songs in musical settings that deftly shuffle time and space, each one evoking a different world. Drawing from folk and popular sources accompanied by New England honky-tonk heroes The Lonesome Brothers and friends old and new from across the musical spectrum, Katz forges a unique sound, lovingly and skillfully built on traditional foundations, yet boldly and effortlesly incorporating new sonic architecture and color. Musical flavors include country-swing, soul, tango, jazz, blues, traditional -- and more.

A Yiddish teacher, translator and performer or long experience, Fraidy Katz
presently performs with Connecticut-based The Klezical Tradition. She holds advanced degrees from the University of MInnesota and Brandeis University and is a fomer Fulbright Senior Scholar.

Katz appears on The Klezical Tradition's "Family Portrait" and on co-producer Wolf Krakowski's CDs, "Transmigrations: Gilgul" and "Goyrl: Destiny," (both on Tzadik Records.)

FOUR and a Half Stars -- George Robinson, (New York) The Jewish Week


Seth Rogovoy, author "The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music writes:
The long-awaited recording featuring the vocals of one of our finest contemporary Yiddish singers, Fraidy Katz, has finally arrived, and it was worth every minute of the wait. "The Eternal Question" (Di Alte Kashe) feature's a baker's dozen Yiddish folk and popular tunes recontextualized for modern times; Old World ballads are draped in accordion, pipes, tsimbl and violin, in a peaceful coexisitence alongside electric guitars, trumpets and saxophones. As co-producer Wolf Krakowski has explored on his own albums that boast a similar approach and with the same core band, the fabulous Lonesome Brothers, there is a natural affinity between Yiddish popular songs and such quintessentially American styles as blues, reggae, jazz and even country swing, and Katz exploits this affinity in a manner that at once showcases her intuitive grasp of the songs' roots while at the same time effortlessly making them speak to contemporary audiences. Had there been no Shoah, this is undoubedly the direction in which Yiddish popular song would have evolved and the music that a vast majority of what would have been a large, Yiddsh-speaking world would have been listening to today. It is our good fortune to have it re-creatd by such a sterling talent as Fraidy Katz.

Note: Includes 24-page booklet with Yiddish text, transliterations, English translations, songwriter bios - an more.