Live at Town Hall [2CD]

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multikulti.com:
Gdy 25 lat temu kilkoro nowojorskich muzyków, reprezentujących różne style i gatunki muzyczne wspólnie powołało do życia The Klezmatics nikt nie mógł przypuszczać, że oto rodzi się legenda. Z world music, jazzu, muzyki klasycznej i muzyki awangardowej wykuli nową muzyczną wartość, która z czasem asymilowała elementy rock and rolla, gospel, funky, hip hop...
Są niewątpliwie heretykami na żydowskiej scenie muzycznej, ale trzeba pamiętać, że bez herezji nie ma rozwoju. Charyzmatyczna kapela wirtuozów tradycji i awangardy. Nadaje współczesnej muzyce klezmerskiej rozpoznawalny wszędzie i przez wszystkich ton "radykalnego brzemienia" i przemawia językiem zrozumiałym na całym świecie!
Dwupłytowy album "Live at Town Hall" jest drugim w dyskografii zespołu nagraniem koncertowym (pierwszy "Brother Moses Smote the Water" został wydany w 2004 roku), zawiera utwory z całej kariery zespołu, od ich debiutu płytowego z 1988 roku "Shvaygn=Toyt" poprzez nagrodzony Grammy "Wonder Wheel" z kompozycjami Woody'ego Guthrie'ego po nagrania najnowsze.
Frank London powiedział na koncercie "Chcemy świętować z wszystkimi, którzy są częścią naszej rodziny" i taka tez jest atmosfera tego wyjątkowego koncertu.
Jak świętować to z zaproszonymi gośćmi (jest ich tutaj dwudziestu), wśród których usłyszymy Joanne Borts (w tytułowym utworze z "The Well"), Adrienne Cooper i Lorin Sklamberg w "I Ain't Afraid", Joshua Nelson w "Elijah Rock", Susan McKeown w "Gonna Get Through This World" czy David Krakauer.
Twórczości The Klezmatics nie ograniczają ramy czasowe, gatunkowe czy kulturowe. Ich synkretyczna muzyka łączy tradycyjne, sentymentalne aranżacje z jazzowymi improwizacjami. Wszystko to składa się na niepowtarzalny styl, charakteryzujący The Klezmatics.


Editor's Info:
Twenty-five years ago a group of curious musicians with diverse backgrounds in world music, jazz, classical and the avant-garde answered an ad in New York's Village Voice seeking players for a klezmer band. Craving new creative avenues, they infused the centuries-old traditional, celebratory Jewish music with elements of several other genres.
Today The Klezmatics are virtually synonymous with klezmer itself. To mark their silver anniversary, the band is releasing Live at Town Hall, a guest-studded, retrospective commemoration of a remarkable NYC concert that salutes their remarkable history and hints at tantalizing future possibilities.

Live at Town Hall is the Klezmatics' second live album (the first, Brother Moses Smote the Water, was released in 2004). It reaches all the way back for material to the Klezmatics' 1988 debut, Shvaygn=Toyt and also includes a tune from the album on which the Klezmatics crafted new music from previously unknown Woody Guthrie compositions, 2006's Grammy-winning Wonder Wheel.

Most of Live at Town Hall, however, consists of the songs and sounds that have made the Klezmatics a huge success worldwide for the past two and a half decades.
"We wanted to celebrate with everyone who has been part of our family," says London. "It was impossible to bring some of those who live far away, but we managed to have just about everyone important who has ever been in or played with the Klezmatics on stage with us. The energy was incredible, the love and mutual respect. We are blessed to be part of such a wonderful community."

The guest list includes Joanne Borts (on the title song from The Well), Adrienne Cooper and Sklamberg recreating their duet on "I Ain't Afraid", Joshua Nelson in a smoking "Elijah Rock" and Susan McKeown's passionate take on "Gonna Get Through This World."
But Live at Town Hall is more than a peek in the rear view mirror. The Klezmatics went overboard to make the gig and resulting album extra special, with some songs making their first appearance and some great vocal moments, particularly a new Russian choral-inspired arrangement on 'Dzhankoye'.
The band
Formed in New York in 1986, the Klezmatics quickly built a devoted following that expanded outward once word spread about this exotic new band that was bringing klezmer back from the abyss. They have performed in more than 20 countries and released 10 albums to date. On their Grammy-winning 2006 album Wonder Wheel (MWCD 4064), the Klezmatics set a dozen previously unsung Woody Guthrie lyrics to music, widening their stylistic base by largely diverging from klezmer.
During their quarter-century existence the Klezmatics have collaborated with such brilliant artists as violinist Itzhak Perlman, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and Israeli vocal icon Chava Alberstein, plus many other prominent artists working within multiple genres.


"The Klezmatics aren't just the best band in the klezmer vanguard, on a good night, they
can rank among the greatest bands on the planet." - Time Out New York


"The Klezmatics have owned klezmer and Yiddish music for the past 25 years. Universally
regarded as the genre's most innovative band." - Wall Street Journal


JazzTimes:
Klezmer music has come a long way in the past quarter century and a group of downtown New York musicians have played a big part in boosting its visibility. Klezmer has been called "Jewish jazz": It often involves a fast, complex melody line over a steady, aggressive tempo with some improvisation on the theme. The Klezmatics have strong connections to traditional Jewish music and a knack for musical experimentation.

This year marks the group's silver anniversary, but Live at Town Hall was actually recorded five years ago, with 20 friends and former members lending their voices to the music, resulting in some rich choruses of harmonies on tracks like "Dzhankoye," which also has a haunting string arrangement. The nearly 12-minute "Dybbuk Suite" moves through an array of moods and textures during its eight movements, with Dolphy-esque bass clarinet honks (from Matt Darriau) dovetailing with rubato vocal interludes and muted trumpet in a Miles Davis vein (from co-founder Frank London). When vocalist Loren Sklamberg sings in English halfway through, it gives a sense of how the music has evolved through generations.

Within months of this performance, the band won a Grammy for Wonder Wheel, an album of previously unrecorded Woody Guthrie songs. Four tunes with the legendary folk singer's name appear here. "Holy Ground" blends perfectly with their repertoire and the faith that runs through their material. "Hanuka Gelt" and "Lolly Lo" keep the spirit and energy rolling, especially when the latter is banded together in a medley with the original, rollicking "NY Psycho Freylekhs," but lyrically these Guthrie pieces sounds cutesy and repetitive. "I Ain't Afraid" takes a piece by political folk singer Holly Near and adds some Yiddish counterpoint to the lyrics, giving it an even stronger message. In moments like this, where the band makes some questionable choices about its music, they play with an authority that pulls off the risks.
By Mike Shanley