Mar 17th, 20th - KlezmerShack 10th anniversary concerts

1st KlezmerShack 10th Year Anniversary Concert, Mar 17

On March 17th, the 1st of the KlezmerShack 10th Anniversary Concerts takes place:

It's a double bill:
Khevre: a new klezmer/yddish/jazz/south american ensemble
Divahn: a new Sephardic dance band

Thursday, Mar 17, 8pm
Club Passim
47 Palmer St., Cambridge, MA (Harvard Square)
Tix: $15.00 / Passim Members: $13.00
(617) 492-7679
www.clubpassim.org

This is a very special venue and a very special night. For 10 years, the KlezmerShack has been serving as both a central clearing house for bands and musicians to find each other. It has also featured articles and reviews about every type of new Jewish music from classical to khazones and especially klezmer and new Jewish music. It was at Club Passim, back in 1996, where I saw Klezamir and Naftule's Dream, in two separate concerts in one week. At the latter concert, in a discussion with the folks at Naftule's Dream, I discovered that the relatively casual band listings that I had started putting online were getting the band gigs and were actually useful! (One of the goals of this anniversary year is to add a slew of new database features to those listings whose utility was confirmed and first encouraged at this very club.)

What really blew my mind back in 1996, however, was the idea that old Yiddish poetry was being set to new, avant garde music. This week, listen to Khevre play traditional Yiddish music, but also =NEW= Yiddish poetry set to new music. Then listen to Divahn bring alive a host of Jewish musical traditions rooted in communities that go back to the first Jewish settlements and Yeshivas outside of Israel: Babylonia to North Africa.

Reviews of the albums and performances by these bands are available on the KlezmerShack, of course!
http://www.klezmershack.com

See you all Thursday night

Ari Davidow
host, http://www.klezmershack.com

P.S. The week closes with another wicked good concert:
* di bostoner klezmer (dance mistress Dobe Ressler on clarinet, with the magical accordion of Christina Crowder - formerly of Di Naye Kapelye in Budapest, plus the Northeast's favorite klezmer tromobonist Brian Bender) in a double bill with
* Rebecca Kaplan, vocals (the Jewish Music WebCenter says: 'an Isa Kremer of our time') and Pete Rushefsky, tsimbl

a double CD release party at
Zeitgeist Gallery
1353 Cambridge St.
Inman Square, Cambridge
Sunday, Mar 20, 2:30pm
$8 donation
617 876 6060
http://www.zeitgeist-gallery.org/calendar/

I am proud to have actually had a hand in the production of both of these CDs.