| Brother Moses Smote the Water | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 2005 | |||
| Genre | Klezmer, gospel | |||
| Label | Piranha Records [1] | |||
| The Klezmatics chronology | ||||
| ||||
Brother Moses Smote the Water is a live album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics, with Joshua Nelson and Kathryn Farmer. [2] [3] It was released in 2005 by Piranha Records. The album mixes together traditional Yiddish songs and gospel. [4]
The Klezmatics and Nelson supported the album by touring together in 2005. [5]
Recorded live in Potsdamer Platz, the songs on the album are about the Jewish exodus from Egypt, and the commonality of Jewish and African American historical experience. [6] [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| Robert Christgau |  [1] |
| Philadelphia Daily News | A− [9] |
| The Plain Dealer | A [10] |
The Times thought that "it's not so much a world music fusion as a spiritual transformation, and the result is as soulful as it is uplifting." [11] The Philadelphia Daily News deemed the album "an intriguing collaboration" concerning "the struggle against repression common to the histories of Jewish and African-American people." [9]
The Plain Dealer determined that "while some musical fusion sounds forced, the Jewish kosher music updated by the Klezmatics blends naturally with the black gospel songs newly interpreted by vocalists/keyboardists Joshua Nelson and Kathryn Farmer." [10] The Virginian-Pilot called the album's performances "stirring, joyful, reverent and triumphant." [12]
AllMusic wrote that "the styles are crunched together nearly seamlessly, the languages used (alternately Hebrew, Yiddish, and English) being the only differential in some parts." [8]
"Go Down Moses" is an African American spiritual that describes the Hebrew exodus, specifically drawing from the Book of Exodus 5:1: "And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me", where God commands Moses to demand the release of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. As is common in spirituals, the song discusses freedom, referring both to the freedom of the Israelites, and that of runaway enslaved people. As a result of these messages, this song was outlawed by many enslavers.
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