| Possessed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1997 | |||
| Label | Xenophile [1] | |||
| Producer | Robert Musso | |||
| The Klezmatics chronology | ||||
| ||||
Possessed is an album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics, released in 1997. [2] [3]
| Possessed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1997 | |||
| Label | Xenophile [1] | |||
| Producer | Robert Musso | |||
| The Klezmatics chronology | ||||
| ||||
Possessed is an album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics, released in 1997. [2] [3]
The album was produced by Robert Musso. [4] "Moroccan Game" is an instrumental. [5]
The second half contains the band's score to Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds. [6] Kushner also penned the liner notes. [7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| Chicago Tribune | [9] |
| Robert Christgau | A− [10] |
| (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [6] |
| Windsor Star | A [11] |
Robert Christgau opined that "this is a vision band with a genre, not a genre band with a vision." [10] The Advocate wrote that "there's a heaviness to the Klezmatics that's anathema to ordinary klezmer music, which by its very nature and function is escapist, even as it celebrates cultural cohesion." [12]
The Windsor Star stated that "the clarinet wails, the fiddle and horns sing, the beat is incessant, and the Yiddish vocals transcend the language barrier." [11] The Chicago Tribune thought that "Alicia Svigals' violin is a revelation, and Lorin Sklamberg's vocals—which can be as sublime as a cantor's or as sly as a drunk's—evoke the Jewish diaspora in both divine and uniquely American terms." [9]
AllMusic wrote that "while there is plenty of their familiar frenzied spiritual party music, there is also some goregeously evocative minor-key mysticism." [8]
Klezmer is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these would have been played at weddings and other social functions. The musical genre incorporated elements of many other musical genres including Ottoman music, Baroque music, German and Slavic folk dances, and religious Jewish music. As the music arrived in the United States, it lost some of its traditional ritual elements and adopted elements of American big band and popular music. Among the European-born klezmers who popularized the genre in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s were Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein; they were followed by American-born musicians such as Max Epstein, Sid Beckerman and Ray Musiker.
The Klezmatics are an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins. They have also recorded pieces in Aramaic and Bavarian.
Frank London is an American klezmer trumpeter who also plays jazz and world music.
David Krakauer is an American clarinetist who performs klezmer, jazz, classical music, and avant-garde improvisation.
Joel Rubin is an American clarinetist, klezmer musician, ethnomusicologist, and scholar of Jewish music. Since becoming involved in the klezmer revival in the late 1970s, he has been researching, teaching and performing klezmer music and related genres. He has been a member of, or performed with, such groups as Brave Old World, the Joel Rubin Ensemble, and Veretski Pass.
For the purposes of this article, “contemporary” refers to the period from 1967 to the present day, “Jewish” refers to the various streams and traits of Judaism practiced. Many Orthodox Jews use the term “religious” to refer to a strict adherence to Jewish law. For the purposes of this article, “religious” refers to the content and context of the music itself: liturgical or implicit references to the divine.
Yale Strom is an American violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, photographer and playwright. Strom is a pioneer among klezmer revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Romani communities since 1981. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music between these two groups. Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present. He was among the first of the klezmer revivalists to identify the connection between klezmer and lautare and explore that connection in his scholarly and artistic works.
Alicia Svigals is an American violinist and composer. A co-founder of the Grammy-winning band The Klezmatics, she is considered by many to be the world's foremost living klezmer fiddler.
Andrew Edward Statman is a noted American klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist.
Margot Leverett is a New York-based clarinettist. Born in Ohio, she lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York before studying at Indiana University School of Music. At Indiana, she was classically trained. Leverett later became interested in klezmer, a traditional musical style of the Jews of Eastern Europe. She studied with klezmer clarinettist Sidney Beckerman and was a founding member of The Klezmatics in 1985. The Klezmatics, a band associated with the Klezmer revival would later become the first klezmer band to win a Grammy Award.
Metropolitan Klezmer is a New York band that was established in 1994. While clearly a Klezmer band, Metropolitan Klezmer takes an eclectic approach to Yiddish musical genres from around the globe.
Jews With Horns is the third album by the American klezmer band the Klezmatics, released in 1995. It is the first album on which Matt Darriau performed, which led to his induction as a full member of the group. Marc Ribot is featured on the second track, "Fisherlid".
Rhythm and Jews is an album by American klezmer group The Klezmatics. It was released in 1993 via Flying Fish.
Rise Up! Shteyt Oyf! is an album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics. It was released in 2003.
Brother Moses Smote the Water is a live album by the American klezmer group the Klezmatics, with Joshua Nelson and Kathryn Farmer. It was released in 2005 by Piranha Records. The album mixes together traditional Yiddish songs and gospel.
Lorin Sklamberg is a vocalist, accordionist, pianist, guitarist and founding member of American Klezmer band The Klezmatics. He began performing Jewish music at age fifteen, and moved to New York in the early 1980s to incorporate klezmer into his music.
KlezKanada is a Canadian organization for the promotion of klezmer music and Yiddish culture. Its principal program is a week-long Jewish music festival founded in 1996 that takes place annually in August at Camp B'nai B'rith in Lantier, Quebec. The organization also hosts workshops, concerts, and other educational programs in Montreal throughout the year.
Amsterdam Klezmer Band, sometimes referred to as AKB, is a Dutch-Jewish musical group created in 1996 in Amsterdam. The band plays Yiddish and Klezmer music, but also incorporates sounds from Balkan, jazz, Romani, and hip-hop music. The band has described itself as a "mini brass band", but features prominent vocals as well.
Beyond the Pale is an album by the klezmer band Brave Old World, released in 1994. The album title refers to the Pale of Settlement.