Press Contact: Dan Fortune / dan@fortunecreative.com / 212.302.9504
One-Sheet for this album
ISLE of KLEZBOS, the soulful and swinging all-women’s klezmer sextet, will release their second album with a special concert at JOE’S PUB at the Public on Sunday, April 6 at 7:30 PM. The new disc, Live from Brooklyn — recorded in concert last year at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, with the addition of two bonus studio numbers — will be available from Rhythm Media Records. Formed in 1998, the group approaches their music with a canny mix of irreverence and respect. Live from Brooklyn features the group’s signature diverse blend of rambunctious folk dances, exciting Yiddish swing, entrancing retro tango, klezmerengue, re-grooved standards, and genre-defying originals. The album will be available on iTunes, in stores and wherever music is sold.
1. Uncle Moses Wedding Dance
traditional, arr. Eve Sicular/Metropolitan Klezmer
Kicking off with a freylekh dance tune from the wedding scene of 1932 Yiddish film Uncle Moses (starring director Maurice Schwartz in the title role), this arrangement also features a skotshne melody from traditional repertoire collected in the 1930’s by Soviet ethnomusicologist Moshe Beregovski. [For more detailed notes, see Metropolitan Klezmer’s Surprising Finds CD; also heard on MK’s live concert album Traveling Show.]
2. Hert Zikh Aynet & Kostakowsky #7
traditionals, arr. Eve Sicular / Isle of Klezbos
This medley offers first a plaintive vocal and then a traditional ‘khosidl’ dance tune. Lyrics & translation below, as published in Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive. The medium-tempo instrumental chaser which follows is entitled Chusidil #7 in Wolff ‘Nat’ Kostakowsky’s 1906 book International Hebrew Wedding Music (published at 310 Powell Street, Brooklyn NY).
Ethnomusicologist Ruth Rubin collected and translated this street singer’s tune in 1955 from Yankl Zipper, who had immigrated to Montreal and remembered it in Lithuanian Yiddish dialect from pre-WWII Europe. As noted by collection editors Chana Mlotek & Mark Slobin, a very similar supplicant melody is a central motif in the widely famous 1936 film Yidl mitn fidl [Yidl with the Fiddle], starring American-born Yiddish actress Molly Picon and made on location in Poland. It seems quite likely that the mendicant movie theme inspired a real-life busker’s song.
Hert zikh aynet, mayne libe mentshn,
Ay, hert zikh aynet vos ikh vel aykh fregn do!
Ay, vi kumt es aza veytik,
In a kleynem, kleynem fidl?
[Listen up, my dear people,
Listen to what I am going to ask you here!
Oh, how does so much pain
Come out of such a tiny fiddle?]
3. A Glezele Yash
words: Yoysef Kerler, music: Vladimir Shainskiy, arr. Isle of Klezbos
Professor Dov-Ber [Boris] Kerler, son of Yiddish writer Yosl Kerler, writes: “The song's text is included as a poem in my father's longer cycle entitled Mayn zeyde Yosele badkhn [My Grandpa Yosl the Wedding Jester], which was dated by him in his 1972 edition: Vorkuta, 1953. This means that it was originally written as a poem, albeit in the style (or genre) of Drinking Songs, by a person who was at the time a political prisoner in the Vorkuta labor camp. He was imprisoned in early 1950, then in Vorkuta he first worked in the coal mines and was later [around 1953] reassigned to another physically less demanding work just 10 years after he courageously fought and was nearly fatally wounded in battle -- in February 1943 (for the latter he was awarded the ‘For Bravery’ medal, a Soviet version of the Purple Heart, I guess).” Yosl Kerler’s poem was later set to music by Vladimir Shainskiy, who became one of the best-loved Soviet composers for his many popular Russian songs. Yash was originally recorded in 1961 by Nechama Lifshitsaite, during Krushchev’s post-Stalin ‘thaw.’
Ven ikh nem a bisele yash, oy-oy,
Finklt alts un glantst;
Kh'gib a varf di puste flash, oy-oy,
Un ikh gey a tants!
Oy-oy, tsuker-zis
Halt mir bay di hent;
Flekhtn beygelekh di fis,
Di neshome brent!
Vos mir shviger, ver mir vayb, oy-oy,
Veys ikh zey di shlek!
Mitn ershtn kelishik vayn, oy-oy
Shvimen zey avek.
Oy-oy, tsuker-zis
Brider, kumt in kon
Lomir vaysn vind un vist
Vos a kabtsn kon.
Vos mir dayges, ver mir zorg, oy-oy,
Shtrof nit far di reyd
Gib mir, gotenyu, af borg, oy-oy
Khotsh a tropn freyd
Oy, tate, tsuker-zis
S’redele zikh dreyt
S’kostn tsores halb umzist
Shpring tsezesterhayt
Ven ikh nem a bisele yash, oy-oy,
Bin ikh gor nit der
Kh'gib a varf di puste flash, oy-oy
Un ikh gey a sher!
[When I drink a little wine, everything sparkles and shines.
I throw away the empty flask, and I do a dance.
Oh sugar-sweet, hold me by the hand.
Feet braiding bagels, the soul’s on fire!
Mother-in-law? Wife? Who cares?
They’re only trouble!
With my first glass of wine, they just swim away.
Oh sugar-sweet, brothers ante up:
Come into the circle,
Let’s show what a poor man can do.
Why worry? What trouble?
May my words not be punished.
Lord, lend me just a drop of joy!
Oy tate [father] sugar-sweet, the circle is turning.
Troubles half-price for free, jump until you burst!
When I take a little drink, I’m not the same.
I throw away the empty flask, and I dance a sher (scissor step)]
4. Noiresque
composer: Debra Kreisberg © 2013 Rock City Road Music | BMI
“Noiresque is an evocative klezmer-jazz soundscape that creates a seamless interplay between jazz 3/4 time and the traditional ‘hora’ rhythm. The melody and harmonic motion weave in and out of bebop, blues and the signature freygish klezmer mode with mysterious yet playful abandon.”
— Debra Kreisberg
5. Weary Sun Tango
composer: Jerzy Peterburski; arr. Eve Sicular & Isle of Klezbos
Born into a famous family of Warsaw Jewish musicians, Jerzy Peterburski composed several tunes which helped set off the tango craze in Poland. This poignant melody was first a hit as To ostatnia niedziela [The Last Sunday], with a Russian recording released in 1936 as Utomlyonnoe Solntse. The lyrics of the 1933 Polish original describe a pair of lovers about to part forever after one last tryst. The 1936 remake tells a similar story and became a ubiquitous nostalgic classic, later featured on numerous Soviet film soundtracks, notably Yuri Norstein’s 1979 animated masterpiece Skazka Skazok [Tale of Tales], as well as Nikita Mikhalkov’s eponymous feature [translated commercially as Burnt By The Sun] and Krzysztof Kieślowski's Polish feature White, both released in 1994. These Yiddish lyrics were learned from an online video, as sung by an unnamed Odessan woman; alas, this YouTube version has since vanished from the Internet. Thanks to Yelena Shmulenson for referring us to this gem, and for her transcription and translation of these lyrics, which closely follow the Russian version; and to Yuri Vedenyapin, whose verse made us wonder.
S'hot di zun oysgemitert
Mitn yam zikh gezegnt
Nisht geven vos tsu fregn
Di libe'z oys.
Es bafalt mir an umet
Fun der reyd oysgetserter
Un ikh her dayne verter
Mit shmertz un vey
Zolt nit kayn fardros be-eys der tsesheydung
Beyde zaynen shuldik -- du un ikh.
[The sun has grown weary
Said goodbye to the sea
There was nothing left to ask
The love’s gone out.
A sorrow befalls me,
Emaciated from the talking
And I hear your words
With pain and woe.
There should be no resentment in this parting
Both of us are guilty – you and I.
The sun has grown weary….]
6. Revery in Hijaz
traditional, arr. Eve Sicular & Isle of Klezbos
A terkisher dance in modal melodic vein (hijaz is one of the classical Arabic scale systems, closely resembling the Yiddish freygish mode), based on a theme within the 1916 recording by illustrious cymbalom player Joseph Moskowitz mysteriously titled Chasen Senem. [Also heard as both studio track & live-concert reprise on Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos CD.]
7. Mellow Manna
composer Pam Fleming © 2013 Infinite Room RPM | ASCAP
“Since I have played extensively in both Reggae and Klezmer worlds, it seemed natural to compose a klezmer-reggae song, incorporating the two feels. The minor melodies of Klezmer, lifted by the alluring lilt of the Reggae ‘bubble’ (the off-beats in the piano) and ‘One Drop’ rhythm in the drums during the verse, with ‘Steppers’ beat (‘four on the floor’) through the bridge, make this combination a perfect marriage of different cultures. Shoko's piano solo extends this mood, rising up to the trumpet cadenza finale.”
— Pam Fleming
8. East Hapsburg Waltz
composer: Eve Sicular, arr. Isle of Klezbos © 2003 Rhythm Media Records | BMI
“The tune is now dedicated to the memory of my Oma, Lisl Lichtenstern Weinberger (born 1907 Vienna; died 2003 NYC), though I’m happy to remember that I wrote and first performed it while she was still with us. The music begins with an Old World sensibility more easterly than the Austro-Hungarian capital of Waltz, moving with optimistic melancholy through anxiety, menace, humor, and the unexpected. The opening phrase is rhythmically transformed from a melodic hook ending which fascinated me on certain Central European 78’s, and one harmonic build was inspired by a threatening Beethoven passage. This was the first full-length musical piece I ever wrote.”
— Eve Sicular
[Also heard in studio recording on Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos.]
9. Doyna / An Alter Nigun / Abi Gezunt / Klezmerengue
Doyna (improvised introduction) by Shoko Nagai
An
Alter Nigun [An Old Tune] traditional, arr. Isle of Klezbos
Abi Gezunt [So Long As You’re Healthy] words: Molly Picon / Itzik Manger, music: Abraham Ellstein, arr. Isle of Klezbos & Metropolitan Klezmer
Klezmerengue adapted from Yosl, Yosl (music: Nellie Casman), arr. Rachelle Garniez & Isle of Klezbos
Shoko conjures her opening to this medley on the piano’s strings as well as its keys. The band joins in with stirring yet subdued Russian Jewish instrumental themes that build to soulful intensity before making way for a seriously swinging Yiddish vocal. This beloved tune entered Yiddish repertoire in 1938 during an all-singing routine of housework choreography with Molly Picon starring as yet another scrappy gamine lead in her second Polish/American movie feature, Mamele [Little Mama – for a marvelous, highly idiomatic fourth verse, watch her at the ironing board too!]. We feel she might have appreciated the gals on horns, rhythm section and especially scat vocals, as well as our party-pleasing closer: Klezmerengue mixes the Second Avenue Theater standard Yosl, Yosl with riffs from Dominican classic Caña Brava.
[Our Abi Gezunt medley and Klezmerengue are also heard in various arrangement permutations, both as studio and concert recordings, on Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos as well as several tracks by Metropolitan Klezmer.]
A bisl zun, a bisl regn
A ruik ort dem kop tsu legn
Abi gezunt -- ken men gliklekh zayn.
A shukh, a zok, a kleyd on lattes
In keshene a dray fir zlotys
Abi gezunt -- ken men gliklekh zayn
Di luft iz fray far yedn glaykh
Di zun zi shaynt far yedn eynem, orem oder raykh
A bisl freyd, a bisl lakhnn
A mol mit fraynd, a shnepsl makhn
Abi gezunt -- ken men gliklekh zayn
[A little sun, a little rain,
A quiet place to rest your head
So long as you’re healthy -- you can be happy.
A shoe, a sock, a dress without patches,
Three or four coins in your pocket
So long as you’re healthy -- you can be happy.
The air is free for everyone,
The sun shines for every single person, poor or rich.
A little joy, a little laughter,
Once in awhile a drink with your friends,
So long as you’re healthy -- you can be happy.]
10. When Gomer Met Molly
composer: Earle Hagen, Molly’s Theme Episode 510, score: Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
transcribed by Melissa Fogarty, arr. Eve Sicular & Isle of Klezbos
With special guests Karen Waltuch: viola & Reut Regev: trombone
11. Hert Zikh Aynet, instrumental reprise
traditional, arr. Eve Sicular & Isle of Klezbos
See track #2 for description of the origins of this street-singer’s melody.
With special guests Karen Waltuch: viola & Reut Regev: trombone
Dan Fortune / dan@fortunecreative.com / 212.302.9504