J. Walter Hawkes, trombone: YouTube outdoor show videos
Brian Drye, trombone: "Muzikalisher Tango" (live club audio version: also, pictured in myspace photo);
Rick Faulkner, trombone:"Terkisher Navratilova" (also, pictured in b&w photo)
Influences
Bandmate musical heritages range from Albanian to Zydeco, with performance backgrounds in jazz, Latin, reggae, classical, rockabilly, Balkan, Greek rembetic, Turkish, Arabic, punk, samba, calypso, swing, blues, Second Line, Second Avenue, haftorah chants, and many other inspiring genres. Honoring the following, in no particular order ~ see Isle of Klezbos page for more:
Howie Leess, Joseph Moskowitz, Mickey Katz, Boiberiker Kapelye, J & J Kammen, Wm Kostakowsky, Moishe Beregovsky, Molly Picon, Count Basie, Cannonball Adderly, Aarvo Part, Rachmaninoff, Joni Mitchell, Rosa Eskenazi, Pixinguinha, Leon Theremin, Brass Menagerie, Los Mas Valientes, Lecuona Cuban Boys, The Lijadu Sisters, The Marvelettes, The Microscopic Septet, Raymond Scott, Ray Charles, Lorenz Hart, Lionel [Begleiter] Bart, Lionel Belasco, Martin van de Ven, Amsterdam Klezmer Band, San Francisco Klezmer Experience, Hot Keys, Shock of the Funny, Charming Hostess, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Kander & Ebb, Adler & Ross, Indigo Girls, The Toasters, Traffic, Bonnie Raitt, Vito Russo, William Parker, Umm Kulthum, Heinrich Schutz, kd lang, Patsy Kline, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Chet Baker, Sarah Davis Buechner, Iren Marik, Zhana Bichevskaya, Herman Yablokoff, Ida Kaminska, Cesaria Evora.
Sounds Like
"Metropolitan Klezmer, one of the finest American klezmer bands, deliver a varied, highly enjoyable set of both traditional klezmer and swinging Jewish jazz, as befits Klezmer's roots as Jewish diaspora music." Four stars!
- Mike Gerber, Songlines Magazine (UK)
"Great fun and a mix of deliriously danceable tunes along with some quieter, more haunting material... As befits New York’s best klezmer band, the musicianship is breathtakingly good."
- Lucid Culture, NYC
"Anything but stereotypical, and nothing but terrific... one of the best klezmer bands in the world today"
- Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris
"Influences that range from old school Arabic music to Latin Jazz to Motown... not only exuberantly eclectic but also very danceable. Expect an eccentric cultural lesson from these modern-day purveyors of time-honored traditions."
- J. Bachman, flavorpill
"This feisty NYC-based octet, together twelve years and counting, is known for its encyclopedic range of Yiddish sounds. The group delivers an excellent 18-track live set punctuated by the 'Klezbonus' cut "Comes Love," from their sister sextet offshoot, Isle of Klezbos."
- Curve Magazine, review of Metropolitan Klezmer's TRAVELING SHOW cd, 2007
“An urban, sophisticated sound, with crisp solos and exquisite ensemble playing... the musicality is true, the enthusiasm is unmistakable."
- Jewish Transcript (Seattle)
"Led by drummer Eve Sicular, of Isle of Klezbos fame, Metropolitan Klezmer takes a scholarly approach to the genre's history, yet never skimps on the exuberance at its core."
- Time Out NY
"One of the best traditional klezmer bands around... eclectic and sizzling"
- Jewish Week (NYC)
"A fun-filled live recording with lots of great klezmer tunes and wonderful Yiddish songs. 'Guys & Dolls and Bagels' is an interesting attempt to make klezmer accessible to a non-klezmer literate audience."
- fRoots Magazine (UK), review of Metropolitan Klezmer's TRAVELING SHOW cd
"One of the foremost groups in the current wave of klezmer revivalists"
- Lucid Culture
"One of the most important discoveries I’ve made is Metropolitan Klezmer and their latest release, Traveling Show"
Levity, gravity, eclectic exuberance...
Approaching tradition with irreverence and respect, Metropolitan Klezmer plays Yiddish music from all over the map, including lesser-known gems and genre-defying originals. Our four CDs thus far include dance frolics, trance chants, plus hard-swinging Second Avenue classics and retro tango, from delightfully rambunctious to ethereally exquisite. Based in NYC, the group is known for its virtuosic versatility and relaxed, hard-swingingly tight performance. Originally formed as a quintet in 1994 with the late great Howie Leess on clarinet and tenor sax, Metropolitan Klezmer has grown to an octet performing an imaginative array of gorgeously arranged traditionals, originals, and unexpected adaptations, both vocal and panoramically instrumental.
Broadcasts with Metropolitan Klezmer in performance have aired on CNN Worldbeat's Crazy for Klezmer, ARD German TV's Rhythms of New York, and live on-air for WFUV's CityFolk, WFMU's Trans-Pacific Sound Paradise, and WVBR's Bound For Glory. More band radio airplay has appeared around the globe, including a feature on PRI's Sound & Spirit. Metropolitan Klezmer discs on Rhythm Media Records are distributed worldwide by Stern's Music Ltd, and here are CD Baby links for hearing clips from all tracks, reading more, and buying these online:
.. METROPOLITAN KLEZMER: Traveling Show (2007), live! plus Klezbonus-->
.. METROPOLITAN KLEZMER with Isle of Klezbos: Mosaic Persuasion (2001) -->
.. METROPOLITAN KLEZMER debut disc: Yiddish For Travelers (1998) -->
Our CDs have won Outmusic Awards and made Top Ten lists internationally, including Best of 2007 lists in Jewish Week NYC, Jewish Journal LA, Detroit Jewish News and Boston Jewish Advocate. Tunes from these releases have also been heard in such shows as the Royal Ballet's First Drafts at London's Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and SITI Theatre Co.'s Score Off-Broadway and on national tour. All Rhythm Media Records releases by Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos are distributed worldwide by Stern's Music Ltd (offices in NYC and London). In addition, Metropolitan Klezmer tracks are featured on compilations including Tzadik label's "Music from the Winery," live from Tonic's klezmer series, curated by David Krakauer on the Radical Jewish Culture imprint.
Metropolitan Klezmer has performed at venues from the legendary Bottom Line cabaret to full houses at the concert halls of the 92nd Street Y, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the World Financial Center's Festival of Sound & Light, as well as multiple appearances onstage at Makor, Tonic, The Jewish Museum, The Knitting Factory, joe's pub at The Public Theater, and Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction. Our bandmates also play in styles from Albanian to Zydeco, funk to classical to reggae to Latin jazz as well as klezmer. For full bandmate bios, including everything from world tours to conservatory training, see:
http://metropolitanklezmer.com .
Our new album, TRAVELING SHOW, includes a variety of tunes from recent live shows, including gorgeous traditionals, hot arrangements of folk-based swing, Yiddish/Latin charmers, and beautiful new compositions. Jewish Week's George Robinson gave it five stars, one of only eight CDs to receive this year's top rating.
"Originality, expert musicianship and a keen world music sensibility" - All About Jazz
"Feisty NYC-based octet, encyclopedic Yiddish sound"- Curve Magazine
Our latest video is a quick clip of trumpeter Pam Fleming soloing on her latest horn with the band: a kudu (antelope) shofar! Riff arranged by bandleader Eve Sicular:
Outdoor concert videos include three full tunes of live band show footage from the Summer on the Hudson pier stage this July, plus some revealing archival movie clips and fascinating subtexts in the tango number. Drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular also lectures on "The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film" (vintage soundtrack music in unexpected adaptations is one of our specialties).
Here's "Ot Azoy Neyt A Shnayder," a Yiddish swing vocal number based on a folk tune (also heard on our Traveling Show and Surprising Finds CDs):
This one below's a medley of wedding dance tunes ("C Minor Bulgar & Ken O'Hara Freylekh" ... Ken is not a real person, by the way; that's just a play on the Yiddish phrase for 'keep the evil eye away' ~ keyn ayn hara; and 'freylekh' means happy, joyous, gay; from the same root as 'frolic'!) These two instrumentals are heard as this very medley on the new Traveling Show CD, and also as separate tracks on our debut disc Yiddish For Travelers. And yes, all klezmer groups play parties too:
Here below you'll find Yiddish film footage and much more, together with Metropolitan Klezmer's live octet performing "Muzikalisher [Musical] Tango," our very special Yiddish Celluloid Closet montage... more at http://metropolitanklezmer.com/celluloid.html . We love this tune so much it's on three of our recordings -- Mosaic Persuasion [full liner note explication], Traveling Show [live in concert], and as "Shadkhn Tango" on Surprising Finds [live show version] -- and even on our sister sextet's CD, Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos. Enjoy:
Hello Friends, Many many Thanks for the add. Find your music really super and love it very much ! Wish you many many success !! Have a fabulous weekend ! Musical Greetings, Rose-Marie, Belgium
Hello! A sheynem dank for the add as well :) We know Znojmo quite good, but never played there before :( Still beautiful small town in a beautiful countryside...
I have not said hello in a while! Hope everything is going well, you are happy and staying on top of the game:) Drop by, sample a tune & say Hi. Keep playing those great tunes! You're very creative. Love to hear from ya! ZT
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