Desert Island Klezmer Discs

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Ari Davidow’s Klezmer Shack is a great on-line resource for Klezmer music.  He has just posted his 25 essential Klezmer recordings and invited readers to respond with a few of their own that he might have missed.

Here are a couple that I would recommend (4 of them are on John Zorn’s great label Tzadik):

Andy Statman — Between Heaven and Earth.  Mystical, searching, deep, and beautiful.  A klezmer Love Supreme.

Mickey Katz — Simcha Time: Mickey Katz Plays Music for Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and Brisses and Don Byron — Plays the Music of Mickey Katz.  Katz was a satirist and comedian in the 50s who played humorous Klezmer versions of mainstream songs (think the Barber of Schlemiel) — but he was also a gifted clarinetist and bandleader.  Here he plays it mostly straight, and dares you not to dance. I have my grandparents’ original LP — but the album was reissued on cd around the time that jazz virtuoso Don Byron took up Katz’s music.

Frank London — Invocations.  London’s rich, stately trumpet gives voice to the great cantors of the past. Like the flickering of a candle, majestic, and deeply religious.

Dave Krakauer — Klezmer Madness.  I once saw Krakauer enter an auditorium from the rear with his band behind him.  In no time he was leading most of the audience, like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, up and down the aisles, dancing and shouting.  His darting clarinet lines made the old young — walkers were thrown away, hands were thrust in the air.  Klezmer Madness indeed.  His secret weapon?  Michael Alpert on accordian.

John Zorn — Bar Kokba.  I find Zorn’s work with Masada a bit too “out” for my tastes.  Bar Kokba, his chamber group, finds the right balance between traditional klezmer melody and jazz improvisation.

Tim Sparks — Neshamah.  Beautiful solo guitar renditions of Jewish folk music from around the world. 

The photo at the top comes from the great Yiddish film Der Dybbuk.

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