Wholesale Album Release at Caffe Lena and Passim

[Joe Kurland <ganeydn...>]

Sholem aleykhem,

The Wholesale Klezmer band is pleased to announce the release of our new
album, TFILE FAR A TSEBROKHENER VELT (Prayer for a Broken World).  WE will
have copies available on CD and tape at our upcoming concerts at:

Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY on
Saturday evening, December 21, 1996.
Tickets are available by calling 518-583-0022

Passim
47 Palmer Street, Cambridge, MA
Saturday evening, January 4, 1997
Tickets are available by calling 617-492-7679

We hope to see you there.

If you can't make it to the concerts, albums will be available after
January 29 by calling 617-738-5680 or 413-624-3204.

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
voice/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn

For immediate release:

Tfile far a tsebrokhener velt
Prayer for a Broken World

How does a Jew respond to genocide in the post-Holocaust world?

The Wholesale Klezmer Band decided to use its music to speak out against
genocide, and support those working for peace and reconciliation among the
religious and ethnic groups involved in the conflicts. As an outgrowth of a
concert of Yiddish music, story and poetry to raise funds for the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's non-sectarian relief work in Bosnia
and Rwanda, Wholesale has just released a recording of that concert
material, "Prayer for a Broken World"

"To me," says Wholesale's lead vocalist and violinist Yosl (Joe) Kurland,
"being Jewish does not mean indulging in self-pity as the victims of
persecution throughout the ages. Rather, it means that we identify with all
victims of oppression, as we are commanded in the Torah, "You shall not
oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were
strangers in the land of Egypt."

The new recording of 11 traditional and original songs and stories has been
broadened to address war and genocide around the world.. Yet for all the
seriousness of its subject, "Prayer for a Broken World" doesn't present its
subject without hope. A medley of songs dating from both world wars ends
with a rousing musical celebration of a soldier returning home, and the
album ends with a couple of upbeat selections.

The album's title song, composed by Kurland, suggests the partnership
between God and humankind in which we are responsible for making peace in a
world that has been made beautiful for us.

In the heavens among clouds stars are being born
Nearby in a neighboring land, children are being lost.
Deep in the darkest corners of space suns become bound together.
And in sad cities, childhood itself becomes lost.

Your children argue, fight, and kill each other,
While on sunny days people sing songs of hatred.
Between painted mountains, tearful cities die.
Under autumn-reddened trees, people fall like leaves.

Dear G-d, you are so busy, making pretty lights for us,
And you have sanctified us with your commandments,
That we should fix the world you created.

Blessed art thou dear G-d, you make pretty lights for us,
And you have sanctified us with your commandments,
That we should fix the world you created.

Another song by Kurland, "Avrom Tate," addresses reconciliation between the
Jews and Arabs, using the tradition of midrash, or an original story based
on a Torah story, in this case , that of Isaac and Ishmael.

"Hineni" ("Here I Am ") is a compelling musical offering composed by and
featuring clarinteist Sherry Mayrent. The selection, writes Mayrent,
"expresses how as musicians we stand before our audiences and attempt to
draw both them and ourselves nearer to God, and how as human beings we all
need to stand and take responsibility for tikkun olam, the repair of the
world."

Other selections too, like a recitation of the dark-humored verse, "The
Spear and the Needle," carry through with the band's attempt to bridge
cultural differences. "We want our music to bear witness to our
responsibility as Jews and as human beings, to oppose intolerance,
oppression and genocide, and to promote peace, reconciliation and justice,"
says Kurland.

Since its inception in 1982, the Wholesale Klezmer Band has performed
throughout the Northeast, shared the Carnegie Hall stage with Pete Seeger
and Sweet Honey in the Rock ... and played at Bill Clinton's 1993
presidential inaugural. In a review of the group's first album, "Shmir Me,"
the folk magazine Dirty Linen said, "It is the balance they achieve between
social understanding and social satire that marks The Wholesale Klezmer
Band as a truly great klezmer band."

While "Tfile for a tsebrokener velt" is the group's second album, other
recordings by Wholesale members include "Hineni Original Klezmer Music by
Sherry Mayrent," and "Zogn a Nign Original Klezmer Music by Sherry Mayrent
" In coming months, Wholesale also plans to release a third album by the
ensemble, "Yidn fun Amol."

For information and a review copy, please contact: The Wholesale Klezmer
Band Gan Eydn, Adamsville Road, Colrain, MA 01340 Phone/fax: 413-624-3204
http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn