Jewish Exotica for Breakdancers and others

[GAronoff <GAronoff...>]

The Kabalas' brand new CD "Time Tunnel" may be of interest to list members - 
both "exotic" Jewish music fans and breakdancers.

While I wouldn't want to get into a battle between concert halls and rock 
clubs, this music is a great example of taking something identifiably Jewish 
to audiences who would never hear anything Jewish otherwise.  The disc is way 
to strange to make it with traditional Jewish music audiences so their target 
has to be an open minded rock and popular music crowd. 

And what they get on the disc, by far the most Jewish oriented so far, is a 
classic Kabalas recording with goofy original songs and hyped and heped up 
versions of traditional Jewish tunes.  This one includes versions of Odessa 
Bulgar, Der Rebbe's Sud and Erev Ba played fast and wild, and an up-beat time 
travel lament "Photograph of Aunt Rachel Doing the Cha Cha at Cousin Ira's 
Bar Mitzvah (circa 1963)."

To me this is an attempt to infuse Lounge music and all of its eclecticism 
with a Jewish soul.  It is also a retro nineties take on Jewish parody of the 
Mickey Katz variety.  And the xylophone playing is excellent.

While this music may not reach the high emotional power of Di Naye Kapelye or 
Naftule Brandwein, and many of the other old and new traditional klezmer 
masters, it is worth a listen as music that is a fun ambassador of Jewish 
music to the masses.

Gideon

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+