"The Essential Klezmer" now available

[Seth <rogovoy...>]

"The Essential Klezmer" by Seth Rogovoy is now available from finer
bookstores everywhere (if not in stock they can order it for you) and from
all the major on-line retailers.

Here is the press release from Algonquin Books:

THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER is "a lot more than essential" --Arlo Guthrie

Klezmer caught Seth Rogovoy by surprise: "To me, Klezmer sounded instantly
familiar and emotionally comforting," said Rogovoy. "It's also simply some
of the best playing I¹ve ever heard. It became an obsession."

Soon Rogovoy was going to Sunday Klezmer shows at Tonic in NYC. He was
hosting a weekly radio show. Now, he's helping grow the popularity of this
Old World Music among Jews and Gentiles, Hasidim and club kids, grandparents
and their grandkids with his book  THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER: A Music Lover¹s
Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music -- which is simply the most definitive
book on  this American music.

"An informative and entertaining guide. Seth Rogovoy lucidly explains what's
culturally significant about klezmer; better yet, he captures the music's
fun," -- Atlantic Monthly jazz critic Francis Davis.

"When I began reading this book, I knew very little about klezmer," says
superstar rock drummer Kenny Aronoff (Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Melissa
Etheridge).
"Rogovoy writes about Klezmer with such style,
passion, and intensity that you can practically hear the music dancing off
the page. Now I am excited to begin playing it myself."

Musicians, music lovers, and lovers of American and Jewish history will
enjoy reading:

*Klezmer¹s journey from Old World weddings to the Jazz Age to the ethnic
folk revival of the 1970s to today's downtown avant-garde music clubs

*Profiles of the top contemporary performers and innovators, including the
Klezmatics, David Krakauer, and Brave Old World

*Interviews with such musicians as Itzhak Perlman, John Zorn, and Andy
Statman

*Recommendations for building the Essential Klezmer Library

*Annotated lists of recordings, artists, and styles

*Complete lists of music retailers, festivals, workshops, and klezmer Web
sites

*Background on klezmer's social, cultural, and political roots

*Descriptions of the instruments, their sounds

*Best of all: stories of the players who have kept the sound of klezmer
alive through the ages

The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover¹s Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music
by Seth Rogovoy
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, May 2000
320 pages, paperback, illustrated, $15.95

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