Metropolitan Klezmer / Upper West Side - Sunday (NYC)!

[SICULAR <SICULAR...>]

Metropolitan Klezmer back uptown in concert!
Sunday, September 7th 
2:00pm... full eight-piece band
Benefit for B'nai Brith at Congregation Habonim
44 West 66th St, NYC
$36; $9 for ages 12 & under; $18 for seniors w/copy of this email!         
More concert info & advance tickets:  212-490-3290

This concert is dedicated with love to the memory of 
our dear friend & colleague Howie Leess (1920 - 2003),
an original member of the Greater Metropolitan Klezmer Band

METROPOLITAN KLEZMER  www.metropolitanklezmer.com
Ismail Butera - accordion
Rick Faulkner - trombone
Pam Fleming - trumpet & flugelhorn
Michael Hess - ney flute, kanun flute & violin
Dave Hofstra - bass & tuba
Deborah Karpel - vocals
Debra Kreisberg - clarinet & alto saxophone
Eve Sicular - drums / bandleader


Our latest CD, "Surprising Finds," is currently airing
throughout North America & beyond, including 
Mondo Cannibale (WDR/Funkhaus Europa, Germany)
& WRUW-FM (Top Ten World Beat list, July; Cleveland OH).
Now at Borders Books among many other outlets!
Excerpts from our latest reviews: 

...an approach that combines scholarly rigor with imaginative leaps of 
juxtaposition... on the aptly titled Surprising Finds, "field recordings" of 
vocalist Deborah Karpel's grandfather rub up against a suite of previously 
unknown 
Soviet Yiddish theater tunes and Hungarian Hasidic melodies. "Pick a Pocket or 
Two" from the Broadway musical Oliver! is reclaimed as a subversive bit of 
radical Jewish culture, and in an innovative feat of remixing, today's 
Metropolitan Klezmer lineup plays a medley with a decade-old version of the 
group... 
Debra Kreisberg blows a jazzy alto saxophone on "The Rooster Crows" and 
trumpeter 
Pam Fleming stretches her lip as well as her compositional muscles on 
"Dreaming Wizard," written in the style of a khosidl, a slow Hasidic dance 
tune... 
worthy additions to any klezmer library.
- Seth Rogovoy, Sing Out! magazine [author, The Essential Klezmer] 
 
Metropolitan Klezmer is one of (I'd argue strongly for *the*, but I'm sure of 
universal agreement on "one of") the best klezmer bands in the world 
today....Surprising Finds, the group's third release, though, takes them to an 
even 
higher level, although I might not have believed such a thing was possible 
before hearing it... a delightfully multi-dimensional view of a musical form 
that 
is far too easily stereotyped, not only by those unfamiliar with its range, but 
unfortunately by some of its practitioners as well... Metropolitan Klezmer is 
anything but stereotypical, and nothing but terrific.
- Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris (cosmik.com)Ismail Butera - accordion

Metropolitan Klezmer has achieved something very special with this album. 
They can't get much better musically. Instead, they have dug more deeply into 
history, bringing back live fragments, recreating others, and even, as with Pam 
Fleming's lovely "Dreaming Wizard," creating their own tradition. In the 
process, the band makes us more aware of the cultural struggles and diversity 
of 
Jews (especially labor struggles of migrants to the United States and England, 
but not limited to then, and not limited to labor issues) in the last century. 
Despite the focus on the West, there is a lovely suite here in tribute to the 
Soviet Yiddish Theatre. Not many realize that in the decades following the 
Soviet revolution there existed a vibrant avant garde Yiddish Theatre, until 
destroyed by Stalin's paranoia. The point isn't just to present older music 
(and 
some new tunes) that we might not yet know, but to use that as an excuse to 
make 
us aware of our own history. That the band can do this and still strengthen 
their reputation as one of the premier Klezmer bands performing today, is an 
additional testament as to the skill and excitement they bring to their music. 
Indeed, several tracks here were recorded live, in a small club in NYC--one 
even features Howie Leess, member of the original band...
This is my favorite Metropolitan Klezmer album yet, something I have said 
about each of the earlier albums, but here say even louder. If you are new to 
the 
band's sound, start here. Then work your way back. You'll enjoy.  - Ari 
Davidow, KlezmerShack

=================
METROPOLITAN KLEZMER
& the all-female ISLE OF KLEZBOS  
151 First Ave #145, NYC 10003
tel:  212.475.4544
fax:  212.677.6304
www.metropolitanklezmer.com

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