Chassidic Classic with Giora Feidman

[Jill Friemark <sefirah...>]

A few days ago I went poking around the usual stores in the Fairfax 
district of Los Angeles when I came across a rare gem of a CD (well, 
it's at least rare around these parts as far as I know!).  It's called 
"Klezmer-Chassidic Classic, featuring Giora Feidman" and I found it 
buried underneath a pile of other CDs in a box, all dusty and held 
closed only by a piece of tape!  In my hunt for new Klez, I had to 
check it out.

It's amazing!

For someone whose ears are used to the progressive, edgy sounds of the 
Klezmatics, The Flying Bulgars and others, this might definitely strike 
one as being at least a teeny bit cheesy - AT FIRST!  To start with, 
the CD is from Israel, and none of it is in Yiddish.  It's got singing 
and is largely incredibly upbeat!  The production is lush and 
comforting.  It took some curiously groovy turns with the disco 
sounding "Mashiach," and "Sim Shalom," which sounds like it might have 
come from the Mamas and the Papas!  Excellent!  On closer inspection, I 
did notice that most of the tracks were recorded in the 70's, but there 
were a few recorded in 1997, at which time I'm guessing the CD was 
released.

I found this CD to be beautifully spiritual, uplifting and very nicely 
done!  Apparently there are others, some of them in Yiddish, through 
Hataklit Ltd:  "Di Beste Lider fun Di Beste Zingers," "Kinder Yoren," 
"Chassidic and Shabbat Songs," "Klezmer Freilach Compilation," 
etc....I'll have to get my hands on these as well, but if any of you 
may know who might carry them in the States, I'd like to order them 
that way.

Thanks!
Jill

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