essential klezmer cds

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>If you were to recommend 10 CDs to a budding klezmerologist that 
>accurately represent the best of the various strains over the past 25 
>years--traditional, modern, and so on--which 10 would you choose?

...

>Mine includes Izhak Perlman, Shirim's "Klezmer Nutcracker,"....


As much as I love the Klezmer Nutcracker, I think of it more as a curiosity 
(albeit wonderfully done and performed) that distracts attention from the 
first two Shirim CDs, which are very different, and each quite essential. 
The second CD, "Naftule's Dream" (later chosen by the band as the name for 
their avant garde, post-klezmer band-name) was one of the original 
"essential" klezmer CDs with which the KlezmerShack was begun - in support 
of an article for the Whole Earth Review which needed the obligatory (in 
1995) "support webpage".

The other five CDs that seemed to represent the diversity of that time 
still stand up as worth listening to (or better), although the world 
continues to expand:

Brave Old World / Beyond the Pale (but, as with the Klezmatics, below, I'd 
have no trouble suggesting the new album, "Bless the Fire")
Kapelye / On the Air (the precursor to Henry's wonderful Yiddish Radio 
Project - this, too, shouldn't be forgotten)
Klezmatics / Jews with Horns (today I would happily suggest the latest: 
"Rise Up!")
Klezmer Conservatory Band / Yiddish Renaissance (which I think =has= been 
overshadowed, especially by albums in the last five years, but is still 
wonderful)
Andy Statman-David Grisman / Songs of our Fathers (never my personal 
favorite, but an album that people continue to mention to me)

ari

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