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Old Roots New World (Shanachie 67008) "These are fine musicians...they care about the music. And when they care - I care." - Theo Bikel, Actor Singer
 KlezmerShack.com From the energy and joy of the opening "Lebedike Honga," this is the best album by Chicago's best party band, ever. The only album that has hit me this hard was their amazing first album 20 years ago. With a lively mix of yiddish show tunes and straight-forward klezmer, the band shows that it is on a level with Boston's own Klezmer Conservatory Band as impeccably wonderful purveyors of traditional Jewish tunes. Arranger Alex Koffman's able hand is apparent throughout. His composition for the wedding of bandleader Lori Lippitz, "Leah's Saraband," is a delightful violin piece, presaging his amazing violin on the full-blown "Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin" which takes up the last half of the album. But it is unfair to the rest of the performers to single out only Alex. From the exquisitely talented vocalists, to the solid orchestral core of the band, everyone is perfect. In a sense, this is the klezmer band that George Gershwin might have wanted, had Gershwin lived long enough to see klezmer come back as popular music. In fact, several of the songs come from that wonderful jazz era from which we got "Abi Gezunt" and "Yidl mitn fidl" and "Porgy and Bess" (okay, so the latter song isn't featured here). Also notable is the clarinet-violin dueling klezmorim on "Galitzianer vs. Litvak" with its brassy end segueing into a perfectly smokey jazzy rendition of "Abi Gezunt". The Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin deserves a few more words. It does echo Gershwin in some ways. It is also a piece that reflects the nearly hundred years since it was an American in Paris, not a modern Litvak on Chicago's Maxwell Street. Listening to Alex have nearly 20 minutes to show how good he is on violin is worth the piece in its own right, but the piece is also one of the best fusions of Jewish music and the classical idiom I have heard. Somehow that fusion takes place while retaining the soul and flavor of the Jewish, a tribute both to the composer and to Alex and the orchestra behind him. This particular album has added significance. It came out this past summer, and the joyousness of the recording was so good, that the CD sat in my car for weeks as I ran around running the errands leading up to my wedding. The fact that it contained a blisteringly fun "Chusn Kalleh Mazel Tov" or Alex' aforementioned small wedding piece is incidental, I'm sure! It was the next best thing to having the band at our wedding. The fact that the cover is artwork from a long-time San Francisco acquaintance whose artwork and sculpture I have always admired (Arlin Robins), and with whom I often celebrated a seder, is an added bonus. I can't promise that if you purchase this album you'll find your beshert and get married - for all I know, you're happily married now! But I can promise you that you will both enjoy listening and dancing to this CD. Shpil di CD, khevreye, you'll be glad you did! - Ari Davidow - 5/8/03  www.SpunoutCentral.com Spunout Central Recently, I was introduced to klezmer music via Lori Lippitz's generous submission. Unknown at Old Roots New World receipt, Maxwell Street Klezmer Band is perched in the forefront of the Neo-Klezmer Movement. Yiddish Swing, jazz and early 20th Century pop are funneled through Gypsy big band arrangements -- consider music inspired by The Fiddler on the Roof performed with Squirrel Nut Zippers' grandiose yet loose technique. Nearly every track is predominately instrumental. When vocals fade in, they are theatrically cabaret (and foreign). Those combined elements usually tend to create intolerable casual auditory experiences. However, Maxwell Street Klezmer Band's playfulness, grit, eclecticism and mojo blend into a snappy experience. Old Roots New World is extraordinary in its omneity rather than as individual tracks. However, worth crediting, is the amazing 17 and a half-minute closer, "Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin" -- the opus builds from almost a baroque introduction to what I swear was a trampy appropriation of "Hava Nagila" (or at least used as an inspiration) at the 12 minute plus point. For the past couple of days, repeated spins of Old Roots New World are habit forming. Even though the music is Yiddish, it is also historically American; the cd feels like a recorded glimpse of a superb Brooklyn festival performance featuring immigrants celebrating the anticipated opportunities that awaited them in this ‘fabled1 land. With that, imagine what sensory maneuvers Maxwell Street Klezmer Band could relate live! - Adam Mico Spunout Central 1/1/2004  www.GantzehMegillah.com The Gantseh Megillah As many of you know, I depend on a wheelchair for mobility. However, while listening to this wonderful new CD collection from the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, I came close to jumping out of my seat and "hora-ing" around the room. I am definitely considering the idea of recommending this CD as a new form of physical therapy. It is virtually impossible to listen to this music without feeling it course through your veins and lift your spirits. Old Roots-New World not only consists of fraylakh and fast-paced dance music; there is also a generous sampling of the more intimate and thoughtful sounds that serve to soothe the soul. Each track is a self-contained story, with a distinct beginning middle and end. Songs such as "Shpil de Fidl/Yidl Mitn Fidl (Play, Fiddle, Play/ Yidl With the Fiddle)" and "Zol Zayn Gelebt (Live to Enjoy)" set tows tapping and spirits soaring. While tender selections including "Leah's Saraband" and "Friling (Spring)" weave enchantment. In my rarely to be humble opinion, the highlight of the entire album is "Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin." The listener is taken on a tuneful journey through the various moods and expressions of Klezmer music. I found the best way to listen to this 17 minute, 31 second track was to close my eyes and allow my mind to wander freely as the rhythms and tones poured over and through me. I must make specific comment on the vocal renderings by Lori Lipitz. The best way I can describe her singing voice is by referring to her as the Judy Garland of Klezmer. Lori uses the lyrics to a song as a painter uses a brush. She strokes and molds the notes and words together in a way that creates an entire picture. Even for those of us who do not understand Yiddish fluently, her interpretation of the lyrics enables a listener to comprehend the story of the song. The music and vocal artistry present on this CD are class A all the way. I urge my Megillah family members to log onto the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band Web site at http://www.klezmerband.com and order a copy of this must-own CD. It is truly the Chanukah gift that keeps on giving. - Michael Fein The Gantseh Megillah 11/14/03  JewishSF.com Yo Yo Ma did it. Wynton Marsalis did it. And now, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, like the aforementioned classical music superstars, has blended thorough musical scholarship with an unabashed joy of performing on their new Shanachie Records CD release "Old Roots, New World." In its 13 sensational tracks, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band amply demonstrates that sometimes the smartest kids in the class can also have the most fun. Based out of Skokie, Ill., (a town famous for standing up to a neo-Nazi march some decades back) the band is a large ensemble, rotating some 17 players on the new album, all under the leadership of lead singer/founder Lori Lippitz. The band credits actor Theodore Bikel with coining the album's title. It is indeed fitting, as Maxwell Street mined a vast treasure trove of early 20th century klezmer recordings, as well as traditional tunes, in selecting its latest musical offering. Throw in a pair of striking original compositions, and the band has come up with a must-own CD for serious klezmer addicts. As much a pleasure as this album is to hear, so too is reading the liner notes, which detail each song's history and provide Yiddish lyrics in translation. Clearly, the band is into history, lovingly rendering ancient shtetl tunes as well as rearranging klezmer classics from the early days of 78 recordings. The album kicks off with "Lebedike Honga," a raucous dance piece of Romanian Jewish origin. A Yiddish version of the Hustle, the track maximizes the band's brassy, large-scale sound. Revealing the unmistakable link between klezmer, Yiddish theater and the Broadway musical, "Shpil de Fidl, Shpil/Yidl mitn Fidl" pairs two songs made famous by the legendary Molly Picon. The band does Molly proud on this spirited medley, sung by Kimber Leigh Nussbaum with just the right amount of shmaltz (if with a less-than-flawless Yiddish accent). "Leah's Saraband" is a ravishing original by violinist Alex Koffman. Composed for Lori Lippitz's wedding, it evokes a sensual wedding-night spirit, drawing on the varied colors of the classical orchestra. "Chusn Lalleh Mazel Tov" ("Congratulations, Bride and Groom") provides an uproarious twin piece. There's a lamentable tendency in the general public to view klezmer as little more than the soundtrack to the annual Chabad telethon. The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band counters such ignorance on tracks like "Frilling," a luscious ghetto tango spiced up by Bibi Marcell's jazz-flavored vocals, and "Oy Abram," a passionate, even sexy, tune from 1912. Tracks like "Zol Zayn Gelebt," "Galitzaner vs. Litvak," and the fugal "Undzer Toyrele" embody the crashing, almost circus-like quality to some klezmer styles. Others, like Picon's big band-flavored "Abi Gezunt" and the familiar "Chiribim" accentuate the lively ingrained humor in Jewish music. Throughout, the band shines musically, thanks largely to the fabulous arrangements of violinist Koffman, the unheralded star of the band. Koffman is so versatile, so gifted, he could easily head to Hollywood tomorrow to make it as a big-time film composer. But then, what a void he'd leave behind. The album ends with the 17-minute-long "Klezmer Rhapsody," a serious orchestral composition by Ilya Levinson, featuring Koffman as violin soloist and conductor Ralph Wilder pulling out all the stops. It's a beautiful, complex piece that owes much to the greatest Jewish American rhapsodist, George Gershwin. Alternating a whimsical up-tempo motif with a more melancholy refrain, the piece weaves together different strands, echoing various klezmer idioms along the way. It may be lengthy, but this tour de force makes for profitable listening, as does the entire album. Some klezmer bands primarily look forward, others mostly backward. On "Old Roots, New World," the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band takes the omnidirectional approach, which is good news for klezmer fans everywhere. - Dan Pine, Jewish Bulletin of Northern California - 1.10.2003  Rainlore's World of Music Rainlore.demon.co.uk Old Roots New World More High Octane Music out of Maxwell Street... I just had the great pleasure of catching up with the latest album by The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band, "Old Roots New World". My previous listening pleasure of Maxwell St. has so far sadly been limited to their previous album, 1996's "You Should Be So Lucky". (If you haven't got this one yet, it's also most highly recommended!) This had left me positively craving for more, with its eclectic mix of big band klezmer, Yiddish song, swing, and even a touch, a "feel", of blues and trad jazz, and the sheer high energy and obvious enthusiasm and enjoyment of the band. Now, with Old Roots New World, I have finally been able to extend that listening pleasure. To say that Old Roots New World is Maxwell Street's usual high octane brand of eclectic music would be doing the band a grave injustice. This album goes well beyond the eclecticism this reviewer so enjoyed on their previous album and also embraces the world of contemporary classical music, with one composition by the band's arranger/violinist Alex Koffman - Leah's Saraband, originally written for bandleader/singer Lori Lippitz's wedding, and a second by composer Ilya Levinson, specially arranged by the composer from the original orchestral score, entitled Klezmer Rhapsody. Needless to say almost, these excursions into the classical realm are not only completely successful but, to me and my ear at least, a great joy indeed. As a dedicated and life-long "genre-bender" myself, I doubly appreciate these efforts and would like to thank and commend everybody involved; undoubtedly, it took quite a bit of chutzpah to undertake. And I dare say one even has to acknowledge the label, Shanachie Entertainment, for being adventurous enough to support such a wonderful project. (Being adventurous is something that record cos. can be, generally, only very, very rarely "accused" of these days.) One song that perhaps needs singling out is "Friling", a haunting "Ghetto Tango". Like virtually all of its genre, this is a very poignant, deeply moving song, performed with the utmost sensitivity by vocalist Bibi Marcell and the rest of the band. The remaining tracks are a delightful mix of Yiddish theatre songs (Molly Picon being also represented), traditional songs, traditional klezmer tunes and klezmer "standards" from the golden era of New World klezmer, the first three decades of the 20th Century. All the material is beautifully and sensitively arranged for Maxwell Street's big band sound by Alex Koffman, and beautifully performed by the whole band, with just the right balance of gusto and restraint. Their boundless enthusiasm and energy, as well as their huge enjoyment of what they're doing, come across the inherently dead medium of the CD and are highly infectious. Lori Lippitz's and her fellow singers' vocals are, as ever, a heavenly delight - they make it all sound so easy and effortless, hallmarks of truly great singers. The instrumentalists are all an equal delight, and it would be most unfair to single any of them out, ordinarily. However, the circumstances are not entirely ordinary, and indeed tinged with some sadness, in that the album is dedicated to trombonist Sam Margolis who, the liner notes inform, sadly passed away after recording this album but before its completion. His soulful, jazzy trombone will no doubt be sadly missed by the band and music lovers in general alike, just as he himself is doubtlessly missed deeply by all who knew him or even knew of him. Old Roots New World makes for a wonderful and loving epitaph. Maxwell Street's web site modestly claims, "...we are not....... nor even authentic" [klezmer], well, I feel this does need qualifying. If we're talking historically authentic, i.e., e.g., a historically accurate recreation of the style and sound of a 19th Century klezmer ensemble, then fair enough. However, if we're talking klezmer music per se, then Maxwell Street is as authentic as any band. They continue in the spirit and tradition of the first generation American klezmorim of the early decades of the 20th century, who brought their klezmer music from Eastern Europe and, exposed to the diverse forms of music already extant in America (as well as some of the instruments commonly used), freely embraced these and blended them into their music. It is precisely because of the work of bands such as Maxwell St. that klezmer remains a living tradition rather than turning into a piece of "museum culture". And within a living tradition, a living culture, there not only is always room for all manner of styles, be they historically accurate recreations of the past, or experimental, or anything in between, but there is indeed an absolute need for all such differing styles if the tradition is to remain alive. Within that definition, any style can be authentic. And, indeed, who is to define what does and what does not constitute authenticity? If you have not caught up with Old Roots New World yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough - go grab it if you can! It's on the Shanachie label (as is the earlier "You Should Be So Lucky"), so should be universally obtainable. Old Roots New World is just wonderful music, whichever way you want to look at it. It doesn't really matter whether or not you are specifically interested in klezmer/Yiddish music or even Jewish music in general, or classical or whatever. If you just like good music, chances are very high indeed that you'll enjoy this highly contageous music. The liner notes, by Lori Lippitz and Lori Cahan-Simon, are excellent and informative, and the cover features very attractive (and quite appropriately symbolic) artwork by Arlin Robins. Treat yourself, and "support your local artist/s" (or even not so local as the case may be). - Originally posted to the Jewish Music Mailing List on 1.9.2003  Sing Out Since 1983, the Chicago-based Maxwell Street Klezmer Band has been one of the premiere regional ensemble of the klezmer revival. They play old Yiddish swing and theater tunes and instrumental classics from the early-20th Century repertoire with a big-band flair. The group's current lineup, as reflected on its latest CD, Old Roots New World, numbers seventeen--including three vocalists--providing a rich palette from which bandleader Lori Lippitz and arranger Alex Koffman can draw. The group's mainstream stock in trade is still widely in evidence--remakes of jazzy instrumentals from the 1920s ("Lebedike Honga" from Kandel's Orchestra, "Zol Zayn Gelebt" from Dave Tarras) and Mollie Picon vocal classics from Yiddish theater and film ("Yidl Mitn Fidl," "Abi Gezunt"). But the group's personality continues to evolve, most notably on several ambitious, newly-written classically-oriented compositions. Koffman contributes "Leah's Saraband," a musical portrait of Lippitz that is sinuous and dignified. The 18-minute "Klezmer Rhapsody," written by Ilya Levinson, will undoubtedly remind listeners of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," not only because of its similar dramatic, concerto format, but because on its way toward putting the blues on the concert stage Gershwin's work already nodded to Yiddish modalities. The raw material that makes up klezmer's three- and four-minute dance numbers is rich enough to be mined at greater length and depth, and Levinson's fine experiment, which brings to mind Duke Ellington as much as Gershwin in the manner in which it paints a particular landscape through shifting perspectives, will undoubtedly point the way to more efforts like it. The group also stretches out on a haunting chamber version of "Friling (Springtime)," a "ghetto tango" number of anguished longing sung by Bibi Marcell, and on an arty, theatrical arrangement of the old Yiddish folk song, "Oy, Abram," sung with acrobatic finesse by Lippitz. In sum, a diverse, well-programmed effort. - Seth Rogovoy Sing Out! Magazine Volume 46 #4 - Winter '03  All Music Guide Almost anything one writes about klezmer music sounds a bit serious. Originating from Eastern Europe, klezmer, or Jewish folk music, features clarinet and fiddle, but can also include tuba, trumpet, saxophone, flute, piano, percussion, and vocals. This information, however, fails to convey how much fun a group like the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band can be. Eclectic and occasionally outrageous, the 17-member band is bursting at the buttons with intensity. With bouncy instrumentals like "A Lively Honga" and happy vocals like "Play, Fiddle, Play/Yidl With the Fiddle," Old Roots New World reminds one of a cross between John Philip Sousa and cabaret. Kimber Leigh Nussbaum handles most of the vocals and her theatrical style on pieces like "Congratulations, Bride and Groom" captures the joyful spirit of a wedding celebration. Violinist Alex Koffman has done a fine job of providing lively arrangements for many of these songs and instrumentals, which must have been quite a task with all the musicians involved. The band does have a serious side, though it's easy to overlook it amidst so much excitement. A quiet, reflective "Leah's Saraband" crosses folk and classical traditions, while the lyric of "Springtime" recalls the Holocaust and how one woman attempts to continue with her life after the murder of her husband. The album ends with the ambitious "Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin," a 17-minute instrumental with multiple phases ranging from ecstatic to thoughtful. With Old Roots New World, the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band deliver an album that captures the band's abundant energy and versatility. - Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.  "Both Tarras' and Schwartz' arrangements appear on Old Roots New World, the latest from Chicago's own Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. This high-sprited ensemble, bursting at over a dozen members, is also bursting with verve, wit, and talent. "Old Roots" also features Yiddish theater classics- with the Bette Midler-like sound of Kimber Leigh Nussbaum filling in for Molly Picon- and original compositions, like the ambitious, 17-minute suite "Klezmer Rhapsody." The band's founder, Lori Lippitz and Nussbaum to channel the a Barry Sisters on a cheeky "Chiribim," and the rakish Alex Koffman is a stand-out on violin. The sound is big-Chicago may soon be too small to hold it." We would love to make this last line happen! - Paul Weider CLICK HERE TO CLOSE. | |