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Yiddish culture in east Europe today is but a dim shadow of its history and legacy, but it is not dead. Jewish communities exist - in diminished numbers - and Jewish life continues, not the least in the memories of an older generation who remember a world which spoke Yiddish. Di Naye Kapelye means "The New Band" in Yiddish.

We play old time Yiddish music from not so long ago. The klezmer music which defines modern Ashkenazic Jewish existence is the klezmer of America - especially New York. Old gramophone recordings document changes in instrumentation and repertoire as immigrant Jewish musicians adapted to new lives in the new world. In east Europe, however, folk traditions are strong, and Jewish music thrived as long as Jews had weddings. Our music takes its character from east European kapelyes (yiddish for a small band) like the Bughici family band in Iasi, Romania, the Markus family band in Hungary, the Lantos Orchestra in Maramures, Romania, and other Jewish village bands who played in distinctively non-commercial, local styles. In many cases the Jewish musicians played alongside local Roma (Gypsies), and today in Hungary and Romania Gypsies are the main source for living practitioners of Jewish music. Some, like the Transylvanian fiddlers Samu "Cilika" Boróss and Ferenc Árus, played for Jewish weddings when no Jewish band was available. Some, like András Horváth of Tiszakoród, Hungary, and Gheorghe and Vassile Covaci in Maramures, Romania, worked in Jewish bands before the war and learned the musical nuance of the local Hasidic courts (hoyfn). Hungary, due to its location at the center of the world, is our home, and we come together through a surprising set of circumstances, many of them soaked in pálinka - Hungarian plum brandy. I met Géza Pénzes with his traditional Hungarian folk group, Újstílus, in 1983 on their first tour of the USA. I moved to Budapest from New York City in 1988 to learn Hungarian bagpipe from Ferenc Tobak - alongside János Bártha - in Veszprém, my mother's home town. Christina Crowder is from Portland, Oregon, where she acquired an accordion from her Finnish grandmother, and more recently from Budapest where she acquired an addiction to dizzying Transylvanian couple dances. Yankl Falk is a cantor and klezmer clarinetist who lived down the street from Christina in Portland, but didn't know it until he showed up in Budapest to study how Hungarians brew plum brandy in their homes. Róbi Kerényi, the best Moldavian flute player in Hungary and founder of the Tatros Band, lives next door to one of the best plum brandy home-brewers in Hungary. Without pálinka, there might be a Naye Kapelye. But not this one.
Bob Cohen

Tracks:

1. DEM REBN TANTS 3:26
Hörbeispiel:
2. ANI MAMINI/WEDDING MARCH 4:35
3. HANGU AND FREYLACHS FROM PODOLOY 3:46
4. KOTSK/ DEM TRISKER REBNS NIGUN 6:13
5. SHLOIMKE'S RUSSIAN DANCE 2:25
Hörbeispiel:
6. NAFTULE'S DOINA 3:01
7. MOLDAV-O-RAMA 11:10
8. NOKH A GLEZELE VAYNE 3:13
9. ONO B'CHOACH - SLOW HORA/THE ODESSA BULGAR 6:23
10. JEWISH TUNES FROM SZATMAR 8:38
11. YISMEDHU/IN ADES/ARON'S HONGA 8:46
Hörbeispiel:
12. BOBOVER WEDDING MARCH 4:40

Total Time: 66:44

 

 

traditionel melodies, arranged by Di Naye Kapelye

Di Naye Kapelye:
Bob Cohen (vocal, violin, mandoline)
Christina Crowder (accordion, drum)
Géza Pénzes (doublebass, koboz)
Janos Bartha (clarinet)
Jack "Yankl" Falk (clarinets, vocal)
Guest:
Robert Kerenyi (moldavian flutes, drum)

Release Date: 10.09.98

Booklet in English, French and German