Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band

Like I said yesterday, I got a chance to listen to Radio Free Klezmer last week. RFK is free internet radio channel broadcast over the Live365 network along with a variety of other Jewish music channels including the B'nai B'rith Radio, WJEW, Nusach, and Nusach2. RFK is my personal favorite because of it's orientation toward "cranky, squawky, jazzy, goodness." (I like how I said it yesterday, so I'm quoting myself.)

One track currently in rotation on RFK that got me excited is the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band's "Shtil di Nacht." The Freilachmakers are an "[u]pbeat Jewish music from the Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions, with Brazilian, gypsy and Celtic influences." Lovely and a bit mournful, Shtil di Nacht highlights the Freilachmakers Celtic string influences and mixes them with a deep male voice singing in Yiddish. It's a strange mix, but one that comes off completely natural and unaffected. No eclectic world music collage here. Just good music.

If you tune into RFK and listen for a while I'm sure it will come around, or you can check out the Freilachmakers album ordering page and hear sound clips of Shtil and a dozen or so other tunes.

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