Nina Stiller - Polish Jewish club & hip hop

Ilan Rosenberg, host of the Jaffa Jive radio show on Ann Arbor's WCBN, just forwarded me two great Polish Jewish music recommendations. The first, the Bester Quartet (nee' the Crackow Klezmer Band,) I know, love, and have written about before. The second, Nina Stiller, I'd never heard of. Thanks Ilan!

Stiller's wild, singing Yiddish with a smoky voice over varying styles of club music. I haven't got any background info on Stiller other than this four year old product description on Amazon.com.

Stiller Comes from Poland Where She is a Singer, Actress, Dancer and Script Writer. For this Album, She Enlisted the Help of Leading Polish Producers Magiera and Agim Dzeljilji, Both Well Known on the Warsaw Independent Theatre and Hip-hop Scenes. Together They have Forged a Thoroughly Modern Sound that Fuses Traditional Jewish Songs with Contemporary Club and Hip-hop Sounds, Updating them Like You've Never Heard Before...yet Still Respecting their Awesome Traditional Past! the Result is a Sophisticated Blend that Will Satisfy Even the Most Fastidious of Listeners. The Disc is Enhanced with Three Videos of the Songs "Mayn Shtetele Belz", "Rivke", "Tshiri Bim".

I'll see if I can track down any more info. While I do...check this out.

RIVKE - BY NINA STILLER

GhettoPlotz: A Klezmer House Explosion

My buddy Garret's 6 year old won't go to bed until "Michigan turns blue," my mother-in-law is speaking Chardoneeze with her girlfriends, I'm obsessively critiquing CNN's use of infographics (yellow states?) and my wife is burning off nervous energy by speed-cleaning the house for a second time. It must be election night. I think we're all a bit crazy tonight.

What better a soundtrack for a crazy night than London's GhettoPlotz, a "live klezmer-house dancefloor mashup project." (Ok, that's a lame segue, but it's the best I've got tonight.) GhettoPlotz brings a serious love of Eastern European Jewish music recordings, the lyricism and tonal qualities of the klezmer and Chassidic sources providing fabulous counterbalance to the rapidfire dance beats. Take the video below as exhibit A, but to get an even better GhettoPlotz experience hit their website or MySpace and crank up Kaput or Chassidic Torpedo. If you're in London, go hit the dance floor and get crazy.

Jew Many DJs - Music Video Mashup

Here's their official bio..read it but only after you listen.

"Think Fatboy Slim meets a Jewish wedding or the sounds of old-time Russia stirred up with fat and funky beats a la Basement Jaxx and youre on your way to understanding the GhettoPlotz phenomenon.

GhettoPlotz literally the word ghetto fused with plotz, Yiddish for explosion is the brainchild of DJ Little Miss Tan (aka Tanya Winston) and producer Mark White, both constants on the dance scene since the days of the Hacienda and now proud members of the house fraternity. Taking their cue from the success of the reinvention of the Asian scene, they decided to draw on their own cultural roots and bring klezmer traditional Jewish folk music into clubland.

Tanya a regular on the decks at Londons Turnmills and Egg as well as a former Mixmag DJ competition winner - says: I always wanted to combine Jewish music with my love of dance music and when I started working with Mark, he said he loved the idea. We work together really well as we tend to agree on sounds. The reaction to our first gig, in an Arabian tent at Limmudfest, was amazing. One guy said it was history in the making (which sounded a bit extreme to me!) and someone else cried at the end. That showed me what power music can have when it combines a deep heritage and tradition with modern upfront sounds it taps into the subconscious connections to culture and religions, as well as getting you rocking on the dancefloor. Together with violinist and vocalist Laoise Davidson and VJ Miki Grahame who brings her expertise as a computer games designer into the mix the group have created an attention-grabbing audio visual experience which not only reconnects young Jews with their musical heritage but also brings the sounds to a wider audience.

As Mark says: We want to bring traditional Jewish, Eastern European and Middle Eastern sounds to a wider club audience, and also to make music which connects with Jews who love dance music and partying. And thats a world away from the usual tired and so-called Jew-dos parties put on for young Jews to mix and mingle but without a relevant musical mix."

Jewish-Ukrainishe Freundschaft

Where to start? With a swawking horn. Honk. Grind. Bump. Wail. Let's go....to a Gypsy part of town. Kick in the horns. Grind. I smiled at the world, there'll still be no changes...Lets go!

Jewish music has been bouncing off of it's neighbors musics for a long time. In Eastern Europe and the Balkans, klezmer musicians and Rom (gypsy) musicians regularly shared tunes and techniques (as well as bottles and stories). The tradition continues. JUF is an extension of the group Gogol Bordello. Ground Zero for JUF and Gogol Bordello is the Balkans as imagined by JUF and GB lead singer Eugene Hurtz that mixes gypsy, flamenco, klezmer, Turkish, dancehall, reggae and Rai with industrial rock and a punk ethos. JUF adds to a distinctly New York DJ club feel.

The Jewish connection to the music is understated but clear, showing up as scales and fills in song after song. The musicians that help bring out that connection are Tamir Muskat and Ori Kaplan aka Balkan Beat Box. Muskat and Kaplan have played in a number of my favorite Jewish flavored New York bands including BBB, GB, Firewater, and Shot'nez.

The Balkan Beat Box album is a thing of manic beauty is much more a 'Jewish' album, and I love Gogol Bordello albums. But this week's obsession is JUF. There is something about the freedom from song structure and a love for sounds (not notes) that a DJ can brings that can help a group loosen up and let go. This is the party I wish I was ever cool enough to be invited to and the club I look hard for and never found.