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Home , The Klezmatics

KLEZMATICS – Live at Town Hall Track info

Disc 1

1 Man in a Hat Frantic gay love song, mostly in English. Traditional tune, lyrics by the band's original bassist, David Lindsay.

2 Bobe Tanz Grandma's Dance. From the Yiddish-American musical film Yidl mitn fidl.

3 Dzhankoye Name of a town in the Crimea, Ukraine. The song is one expressing feisty pride in Jewish-run collective farms in the region

4 Rhythm + Jews with Horns Medley: Fun tashlikh/Fisherlid Returning from tashlikh. Tashlikh is the traditional act of symbolically casting away the previous year's sins by throwing pieces of bread into a large body of water on the afternoon of Rosh Hashana. Fisher's song. A song of lost love. Lyrics written by Aliza Greenblatt ('s mother-in-law) to a traditional tune. A performance of this song with at Tanglewood was part of the catalyst for ' Guthrie project.

5 Dybbuk Suite Original music composed by the band for the first productions of Tony Kushner's adaptation of S. Ansky's Yiddish drama The Dybbuk. A dybbuk is a restless soul that inhabits the body of a living person until it is exorcised.

6 Di krenitse The Well. Music by renowned Israeli singer/songwriter to a poem by martyred Yiddish writer Itsik Fefer, who was murdered in Stalin's purge of Jewish artists in 1952. This is the title song from the Klezmatics' cd featuring Alberstein, The Well.

7 St. John's Nign A nign is an Hasidic wordless tune, sung on syllables such as day-day-day or ma-ma-ma. Composed by Lorin Sklamberg for a cd compilation benefiting the restoration of the organ at NYC Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

8 Eyliyohu hanovi Elijah the prophet. Traditionally sung towards the end of the passover meal in the home - the door is opened to symbolically welcome Elijah into the house and to drink from the cup on the table prepared for him.

9 Elijah Rock Traditional African-American spiritual. Originally performed by the Klezmatics with Joshua Nelson as part of the Freedom Songs concert at NYC's Museum of Jewish Heritage and later on the road and on the cd Brother Moses Smote the Water.

Disc 2

1 Davenen Praying. Composed by on commission as part of a suite for the Pilobolus Dance Theatre exploring the body movements associated with traditional Jewish worship.

2 I Ain't Afraid Yiddish-English adaptation of a song. Originally performed by Lorin Sklamberg and singer Adrienne Cooper for a NYC benefit for victims of the World Trade Center attack of 9/11/01. Later appeared on the Klezmatics cd Rise Up! Steyt oyf! with Cooper as guest.

3 Gonna Get Through This World Music composed by Lisa Gutkin to Woody Guthrie's lyrics. Premiered at the debut concert of the band's Guthrie project at NYC's 92nd Street Y by Susan McKeown and the band. McKeown also performs it on the Klezmatics' Grammy Award winning cd Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie.

4 Holy Ground Music composed by Frank London to Guthrie's lyrics. Premiered at the 92nd Street Y concert and recorded on Wonder Wheel.

5 Moroccan Game Music composed by Frank London for the Klezmatics' one-time-only collaboration with the Master Musicians of Jajouka at NYC's Central Park SummerStage.

6 Hanuka Gelt Hanuka money (refers to the tradition of giving kids pocket change as a present on Hanukkah). Music composed by Lorin Sklamberg to Guthrie's lyrics. Originally appeared on the Klezmatics cd Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah.

7 Medley: Lolly Lo/NY Psycho Freylekhs Lolly lo - music by Matt Darriau to lyrics by Guthrie. Premiered at the 92nd Street Y show. Previously unrecorded. Lyrics are an adaptation of the Carribean folk song Liley lo.

8 Shnirele, perele Little string, little pearl. An Hasidic song telling what will happen when the Messiah comes. This is one of the bands signature numbers, and originally appeared on their second recording Rhythm + Jews. The band interprets the lyrics as an ecstatic chant for peace. Lorin learned the song from Adrienne Cooper during YIVO's intensive summer Yiddish course.

9 Ale birder We're all brothers. The Klezmatics' anthem, extolling the indisputable power of song. Originally appeared on the Klezmatics debut lp Shvaygn = toyt (Silence = Death). Lorin also learned this one from Cooper.

10 Tepel Rudy Tepel was a klezmer clarinetist and bandleader popular at Hasidic weddings in NYC. Lorin discovered this tune on a live tape of Tepel's band made around 1960 in a collection at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, where he works as Sound Archivist. He later found out that it come from the repertoire of the Modzitz Hasidim. The Klezmatics learned and recorded it for their cd Rise Up! Shteyt oyf!, and called it Tepel in tribute.