Search - Klezmatics :: Possessed

Klezmatics
Possessed
Genres: Folk, International Music, Pop

Track Listings (18) - Disc #1
1. Shprayz Ikh Mir - The Klezmatics, Kahn, S.
2. Kolomeyke - The Klezmatics, Traditional
3. Moroccan Game - The Klezmatics, London, Frank
4. An Undoing World - The Klezmatics, Kushner, Tony
5. Mizmor Shir Lehanef [Reefer Song] - The Klezmatics, London, Frank
6. Shavarts un Vays (Black and White) - The Klezmatics, London, Frank
7. Lomir Heybn Dem Bekher - The Klezmatics, Reisen, A.
8. Sirba Matey Matey - The Klezmatics, Traditional
9. Mipney Ma - The Klezmatics, Traditional
10. Beggars' Dance - The Klezmatics, London, Frank
11. Shnaps-Nign - The Klezmatics, Sklamberg, Lorin
12. Interlude - The Klezmatics, Traditional
13. Dybbuk Shers - The Klezmatics, Svigals, Alicia
14. Fradde's Song - The Klezmatics, Kushner, Tony
15. Der Shvartser Mi Adir (Tha Black Benediction) - The Klezmatics, Morrisett
16. Hinokh Yafo - The Klezmatics, Sklamberg, Lorin
17. Mipney Ma - The Klezmatics, Traditional
18. Eyn Mol - The Klezmatics, Traditional

CD Details

All Artists: Klezmatics
Title: Possessed
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Xenophile Records
Release Date: 4/8/1997
Genres: Folk, International Music, Pop
Styles: Jewish & Yiddish, Middle East, Israel
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 048248405027

Synopsis

Amazon.com

Klezmatics mix jazz, folk, rock and Jewish music into a unique and powerful new sound. This album is one of the more challeging of their many works, leaping from genre to genre with seeming abandon. A core element of the record is the songwriting of playwright Tony Kushner, a self-described "half-baked, half-former, re-formed, dummermann kind of Jew." His lyrics for "Undoing World" are powerful phrases of love, loss and exile played against a traditional tune. Klezmatics can break into a frenzied dance here or a heart-rending fiddle tune there; the beauty of Possessed is its complete unpredictability. This is klezmer music of a high order. --Louis Gibson

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CD Reviews

I'll just play "Jews With Horns" instead.

Eleanor Corner | Edmonds, WA USA | 12/28/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Compared with how much we kvelled to "Jews With Horns" by the Klezmatics, to say I was disappointed with this CD is to put it mildly. The best song on here is not even listed on the outside of the case, "Eyn Mol". It's a sit-around-the-table-after-Shabbos-lunch song. Other than that, only Svigals', "Lomir Heybn Dem Bekher," warrants positive replay. Tony Kushner's liner notes about life in Louisiana were entertaining; more so, unfortunately, than his music. I'll just keep playing "Jews With Horns.""

Mixed, but excellent overall.

Amitai Adler | Los Angeles, CA United States | 06/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like all their albums, the Klezmatics' work on "Possessed" ranges from staggeringly brilliant to markedly less than special, but overall, the album is excellent. High points include "Hinokh Yafo," a really lovely little piece taken from Song of Songs; "Lo Mir Heybn Dem Bekher," an intoxicatingly heady song in the classic Yiddische Arbeiters tradition; and "Mizmor Shir Le-Hanef," to my knowledge the only Yiddish song about pot smoking: a delightful slow song filled with clever wordplay and jazz/reefer in-jokes (in Yiddish, yet). Not so great are the two songs in English, "An Undoing World" and "Fradde's Song." Klezmer ballads just don't seem to work if they're not in Yiddish: English just isn't nuanced for them, and the Klezmatics really should learn that at some point. The rest of the album ranges mostly from good to better, and the whole is entirely worth owning. One of the band's best efforts."

A Wonderful Mix

Carolyn Davis | Leesburg, VA United States | 07/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really loved this CD, it was one of the best I had heard in a long time. I'll admit, I'm not Jewish, so maybe I'm not really qualified to write a review as I do not completely understand the material on this CD. But I really loved this stuff anyway. Shprayz Ikh Mir and Shvarts Un Vays were my favorites, the Klezmatics do an excellent job of working their instruments into a rampant frenzy and it's impossible not to dance listening to their music. The songs in English are defiantly the low point here, although it seems a heart-felt effort, An Undoing World is a big flop. It just seems too clichéd in English, but I'll bet it could be beautiful in Yiddish. Overall this CD was an excellent hodgepodge of Jazz and traditional Jewish music & other elements."