This debut CD was eagerly awaited. And justly so.... There is a sense of playfulness here that is refreshing, with one-off experiments like 'Klezmerengue' and three sharply etched live cuts to round off the set. Trumpeter Pam Fleming, also a Metro, makes some particularly telling contributions.
- George Robinson, Songlines - The World Music Magazine (U.K.) also excerpted in Jewish Week (NYC)
for full article, click here

Isle of Klezbos understands and respects the traditional in repertoire, instrumentation and style. Many of the melodies and arrangements will be familiar to klezmer enthusiasts. Others are authentic-sounding originals... The group is at its best in some of the slower arrangements featuring exotic-sounding Arabic harmonies. I especially like the sinuous "Revery in Hijaz" based, liner notes tell us, on a theme from a tune recorded by cymbalist Joseph Moskowitz in 1916. These ladies know their antecedents. Revery is played twice, the second time in a "reprise" that is one of three live-audience tracks.

Not that the faster cuts are chopped liver... [These are] talented and well-trained musicians. Professional experience runs the gamut from rock to classical. Clarinetist Debra Kreisberg has the klezmer style down pat, making appropriate use of bent notes, trills and ornaments. She also has a lovely sound on alto sax on which she sometimes slips out of klezmer into a surprisingly tasty mainstream jazz groove. Pam Fleming has a beautiful tone on both trumpet and the softer fluglehorn. She too knows klezmer well but occasionally shifts to jazz. Eve Sicular is a fine drummer and the founder of both Isle of Klezbos and the better known Metropolitan Klezmer. In-the-style bass and accordion round out the instrumentation. Deborah Karpel adds Yiddish vocals on two of the release's 14 tracks.

Klezmer fans won't be disappointed and I also recommend the album to newcomers looking for something different. Jazz lovers may be especially susceptible. I'll conclude by not commenting on the sort of triple-pun group name. Hope you appreciate my restraint.
- Ron Bierman, Rambles: A cultural arts magazine, 6 December 2003
for full article click here

The absolute top in klezmer style... In Isle of Klezbos, consisting of six women, there are some members who also play in Metropolitan Klezmer. They don't take themselves overly seriously, as the name of the band and the cover of the cd prove: a kitschy holiday postcard with Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos on it, with a background of sand and seashells. A great find. The music is, just as with MK, of a very high standard of quality. Again with a lot of variety and very swinging. They cover the whole reach of klezmer: hora's, doyna's, Oriental influences, Balkan and wedding party music, even Latin American and Brazilian influences. Anyone who can come up with a title like klezmerengue and compose the music that matches it is working at a high level. That all musicians, both of MK and IOK, play at a rarefied top level is no surprise... Add to this the beautiful vocals of Deborah Karpel and everything comes together. A mandatory buy for the true lover of Klezmer, to whom I also recommend visiting their website. It is as well-tended as the CD's and booklets.
- "RootsTown" [Belgium] translated from Flemish;
to read the original text full article, click here

If Eve Sicular keeps this up, she's gonna have to put me on the payroll, I guess, because the music she's involved with is always so good that my reviews end up reading like press releases instead of criticism. Greetings From The Isle Of Klezbos is no exception.
- Shaun Dale, Cosmik Debris
www.cosmik.com/aaaugust03/reviews/review_isle_of_klezbos.html

Klezbian Tendencies: The all-female Isle of Klezbos sextet brings you the twangy, Judaic sound of klezmer music, Sapphic-style... Isle of Klezbos is a nifty, all-female klezmer group led by drummer Eve Sicular. Its latest album, Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos (Rhythm Media), gathers obscure tunes from forgotten Yiddish movies, 19th -century lullabies, and genre-defying originals.
- Time Out New York

Four female members of the New York City band Metropolitan Klezmer and two other fine musicians make up this excellent klezmer sextet. With a line-up which contains those familiar elements from the genre, such as clarinet, trumpet, accordian & alto sax, 'Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos' open with a delightfully woozy, slow instrumental based in a Romanian-Jewish wedding processional theme. But before long (track 2, actually) we're swept off our feet by a lively wedding dance, called 'Goldene Khasene' (Golden Wedding) with trumpet & clarinet going hell-for-leather over an insistent and compelling bass & drums rhythm. Isle of Klezbos play modern klezmer like it's going out of fashion (which it most certainly ain't) and their mixture of updated tradition and up-to-the-minute compositions makes for a seamless collection of sparkling gems. Speaking as a Gentile (see def.#4 in Collins' Concise), klezmer music transmits to me powerful feelings of the joy and deep sadness within Jewish diaspora over the ages, I cannot fail to be moved by the sheer emotion in the music. The album closes with a clutch of well-recorded live tracks which demonstrate why the group have built such an avid following even before releasing this, their debut album. Yes, folks, it's time to get to know one of the finest young klezmer bands ever to appear on the block. Say 'Hi' to IoK!
- The Phat Planet World Music website (UK), http://thephatplanet.com/ with a clip from 'East Hapsburg Waltz', composed by drummer/producer Eve Sicular

All-Music Guide Expert Review Pick:
It's interesting to note the Isle of Klezbos is an all-female band in the male-dominated field of klezmer (admittedly, nowhere near as male-dominated as it used to be), but don't read too much into the punny name. It's better to judge any band by the music it makes, and some of this is remarkably good. "Golden Khasene," for example, trades off clarinet and trumpet leads backed by some excellent accordion for a strong take on a wedding tune. The wittily titled "Klezmerengue" nimbly fuses klezmer with a meringue beat so seamlessly that the join never flows -- a tribute to the musicianship on offer. Much of the disc is made up of the band's takes on traditional pieces, a few recorded live, such as "Szol A Kakas Mar," but there are some originals, like Debra Kreisberg's "Abrah," which proves to be a good exercise with some roots in klezmer.... This is excellent stuff, as good as any klezmer album around today.
- Chris Nickson, All Music Guide www.allmusic.com

Isle of Klezbos was founded in 1998 by Eve Sicular, who is also the drummer and leader of the band Metropolitan Klezmer.... like all bands that Sicular leads, they offer a particularly tight live performance, a strength boasted in their CD, "Greetings from The Isle of Klezbos," which includes three live recorded tracks. The music for the most part is classic klezmer in its style and content, though Latin and folk themes are incorporated as well. The lesbian references are there, but are subtle for anyone not looking for them.The lead singer, Deborah Karpel, has a look and style consistent with the Yiddish divas from Yiddish film, music and theater. She delivers powerfully on the heart-wrenching track, "Unter Beymer," about an assimilated male opera singer's return to Orthodox Judaism. Not exactly the most hard-core of lesbian feminist subject matter. Sicular explains that "there's plenty of lesbian content throughout my work, but it's just not the only thing (and often not the main thing), as in life. But our lesbian and gay audiences certainly appreciate it."Secular Yiddish culture today is known to attract many lesbian Jewish women. Sicular enumerates various reason for this: "The history of strong and progressive women in Yiddish and socialist movements; the co-existence of ACT-UP and the Klezmatics with their openly queer, politicized perspectives; the affirming alternative to alienating abrasive macho/ sabra mandatory Zionism; Yiddish as the vernacular treasure of expression less dominated by a male hierarchical system such as traditional organized religion. All these are among the things one could cite, but definitely that's just a portion of the full picture," says Sicular.Sicular is not of a purely Eastern European background, and dedicates the melancholy and wistful "East Hapsburg Waltz" to her Oma (grandmother) from Vienna, who died very recently. The CD ends with a rousing rendition of "Abi Gezunt" ("To Your Health"), whose lyrics were written by the most famous Yiddish diva ever, the all-American yiddishe maydel Molly Picon.More about Isle of Klezbos including upcoming concerts can be found at their website, www.metropolitanklezmer.com
- David Kelsey, Jewish Notes; in Aufbau: The Transatlantic Jewish Paper

Killer Klezbian
Drummer Eve Sicular and her klezmer band Isle of Klezbos bring new heat to traditional Yiddish music
By Kate Walter
From The Advocate
Eve Sicular recalls when she first came up with Isle of Klezbos as a name for her new all-woman, mostly lesbian klezmer sextet. "The band loved it," says Sicular. "But some of my friends said, 'Don't you think it might be a stigma? Will you get bookings outside of women's festivals?' " Judging from the band's busy schedule, drummer and bandleader Sicular knew exactly what she was doing. True, Klezbos played the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival as one of its early gigs. But it has since appeared at Jewish festivals, synagogues, and commitment ceremonies. On June 24, Isle of Klezbos will join New York City's gay pride celebration by hosting a KlezBiGay event at the downtown punk club CBGB.

To understand the group's broad appeal, check out the diverse musical influences on its debut CD, Greetings From the Isle of Klezbos. The bouncy "East Hapsburg Waltz," written by Sicular, has accordionist Rachelle Garniez throwing in a riff from The Godfather. "Klezmerengue" includes Latin dance-hall sounds-the lower east side meets Loisa¥da. Then there's the sultry style of vocalist Deborah Karpel, a cult figure on New York's downtown theater scene. Who knew Yiddish could be so sexy?

Although Sicular grew up Jewish in New York, only a subway ride from Second Avenue, she never heard klezmer until much later and didn't start playing it until she moved to the West Coast after college. Sicular was raised on the upper east side of Manhattan and the suburbs of Westchester. "The home of presliced challah," she quips. Her dad was a classically trained piano player, and she taught herself the drums at age 8. "Turns out I was doing all the right things to play a traditional klezmer style," she recalls. "I was learning the rudiments-the drum rolls, the double bounces, the single bounces."

After graduation from Harvard, where she majored in Russian history and literature, Sicular headed to Seattle, where she tried her hand sitting in with a local klezmer band called the Mazeltones. Also, she heard about KlezCamp, an annual retreat celebrating Jewish culture and music. "I heard there were lots of gays and lesbians," Sicular says, "and that was a big attraction."

The music proved more attractive still. An invigorated Sicular moved back to New York City and founded the coed ensemble Metropolitan Klezmer in 1994. Four years later she realized her dream of an all-woman band with Isle of Klezbos, which in addition to Garniez and Karpel includes Pam Fleming (trumpet and flugelhorn), Debra Kreisberg (clarinet and alto saxophone), and Catherine Popper (bass). Now both bands are thriving. Sicular lays down the backbeat-and does all the bookings.

During these years, Sicular also found time for gay activism. A fan of the late Vito Russo, she compiled a video-clip presentation called The Celluloid Closet of Yiddish Film, which she has screened at gay film festivals and Jewish events. "I learned that audiences love this kind of stuff," she says. After that, Sicular knew her lesbian-leaning band would be well-received. "People like the strength of women musicians," she says. "And who doesn't like klezmer music?"
-Kate Walter, The Advocate, with full-page Klezbos photo spread illustration http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/891/891_klezbian.asp

"Isle of Klezbos ... featuring the soaring soulful Pam Fleming on trumpet and the dangerous Rachelle Garniez on accordion. Not only the best-looking nonconformist eastern European Jewish party music band on the planet but also one of the best."
- A. Young, Trifecta Shows, NYC

"The two troupes teamed up for a final number, "Jambalaya," that was lots of fun; the sheer number of people on stage set off sparks..."
- Judith Newmark, St Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch

To Pam Fleming: I enjoyed your trumpet virtuosity and enthusiasm! Your bubbe and zaydeh must be kvelling at your accomplishments! ....It seems to me that klezmer transcends boundaries, appealing to a universal audience. "Thank you and the Isle of Klezbos, and Cowboy Envy, for an enjoyable evening of fine music, beautifully performed."
- Nancy Benson (Isle of Klezbos double bill with Cowboy Envy at the Edison Theatre, St Louis MO)

From The New Female Face in Klezmer: "Another female klezmer musician who has blazed her own path is drummer Eve Sicular, whose love for syncopated music led her to klezmer. She leads two groups, Metropolitan Klezmer... and the all-woman Isle of Klezbos. On the joint release, Mosaic Persuasion (Rhythm Media), the bands "have a more retro sensibility" than contemporary experimental klezmer bands, Sicular added that they are also "not about re-creating what you hear on old 78s." She termed their approach an "irreverent respect" for the music. "The group that became the Isle of Klezbos, she saic, "didn't want [the group's name] to be a goofy novelty thing," adding that it's "proven to be kind of a magnet" for like-minded progressive klezmer listeners. "... Sicular said she was heartened when a young girl would notice that women were playing music at a bar mitzvah. But she added, with more women playing professionally "it's just as nice as the notion that they don't notice."
- Marty Lipp, NEWSDAY

"terrific... snazzy... luscious, with just enough of an edge."
- Seth Rogovoy, The Forward

"Great ears and great hearts...Their sound turns heads: people who hear the CD playing in our bookstore keep asking, 'What's that music?'Ê "Why is this band different from all other bands? It's not just the name; their repertoire is distinctive too... arrangements are tight and elegant... eclectic musical influences... Pam Fleming on trumpet and flugelhorn works seamlessly with Debra Kreisberg on clarinet and alto sax for a scintillating foreground; Rachelle Garniez supplies a dark and moody accordion, and Deborah Karpel bursts in with upbeat vocals... How much of this group's particular magic is because they're women, and how much of it is because they're these women?... One thing is sure: however it works, it makes very good music."
- Catherine Madsen Field Notes, Der Pakn Treger magazine National Yiddish Book Center

"Sterling musicianship... they know how to both get at the heart of Klezmer/Yiddish Theatre music and simultaneously wail. Consisting of the beguiling Deborah Karpel on vocals, the jovial Pam Fleming on trumpet and flugelhorn, the introspective Debra Kreisberg on clarinet and alto sax, the enigmatic Rachelle Garniez on accordion, the rock-steady Catherine Popper on bass and the ebullient Eve Sicular fronting (and backing) the band and playing drums, the Isle of Klezbos put on two set of very entertaining music..."
- Dick Rosenberg (Harvard University show)

"This powerhouse all-female klezmer sextet combines folk, swing, tango, trance, and dance with traditional Yiddish music... These women will make you shake your tushies."
- The Village Voice

The Isle With Mellow Style (music feature, Arts section):
"The all-women Isle of Klezbos... a traditionalist New Klez sextet spearheaded by Eve Sicular, Metropolitan Klezmer's drummer-leader, Isle is a mellower group than the Metros, a little more laid-back, but with an offbeat sense of humor and a relaxed sense of swing.... a super-group, drawing on former and current members of the Metros, the Mazeltones and the Klezmatics, as well as non-klez gigs that range from reggae and salsa to bel canto opera.

The repertoire is a... mix of klezmer instrumentals and Yiddish theater standards... the playing is sprightly, with a lot of astute ensemble interplay. Simply put, this is a band with no weak links. Trumpeter Pam Fleming is a particular find, with a rich Bobby Hackett-like tone on open horn, and Sicular drives the band crisply from behind her drum kit."
- George Robinson, Jewish Week (NYC)

"acclaimed and much-loved all-female klezmer sextet... musical sources include traditional Yiddish music, raucous dance-party tunes, film soundtracks, labor anthems and folk songs. The group proved a huge hit at the venerable Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and members of the band have performed and recorded with such well-known singers as Natalie Cole, Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls... Isle of Klezbos is an all-female group, led by drummer Eve Sicular. We'd make a joke, but they beat us to it."
- Time Out New York

There were a thousand women, and they were on their feet, swaying to a klezmer beat. The place was the Michigan Womyn's Festival, the most successful of the many all-women's music events that are held all summer across the United States. Isle of Klezbos was playing on the 'night stage,' the primo venue at the festival, the culmination of the whole event. Says Eve Sicular, the band's leader and drummer, "People told me later about how this was unlike any experience they had had there. I couldn't see all this," she recalls, "but the horn players could. And it was thrilling." ... Sicular attributes her active career in Jewish music † she leads Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos † to her connection to veteran klezmer clarinet/sax player Howie Leess. Sicular says, "He was so enthusiastic. It was so encouraging. He has old-school good politics from the heart and he'd seen so much of the music business."
- George Robinson, "The Next Sound: Sisters in Swing," Jewish Week (NYC)

Escape to Isle of Klezbos 'Irreverent repect'
If your ears are eager for a musical holiday, I strongly urge the procurement of your ticket to the Isle of Klezbos. Don't just buy one for yourself; consider those loved ones, family and friends who would also benefit from an upbeat get-away. The best part is that the Isle of Klezbos... is making the journey for us....

When I spoke with Eve Sicular, the band's articulate and passionate spokeswoman, drummer, and co-collaborator, she mentioned that their... new material, including original Latin and jazz inflected work, as well as Turkish groove and trance-like pieces... [and] infectious original arrangements of traditional 'public domain' pieces will be available on their much-anticipated CD in early 2003.

Isle of Klezbos was founded in 1998, an organic offshoot from Metropolitan Klezmer, a group that includes four members of Isle of Klezbos. There is a refreshing fluidity in that all of the Klezbos members play with many other groups and are accumulating their own lengthy musical resumes. All of these women are solid and sparkling instrumentalists (horns, upright bass, drums, accordion and more) and everyone contributes to the musical tone of "irreverent respect."

Sicular says the sensibility is one of "embracing Jewish culture, but confronting the parts that don't embrace us back." It's about integrating their musical personalities into tradtiitional klezmer music, re-jigging it and taking it a step farther.

A style that, over centuries of wanderings dictated by the Diaspora, has picked up Balkan, Arabic, Turkish, Roma and Hungarian influences, klezmer continues to freely absorb and reinterpret.... And in the past 30 years or so, in a renaissance of klezmer music, women have become frontline players in a musical tradition that in the past (and still today in Jewish Orthodoxy), didn't allow women, much less lesbians. The music has an inherent duality that tugs at the heart with its evocation of loss and longing and yet, at the same time, gets your feet tapping and your tushie shaking with its exuberance. It was partly through her film scholarship, examining gay and lesbian subtext in Yiddish film, that Sicular discovered numerous broadly transgressing characters, tunes and themes. She's combed the archives and collaborated with band mates to bring these pieces into Isle of Klebos' contemporary repertoire. For example, Muzikalisher Tango, on the CD Mosaic Persuasion, was inspired by a Yiddish screwball comedy from the '40s portraying the collision of worlds when Yiddish tradition meets dapper New York bachelor. Abi Gezunt ... gives a nod to Molly Picon, a cross-dressing performer from the 1930s.

But this is one musical journey that you'll just have to take for yourself.
- Ginger Mason, XTRA! west (Vancouver BC Lesbian & Gay Weekly)

Queers and klezmer (Yiddish jazz) music are an unlikely combination, but both the Klezmatics and Isle of Klezbos are proof that the formula works. Greetings from... The Isle of Klezbos (Rhythm Media Records) by the six-member all-female klezmer group is a mix of live and studio tracks that blends traditional selections with originals such as "Abrah" and "East Hapsburg Waltz," written by IOK members Debra Kreisberg and Eve Sicular, respectively.
- Gregg Shapiro, Bay Area Reporter (S.F.); also reprinted in Windy City Times (Chicago) & OutSmart (Houston)

Read the preview CD pre-review by Ari Davidow:
www.klezmershack.com/archives/000047.html