Joint reviews of Metropolitan Klezmer & Isle of Klezbos

ISLE OF KLEZBOS -- Of all the pioneers of the recent klezmer revival sweeping the town, drummer and bandleader Eve Sicular is, without a doubt, one of the most fascinating artists. Don't let her band's punny name fool you: The Klezbos musicians produce a high octane blend of world music, funk, reggae and zydeco, with an overarching klezemr sensibiility and an approach that makes Old World values hip again. No wonder, then, that Showtime's Lesbian-themed hit "The L Word" was quick to include the band's tunes in the soundtrack to the popular show. Sicular will be joined by trumpeter Pam Fleming, clarinet/sax player Debra Kreisberg, vocalist Debby Karpel, bassist Anna Milat-Meyer, and guest klezbian accordionist Art Bailey in a free evening of feel-good, funky music.
-The Buzz Arts Guide, New York Jewish Week

A raucous pre-Hanukkah present of local klezmer powerhouses... soup up old-world music [with] hard-swinging ... contemporary style scrambling. Isle of Klezbos and Metropolitan Klezmer, who share members, lend unexpected twists to their respective repertoires of Hasidic compositions, Yiddish theater tunes, and free-ranging dance numbers.
- Richard Gehr, Village Voice

Surprising Finds, by NYC's Metropolitan Klezmer, [features Ismail] Butera's lightning fingers. Their interpretation of klezmer flirts with the city's thriving Balkan and Middle Eastern scenes, and when they do go down this route, the results are so good -- Terkisher Navratilova, for example, arranged superbly for the qanun -- that you wonder why they don't do it more often. On the rest of the album, the band put on their New York jazz hat and focus instead on more straight-up instrumental klezmer/Yiddish theatre tunes...

The very New York-named Isle of Klezbos is MK's sister (or should that be sistah?) group, and right from the off this all-female band feel ... commanding, in a superb jazz-inflected romp through some instrumental classics.... [T]here is humour and some great playing, especially from Pam Fleming on trumpet and flugelhorn and Eve Sicular on drums....
- Lemez Lovas, fROOTS [Folk Roots] magazine, U.K.

It seems there has been a resurgence in klezmer music in recent years. Perhaps international politics has elicited a musical response? Or perhaps it's a simple matter of one particular reviewer being more attentive to the genre. Whatever the case, there is cause for rejoicing. More good recordings representative of modern klezmer...

Although it probably isn't wholly kosher to lump them together, Isle of Klezbos and Metropolitan Klezmer are very similar in approach and feel. There is a strong emphasis on interpreting traditional songs. The bands share Pam Fleming, Deborah Karpel, Debra Kreisberg, and Eve Sicular, in common. And both projects were produced by Sicular, mixed by the same team. Um, and the Klezbos' special guests are... surprise! members of Metropolitan Klezmer.

Klezbos highlights are difficult to select. There's the upbeat invitation to party that is "Klezmerengue," the sinuously hypnotic "Revery in Hijaz" with stunning horn work by Fleming and an understated Kreisberg (also rendered live), and "East Hapsburg Waltz," an original by Sicular. The "surprising finds" that Metropolitan Klezmer makes are musical treasures on Yiddish and mainstream film, as well as home recordings. They've rediscovered "Pick a Pocket or Two" from Oliver! and many traditional folk tunes. Part of the charm of this CD is that all these influences are incorporated into this modern recording seamlessly. The shining vocalist is Philip Karpel, grandfather of Deborah Karpel, recorded circa 1960. His a cappella voice is on four brief tracks. There are also four tracks capturing the group performing live. It's a very wonderful treat....

Each of these are very heart-opening recordings, joyful, introspective, and mindful of the world, played exuberantly by stellar musicians.
- Linda Dailey Paulson (Ventura CA), Dirty Linen Folk & World Music Magazine,

Two top-class klezmer outings
Metropolitan Klezmer: Surprising Finds
& Isle of Klezbos: Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos
On their third CD, the Metros unveil a somewhat revamped lineup with the departure of original Metro sax player Steve Elson as the most significant change. Happily, Debra Kreisberg, who had joined the band for the previous set, takes over the reeds seat quite nicely. What results is a slight shift in emphasis from the frequently post-bop inflected improvisations of the band's first two albums to a somewhat more "traditional" approach, with Michael Hess's zither taking a more prominent role on tunes like "Terkisher Navratilova," and big-band swing dominating on "Ot Azoy Neyt a Schneyder" and "Shpil du Fidl, Shpil." Deborah Karpel's vocals, which seemed a bit too self-conscious on the first two sets, have settled into a more relaxed, comfortable groove, and the use of old home recordings by her grandfather is a charming device....

The engine that drives the Metros is undoubtedly the band's drummer-leader, Eve Sicular. A polymath who lectures on Yiddish film when she isn't behind her drum-kit, Sicular has been playing for some time with an all-women's sextet, Isle of Klezbos, much of whose personnel overlaps with Metropolitan Klezmer. They've been playing around New York for a few years now and this debut CD was eagerly awaited. And justly so. Moodier, perhaps darker and certainly pitched to slower tempi than the Metros' set, this is a satisfying first effort that allows the soloists to stretch a bit, while Sicular keeps rock-solid time as usual. 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)]

"As for Metropolitan Klezmer, among their 'surprising finds' is the 'Shadkhn [matchmaker] Tango from a 1940 Yiddish movie. A Rumanian medley features the fine world-music accordionist Ismail Butera."Short tracks of 1960s home recordings of Karpel's grandfather's warm Yiddish singing voice enrich the album. There's also a suite of songs from the Soviet Yiddish theatre. Album notes cover interesting historical information, including the closet struggles, both as a Jew and a gay man, of Lionel Bart [ne Begleiter], composer of the musical Oliver! from which the band arranges -- in Klezmer style -- the Jewish character Fagin's 'Pick a Pocket or Two'."
- Gigi Yellen-Kohn, Jewish Transcript (Seattle WA)

Sister groups Metropolitan Klezmer and Isle of Klezbos, both based in New York, share several of the same core musicians and an approach that combines scholarly rigor with imaginative leaps of juxtaposition. So on the aptly titled Surprising Finds, "field recordings" of vocalist Deborah Karpel's grandfather rub up against a suite of previously unknown Soviet Yiddish theater tunes and Hungarian Hasidic melodies. "Pick a Pocket or Two" from the Broadway musical Oliver! is reclaimed as a subversive bit of radical Jewish culture, and in an innovative feat of remixing, today's Metropolitan Klezmer lineup plays a medley with a decade-old version of the group.

Debra Kreisberg blows a jazzy alto saxophone on "The Rooster Crows" and trumpeter Pam Fleming stretches her lip as well as her compositional muscles on "Dreaming Wizard," written in the style of a khosidl, a slow Hasidic dance tune. Although there were exceptions, until the revival of the late Twentieth century, klezmer, like jazz and other ethnic folk musics, was played primarily — almost exclusively — by men. The all-female Isle of Klezbos isn't only a historical corrective, however. The playing on the mostly instrumental, mostly traditional Greetings is soulful and also virtuosic. "Goldene Khasene" skips along to a lively beat with Kreisberg's clarinet and Fleming's trumpet playing tag-team leads, egged on by the evocative accordion of Rachelle Garniez. "Klezbos Kolomeyke" is a witty take on a classic slow dance tune, and Latin dance fuses with the classic Yiddish theater tune, "Yosl, Yosl," on "Klezmerengue." Drummer Eve Sicular leads both groups, and she brings her typical attention to detail to the notes on both albums, both of which are worthy additions to any klezmer library.
- Seth Rogovoy, Sing Out! magazine [author, The Essential Klezmer]

Talk about a surprising find! These two bands are the absolute best in the klezmer style. Whoever listens to Metropolitan Klezmer opens the encyclopedia of klezmer. It's a history lesson. Every song has the right liner notes and information on the original composers and performers in the accompanying booklet. Musically everything fits. All styles get their turn, from pieces of Yiddish musicals, from jazzy swing, pure Balkan, tango, and waltzes to a few very strong wedding dances. Some of the songs are presented live, others are medleys that fit together seamlessly and four short pieces are live recordings of Deborah Karpel's grandfather, taped in the mid-Sixties.

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" issue #57 [Belgium], (translated from Flemish)
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