Klingon Klezmer
"Honey Would You Be meshuga Tonite?"
![[album cover]](klingonklezmersmall.gif)
Golden Medina Music, 19??Charley Salinger clarinet
Stan Slotter trumpet, flute
Josef Kessler electric violin
Dave Posmontier keyboard, piano, co-musical direction
Jack Kessler vocals, bass, KYDD bass, musical direction
Tom Cohen drums
Jim Babb dumbekContact:
(215) 849-9227
[email protected]"In response to the old question 'How far can Klezmer go?' We say: all the way, baby." - Jack Kessler (liner notes)
"Honey Would You Be Meshuga Tonite?" is amazing creative, otherworldly party music. The overall feeling is kind of "futuristic" like the present as we thought it was going to be in the 60's. Jetsonian. (My friend Mike Winograd thinks this makes them sound too canned, but I think the canned sound is a nice touch.) There are influences from all kinds of new-wave, middle eastern, dixieland (track 2, "A Nice Jewish Wedding In New Orleans," is most people's favorite -- it plays the same theme in dixieland klezmer and then in klezmer dixieland), reggae, funk, and hard rock, often mixed into the same song! The selections for the original songs (on which the crazy stuff is built) are very interesting too; there's some good yiddishe theatre music included alongside the traditional stuff. (Not to mention "Take Me Back to Old Vienna": "Mozart played cocktail gigs. Beethoven was a rock star. All art is a message from God. Klingon Klezmer proudly rips off the masters. Everyone gets to dance.")
I have found this CD to be very well-recieved among most people I've played it for. I played it at an old age home and they loved it; I played it at a party with twenty-year-olds who'd never heard any kind of klezmer before and they also loved it. There is something here for everyone.
They played the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education last year and, in the middle of a night of klezmer bands, they really brought the house down. Klingon Klezmer just exudes energy and excitement. Book them for everything!
![[album cover]](klingonklezmer.jpg)