Special Appearances: Judy Bressler and Don Byron
Special Guest: Golem Also find them here on YouTube
Day/Time: Saturday, March 6, 7:30 pm
Location: Berklee Performance Center,136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston
Ticket prices: $18, 36, 54 and 90 for premium seats and post-concert reception
Tickets available only at Ticketmaster.com and the Berklee Box Office
Link to artist: http://www.klezmerconservatory.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i3BU8yTN9I

The band that jump-started the Klezmer revival celebrates their thirtieth anniversary in a long-awaited reunion with two of the extraordinary soloists who put them on the map,clarinetist Don Byronand vocalist Judy Bressler.To get things off to a rollicking start, JDub recording artists, Golem will open the show with their unique blend of klezmer and rock’n’roll. Mamenyu, don’t miss it!

Jewish music is undergoing a real renaissance. It wasn’t that long ago that, if you wanted to listen to Jewish music, you were limited to scratchy recordings of chazzans, Mickey Katz parodies, Israeli folk songs or The Barry Sisters. But in the last few decades, the world of Jewish music has opened to encompass new vistas of sound and style. You can hear hip-hop, electronic chazzanut, Jewish jazz, pop, klezmer, classical and everything in between.

Jewish artists are creating new music and revisiting classics, exploring new sounds and dusting off old ones. Not all of it, of course, is overtly Jewish, or even remotely Jewish. (What IS Jewish music, anyway? We’ll leave that for another day).

But, given the diversity of “Jewishness” these days, it’s probably not surprising to learn that one of the hottest rap stars today, Drake, a black Canadian former child actor (Aubrey “Drake” Graham, who was in the popular high school drama follow-up to Degrassi High) is Jewish and had a bar mitzvah? That he wears a diamond studded chai necklace? My eyes certainly widened to hear the line “everything is kosher” in his latest single, Over (has the word kosher ever been used in popular rap before?).

In a world where John Stewart flaunts his being “Jewy” almost nightly, and Matisyahu becomes one of the biggest reggae stars around, blending reggae and Judaism (performing with a kippah, I might add), you know that times have changed. And at the same time, Theo Bikel can sell out Carnegie Hall and Itzhak Perlman play klezmer in Russia and at Tanglewood.

So, it’s an interesting time to be presenting Jewish music. At the BJMF, we’re trying to ride these many streams of Jewish music and musicians and bring them to Boston wrapped up in a package that proudly wears the label “Jewish Music Festival.” We’re celebrating a culture that seems to grow by leaps and bounds each year. We hope you listen, and come and support our efforts.

While we are busy planning the SECOND annual Boston Jewish Music Festival for March 6-20, 2011, I’d like to share some of the incredible successes we accomplished this past year. And all of it was made possible by everyone who attended events, by the artist who performed, by the volunteers, the donors both large and small, the custodians, the sound technicians, the printers. So many people had so much to do with this incredible success.

• Over 5000 participants

• 17 Concerts and Workshops

• More than 20 Program Partners

• Events held across Greater Boston in Boston, Cambridge, Dedham, Framingham, Natick, Sharon and Waltham

• Over 8000 Web Site Visits

All this, on a just a shoestring budget.

Keep checking in on this blog for festival anecdotes and updates on future plans. And please share your favorite festival stories here, too.

Joey was right…surfing music meets middle eastern belly dancing sound. With a hint of the B52s.

What a fabulous night! Please invite the band next year. They were great!

Kudos to Jim and Joey for pulling this Festival off in such a short time. Congrats, my friends.

We are. Tickets selling, programs printed. Some of the musicians are already in town–others on their way. We’re so grateful to those who have believed and supported, volunteered and helped us make this all happen.

Great two-page spread in today’s Boston Globe G section (see the online version here: jewish_artists_see_boston_music_festival_as_a_different_way_to_explore_their_culture/)

Also, last week’s Boston Phoenix: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/music/97500-jew-note/

And in this week’s Jewish Advocate.

And don’t miss Sunday’s family concerts: Peter & Ellen Allard at the MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham (2 PM); Yehuda Katz at Berger Hall Temple Israel in Sharon (3 PM); and Shira Kline and ShirLaLa at the JCC in Newton (1 PM). What a weekend.

The excitement is palpable, we’re revved up, still gotta’ iron a shirt. See you there!

It seems so unreal.The festival begins in less than 48 hours. There is so much running around to do tomorrow! It is so exciting. There will be a wonderful article in the Boston Globe on Friday. And the Jewish Advocate did some great coverage this week too. And the BJMF Program Book is just amazing. So hurry up and get your tickets. I’m off to the airport to pick up Yehuda Katz who will be playing  in Sharon Sunday afternoon. There are so many great events. Enjoy.

The Boston Phoenix has published a terrific article on the Music Festival. A big shout out to Jon Garelick for his fine work that captured so much of the spirit. Nice picture of Ruth Dolores Weiss, too! Hope you have your tickets–they are going fast!

You can read the article here: http://thephoenix.com/Boston/music/97500-jew-note/

Jim 

Brochures are being delivered. Advertising is falling into place (Watch for ads in the Boston Phoenix in Febuary…Thank you, Phoenix). Tickets for ALL events are now on sale. But we still need your help.

1. Please tell your friends about the Festival and send them to this website or our FaceBook page.

2. If you would like to volunteer at an event, end us an email. We will be needing people to hand out programs (WAIT TIL YOU SEE IT! IT IS AMAZING!!!), sell tickets (unless we sellRead More…

What a concert! Last night (Sunday), nearly 400 folks of all ages heard the fabulous Israeli trio HABANOT NECHAMA, one of Israel’s most popular groups. It was the pre-concert of the BJMF, co-sponsored by Temple Aliyah  and Temple Beth Shalom of Needham and the Israeli Consulate.

An outstanding show! These three women have amazing voices with terrific range and harmonies, singing erverything from gentle love songs to reggae to silly, fun show stoppers. A strong contingent of Israelis were in the audience (including Consul General Nadav Tamir, who was grooving in the back of the room) who were obviously loyal fans (the person behind me sang many of the lyrics). But those who didn’t know their music were enthralled. The audience rose to its feet as one at the end–and, of course, the women did an encore.

It was a memorable kick-off for the Festival, but also a signature evening of great Jewish music by three outstanding Jewish artists. Thank you Yael, Dana and Karolina!!

If you missed this, you missed something special. But don’t worry–more is coming. Tickets will go on sale shortly and our mailer, with the whoile schedule and ticket information, is at the printers now. Watch your mailbox–and be sure to sign up for our email newsletter which will have all the details. You can sign up right here on our web site. Don’t be left out, ’cause this was just the beginning.

There was a very nice article about the Festival in the Jewish Advocate this week. It’s unbelievably exciting. The Festival direct mail brochure goes to the printer today and should be delivered within 2 weeks.  And Sunday night, we kick things off with Habanot Nechama. This Festival is no longer a dream, Its real. And it is going to be spectacular.