24th Jewish Music Festival
Music festivals do not often deliver on the grand visions of their organizers; often the mission statements or ad copy promise an experience that isn’t delivered. The 24th Jewish Music Festival, presented by the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, appears to be an exception. The range of its eclectic programs and range of performance spaces lives up to its mission statement's declaration: “…to present music that celebrates the Jewish experience and explores what it means to be Jewish in a multicultural world. The Festival produces creative and entertaining programs, challenges stereotypes, and fosters engagement with the broader community.” The program (below) includes an amazing diversity of musical styles and voices presented in small venues around the Bay Area. The festival starts this Saturday with the ambassador of “Kosher Gospel” Joshua Nelson performing with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir at the Congregational Church of Oakland. Check out the YouTube video of Nelson performing “He Ne Ma Tov” to the tune of when the “Saints Go Marching In” at Nashville’s Heska Amuna Synagogue – ‘nuff said’ and more on the festival later!
24th Annual Jewish Music Festival
03/21/2009, Sat Joshua Nelson and Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir at the Congregational Church of Oakland Tix: $28 / $24 students, seniors & JCC members, Show: 8 pm
Opening Night: Kosher Gospel featuring Joshua Nelson & special guests, including the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
03/22/2009, Sun Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO), Castro Valley Arts Center Tix: $20 / $15 for students & seniors, Show: 2 pm Part of Bloch Party - A Celebration of the Life and Music of Ernest Bloch, with special guest cellist Bonnie Hampton, soloist. California’s oldest youth orchestra includes more than one hundred young musicians and an alumni roster of distinguished musicians.
03/23/2009, Mon Andy Statman Trio, Yoshi’s San Francisco Show: 8 pm & 10 pm Andy Statman brilliantly and unpredictably weaves bluegrass, American roots, and avant-garde jazz with klezmer and Hasidic nigunim, to name a few. No single style is safe when he takes off for new galaxies. “[This] clarinet and mandolin virtuoso is an American visionary…” The New Yorker
03/25/2009, Wed Flory Jagoda, JCC East Bay Tix: $20 / $16 students, seniors & JCC members, An Evening with Flory Jagoda: Conversation, Memories and Songs from Bosnia - Recipient of an NEA National Heritage Fellow award, Jagoda was born into a singing family in the Sephardic community in Sarajevo, more than eighty years ago.
03/26/2009, Thu Di Goldene Pave, JCC of the East Bay Tix: $15 / $12 students, seniors & JCC members, Show: 1 pm Di Goldene Pave: Yiddish Muse and Mystery Toronto-based native Yiddish singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Lenka Lichtenberg joins the fiercely talented clarinetist Kinneret Sagee in an intimate duet format.
03/26/2009, Thu Di Goldene Pave, San Francisco Public Library Show: 6 pm Free! Di Goldene Pave: Yiddish Muse and Mystery. Toronto-based native Yiddish singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Lenka Lichtenberg joins the fiercely talented clarinetist Kinneret Sagee in an intimate duet format.
03/26/2009, Thu Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird, Rickshaw Stop Club Tix: $14 / $12 students, seniors & JCC members, Show: 9 pm American Premiere and CD Release Party Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird with Beatboxer Yuri Lane Direct from Germany, and driven by Detroit-born Daniel Kahn, the group’s second CD Partisans and Parasites is an explosive mix of klezmer, radical Yiddish song, political cabaret and punk folk.
03/28/2009 Sat The Sisters of Sheynville and Gaucho, JCCSF Tix: $28 / $18 students, seniors & JCC members, Show: 8 pm West Coast Premiere. Inspired by the legendary Barry Sisters of the 30s and 40s, Canada’s Premier All-Female Swing-Klez Sextet was voted that country’s top folk vocal group in 2008.
03/29/2009, Sat Elana Jagoda, Yuri Lane, and more, JCC East Bay Show: 11 am Children's concert with Elana Jagoda, Instrument Petting Zoo, and workshops and performances with fesitval artists including a special teen program with Beatboxer Yuri Lane. $10 / $7 students & JCC members / $20 family - up to two adults and two children.
03/29/2009, Sun Brass Menazeri, JCC East Bay Show: 4 pm Finale Dance Party - the Bay Area's award-winning powerhouse Klez-Balkan brass machine closes the festival with wild rhythms, soulful vocals, and hot licks.
04/02/2009, Thu Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird, Congregation Beth Am Tix: $14 / $12 students, seniors, and JCC Members, Show: 8 pm Presented in association with the Roots Collective, a project of Congregation Beth Am
04/22/2009, Wed Third World Love, Yoshi's Show: 9 pm and 11 pm Blending African, Middle Eastern and Rock, this jazz quartet features tracks from their album Sketch of Tel Aviv, which commemorates the city’s 100th anniversary. “This band is killer. . .” -The New York Times. Presented in Partnership with the Hub and the Israel Center.
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