March 05, 2008

ISLE OF KLEZBOS at Drom NYC

www.metropolitanklezmer.com

Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies together at Drom NYC
Wednesday, March 12th
Dynamic double bill of women's bands, back by popular demand!

8:00pm - ISLE OF KLEZBOS klezmer sextet
http://myspace.com/klezbos

9:30pm - The LASCIVIOUS BIDDIES cocktail pop quartet
http://biddiesmusic.com http://myspace.com/biddies

$12 for both sets + club minimum
Drom: World Music/jazz nightclub & restaurant
85 Avenue A (near 6th St), East Village
212-777-1157
http://dromnyc.com
Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies join forces once again, premiering at Drom after their exciting musical pairing at Comix last fall. Tag-team girl-band rematch, guest Klezbian vocals by Mira Stroika!

::: Newsflash ::: Isle of Klezbos are 2008 NYSCA/LMCC Grant Award recipients from the Fund for Creative Communities! Supporting our June 9th KlezBiGay Pride show in El Sol Brilliante community garden, East Village NYC. (Please scroll down for full schedule and more info.)

Formed in 1998, Isle of Klezbos has toured North America & Europe, playing concerts from Vienna to Vancouver with many festival reprises. Their music has enjoyed world-wide airplay, OutMusic awards, critical acclaim, and appearances on Showtime's "The L Word," PBS' "In The Life," CNN "Worldbeat," and live radio from WFMU to NPR.

Among Klezbos bandmates are graduates of Juilliard, Eastman, and Manhattan Schools of Music as well as Harvard and Yale. Their individual performance resumes include onstage appearances and/or recording sessions with artists such as Rufus Wainwright, David Krakauer, Indigo Girls, Arrow, Natalie Merchant, Natalie Cole, and Bonnie Raitt, as well as experience in styles from samba to Balkan to funk, and reggae to classical to Latin jazz.

In the thrilling November 2007 double bill debut by Isle of Klezbos with The Lascivious Biddies at Comix, creative collaborations included Klezbos players sitting in on prog-rock original "Celestial Delight" by Biddies pianist/vocalist Diedre Rodman; and Biddies onstage to join in on Klezbos' grooving Latinesque Yinglish version of "Comes Love."

"Comes Love" is also the Klezbonus track on Metropolitan Klezmer's new live concert album TRAVELING SHOW, named Best of 2007 by Jewish Week and papers from coast to coast, and praised for "originality, expert musicianship and a keen world music sensibility" by All About Jazz. Isle of Klezbos' own hit CD, the OutMusic Award-nominated GREETINGS FROM THE ISLE OF KLEZBOS, prompted the UK's Phat Planet to call the sextet "one of the finest young klezmer bands ever to appear on the block." All Isle of Klezbos and Metropolitan Klezmer CDs are distributed internationally by Stern's Music (New York & London), released by Rhythm Media Records.

Isle of Klezbos "tests the elasticity of the genre" (The New Yorker), and offers "talent is as strong as its name is provocative" (Courier News). The group recently played their triumpant return engagement for Vienna's KlezMORE Festival (2007 & 2004), as well as Seattle's Bumbershoot, St Louis' Edison Theatre with Cowboy Envy, NYC's Merkin Hall with the Stonewall Chorale, Joe's Pub, BAM Cafe, Brooklyn Museum's First Saturdays, Jewsapalooza with Pharaoh's Daughter, Southpaw with Golem and Metropolitan Klezmer, The Knitting Factory with Marga Gomez' Groundhog Spectacular, and with guest star Bitch (aka Capital B) for downtown Purim shows. They are perennial favorites at Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and the National Yiddish Book Center.

ISLE OF KLEZBOS at Drom NYC, Wednesday March 12th

Pam Fleming (Hazmat Modine, Burning Spear, RadioDread) - trumpet & flugelhorn Debra Kreisberg (Los Mas Valientes, D'Tripp) - clarinet & alto saxophone Saskia Lane (The Lascivious Biddies, Dan Zanes) - upright bass Eve Sicular (Voodoobillies, Mazeltones) - drummer & bandleader with special guest Klezbians... Patrick Farrell (Panorama Jazz Band, Staggerback Brass, Veveritse) - accordion & Klezbos guest debut by singer Mira Stroika! http://myspace.com/mirastroika

Wednesday, March 12: dynamic double bill of womens bands... Isle of Klezbos & The Lascivious Biddies, rematch by popular demand! Drom NYC - Klezbos (vocalist Mira Stroika), 8pm; Biddies cocktail pop quartet, 9:30pm http://dromnyc.com

Looking ahead, METROPOLITAN KLEZMER & ISLE OF KLEZBOS Spring '08:
• Wednesday, April 9: live octet & original arrangements, plus archival sound film clips! Metropolitan Klezmer's "Music of Yiddish Celluloid" Michael Farkas (Wiyos) vocals The Museum at Eldridge Street, NYC 7pm http://eldridgestreet.org

• Sunday, April 13: Parents Weekend show Isle of Klezbos with vocalist Judith Berkson Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY, 3pm til 5pm

• Thursday, April 24: Special Pesakh show, followed by NY Gypsy All-Stars Seventh night of Passover! Drom NYC, 7:30pm Metropolitan Klezmer with vocalists Melissa Fogarty & Judith Berkson http://dromnyc.com

• Tuesday, June 3: Rain or shine, outdoors if weather permits - our 13th year here... Metropolitan Klezmer at Museum Mile Festival Free at The Jewish Museum on Fifth Avenue 6pm - 9pm http://thejewishmuseum.org

• Monday, June 9: Tenth Annual show, and NYC Pride Month tradition! Isle of Klezbos - KlezBiGay Pride, supported by The Fund for Creative Communities: funding from New York State Council on the Arts & Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Free & open to the public, El Sol Brilliante garden: E. 12th St, Ave's A/B, East Village

• Thursday, June 19: Lunchtime set Metropolitan Klezmer at Abe Lebewohl Park NYC rain or shine! Free & outdoors, front of St Mark's Church, East Village 12:30pm - 1:30pm http://thirdstreetmusicschool.org

Also coming up... • Sunday, March 23: Eve Sicular, Yiddish Celluloid Closet film clips/lecture National Yiddish Book Center, Amherst MA 2pm http://bikher.org

• Eve Sicular is an award recipient of NYC's Department of Cultural Affairs & LMCC for "J. Edgar Klezmer & Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files" at Dixon Place, late '08

International CD reviews. Metropolitan Klezmer's TRAVELING SHOW... • "A fun-filled live recording with lots of great klezmer tunes and wonderful Yiddish songs. Guys & Dolls and Bagels is an interesting attempt to make klezmer accessible to a non-klezmer literate audience." - fROOTS Magazine, UK ('thumbs up' rating)

• Traveling Show CD: "Best of 2007!" LISTS: Jewish Week NYC, Jewish Journal LA, Detroit Jewis News, Boston Jewish Chronicle

Posted by jmwc at March 5, 2008 11:57 AM