Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Yale Strom: Borsht with Bread, Brothers

333

Yale Strom: Borsht with Bread, Brothers

By

View read count
Yale Strom: Borsht with Bread, Brothers
Based largely on his many visits to Eastern Europe, violinist Yale Strom paints pictures in his music, writings and films of a pre-WWII shtetl music scene where Gypsy (Rom) and Jewish musicians slipped in and out of each other's traveling bands. This porous musical culture resulted in many of the tunes on Hot Pstromi's Borsht with Bread, Brothers.

Hot Pstromi includes an interesting mix of jazz/world musicians like Klezmatics founding drummer David Licht, accordionist Peter Stan (Slavic Soul Party) and clarinetist/saxophonist Norbert Stachel (Tower of Power). Vocalist Elizabeth Schwartz displays a wonderful appreciation for the nuances inherent in this music. Her mastery of the ornamentations is superb on selections like the movingly ethereal Hungarian Jewish folk song "Szol a Kakas Mar (The Rooster Crows Already) and an extended version of the Czarist protest song "Vemen Veln Mir Dimen, Brider (Whom Shall We Serve Brothers?). She gives an inspired performance of "Ver es Keseyder Tseyln (Who Can Count in Order?) that wonderfully portrays the genre's cantorial and badkhen (wedding jester rhymer) underpinnings. Strom's fiddle, Stachel's clarinet and Stan's accordion likewise beautifully expose the emotional depth behind the melodies of what for the most part are simple folk tunes. Strom showcases his extensive knowledge in both song selection—from travels in the Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, Germany, Russia, Poland, Romania and Moldova—and the precisely written liner notes, where songs are skillfully described with lyrics presented in both Yiddish and English.

Track Listing

Svalava Kozatshok; Mermelshteyn

Personnel

Yale Strom: violin (1-4, 6-12), hand percussion (2), vocals (6), whistling (12); Norbert Stachel: clarinet (1, 3, 12), North Indian bamboo flute (1), tenor saxophone (4, 10), E-flat clarinet (4, 8, 9), piccolo (9), penny whistle (12); Peter Stan: accordion (1, 3, 4, 8-10, 12); Roger Sprocket: bass (1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12); David Licht: percussion (1, 3, 8-10, 12); Fred Benedetti: guitar (2, 5, 6, 7, 11); Elizabeth Schwartz: vocals (3, 6, 9, 11); Tripp Sprague: hand percussion (2), flute (5, 11), tenor saxophone (7); Jeff Pekarek: bass (2, 5-7, 11), vocals (6).

Album information

Title: Borsht with Bread, Brothers | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: ARC Music

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.