The Klezmatics & Mostly Kosher
Toward the Light Hanukkah Tour
THU, DEC 12, 2024 AT 8PM
A double-bill treat with the bands Klezmatics and Mostly Kosher! For nearly 40 years, the Grammy Award-winning “Jewish roots band” the Klezmatics have inspired generations and helped to change the face of contemporary Yiddish culture with their music. Special guest Aani Kisslinger joins the Klezmatics. This evening of song also includes Mostly Kosher, the acclaimed klezmer-rock band whose original voice resounds with themes of social justice, human dignity, and mutual understanding. A night of joyous song and superb musicianship!
The Klezmatics, above. Mostly Kosher, below.
The Klezmatics, photo credit Adrian Buckmaster
Mostly Kosher
New York’s own Klezmatics return to the road this December for Toward the Light, this year’s celebration of Hanukkah centered around the marriage of their soulful and ebullient melodies to American folk icon Woody Guthrie’s playful and poignant lyrics. In 1942, Woody moved to Brooklyn, New York, and soon, through raising his three children and inspired by his mother-in-law, the Yiddish poet and social activist Aliza Greenblatt, became involved with the Coney Island Jewish community. He wrote songs about Hanukkah, Jewish history and spiritual life. After his death in 1967, these treasures lay forgotten in boxes for almost thirty years, until they were rediscovered by Woody’s daughter, Nora. A chance encounter with the Klezmatics at the Tanglewood music festival inspired her to ask the band to write new music for her father’s unsung words, which resulted the acclaimed album Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah. This delightful collection of songs, including “Hanukkah’s Flame,” “Hanukkah Gelt,” “Honeyky Hanukkah” and the title tck, is among the best of Woody’s work and the Klezmatics’ musical settings have become an perennial addition to the Hanukkah song tradition. For this year's tour, the band will play additional holiday material and revisit gems from their nearly 40-year musical journey, inspired by the universal hope for the restoration of light and peace around the world. Additionally, the band is planning the release of a new Happy Joyous Hanukkah EP, featuring recently unearthed recordings of their favorite songs along with cover versions by other artists.
More about the band
The legendary New York Yiddish band The Klezmatics has changed the face of contemporary Jewish culture through their uniquely original and expansive work in the fields of klezmer music and Yiddish song, blending klezmer’s aching East European Jewish tunes with raucous Latin stomps, wild jazz riffs and provocative Balkan, Middle Eastern, African and American rhythms. Their career achievements span 13 full-length recordings, countless international concert tours and festivals across five continents, and collaborations with renowned icons of music, theater, television, radio, cinema and dance. The Klezmatics are the subject of an acclaimed documentary film (On Holy Ground) and the recipients of numerous international accolades, including a 2006 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. During their 35-plus years together the Klezmatics have collaborated with such brilliant artists as violinist Itzhak Perlman, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and Israeli vocal icon Chava Alberstein, plus many other prominent artists working within multiple genres.
Joining The Klezmatics is special guest Aani Kisslinger. Aaron "Aani" Kisslinger (they/them) is a vocalist, brass player, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and writer born and raised in NYC. Drawing on their upbringing in the lineages of Klezmer and Balkan Brass, they explore the connection between Jewish, Romani, Ottoman, and Arabic musics. They are the force behind solo ElectraBrassPop project AANI, bandleader of Novi Hitovi Brass Band and Dancing Divas Brass Band, a member of Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass, Stoop Kidz Brass Band, Git Azoy Klezmer Collective, and queer/trans Salsa band Las Mariquitas, and a regular horn player with Slavic Soul Party!, EMEFE, High and Mighty Brass Band, and more.
More about the tour and the band
Mostly Kosher, the acclaimed Klezmer/Rock band, radically reconstructs Judaic and American cultural music through ravenous klezmer beats and arresting Yiddish refrains. Mostly Kosher is a musical feast that explodes into a global food-fight of Jazz, Latin, Rock, and Folk. In response to the poetry and folk music of Judaic roots, their original voice resounds with themes of social justice, human dignity, and mutual understanding. Led by frontman Leeav Sofer, one of Jewish Journal’s “30 under 30” most accomplished professionals in the Los Angeles Jewish diaspora, Mostly Kosher is comprised of some of the highest regarded Los Angeles musicians: violinist Janice Mautner Markham, drummer Eric Hagstrom, bassist Adam Levy, singer and keyboardist Stephanie Meyers, accordionist Nigel Wilson, trombonist Bob Lawrence, and Ben Tevik on clarinet and sax.
The ensemble has headlined multiple summer festivals including the Silicon Valley Jewish Music Festival and Claremont Folk Festival. Mostly Kosher had the honor of being the first Jewish music ensemble at the Disney parks with 2022 marking their sixth season performing during the 2-month long Festival of Holidays. Mostly Kosher was credited for “stealing the Festival of Holidays Show” by the acclaimed Fresh Baked Disney podcast. For the 2017 holiday season, Mostly Kosher added Epcot Center in Florida to their list of holiday performance venues, becoming Disney’s first Jewish cultural music performed on both coasts.
The band’s self-titled debut album has won international acclaim by World Music Network, Songlines Magazine, and BBC radio. The first track, Ikh Hob Dikh Tsufil Lib (I Love You Much Too Much), was recognized as one of World Music Network’s Top 6 Songs of 2014.
