Klezmer music is the difficult bastard child of all world music genres. Taking Jewish liturgical music, local folk dances, Hasidic nigunnim, and Turkish classical theory and mashing it into a Yiddish aesthetic, Klezmer has never produced a marketable “star” in the genre, especially one who would appeal to people under the age of 70.
Until, maybe, now.
Josh Dolgin, the Montreal based DJ, beat box genius, Klezmer accordionist, (and magician and film animator) has been an underground star in Jewish music for about five years. With his new Cd “Ghettoblaster” coming out on JDub records, Dolgin – known as DJ Socalled – is finally breaking out of the ghetto of Klezmer festivals and getting wider attention.
Dolgin is from Montreal, a town where Yiddish – thanks to Quebec’s French chauvinist language laws – is still spoken by young, non-religious Jews. A self taught pianist, Dolgin collected old records for mixing samples, and fell in love with the Yiddish music of the 1950s and 60s, eventually seeking out and recording with Theodore Bikel and pianist Irving Fields – exactly the “schmaltz” and kitsch that the other revival Klezmer singers had rejected. Clarinetist David Krakauer, discovered Dolgin at the Canadian KlezKanada music camp and took him touring, where Dolgin’s amazing live DJ and beat box skills earned him a following, especially in France. Sophie Solomon tapped him for her “Hip-Hop Khassene” CD on Berlin’s Piranha label, and since then Socalled has become one of Canada’s hottest music exports. But nothing had been released in the USA until JDub, hurting from the loss of star Matisyahu, signed him on to produce Ghettoblaster.
Ghettoblaster has Josh singing his beloved old Lubavitch niggunim, mixing Theo Bikel’s deep rich theater voice with snips of Wu-Tang clansman Killer Priest, turning the old Yiddish theater song “Balebuste Geys in Drerd” into a funk party anthem. “Slaughter Freestyle” morphs from a sentimental Yiddish ballad into a Hungarian Transylvanian “lassu” thanks to the kontra playing of Di Naye Kapelye’s Puma (Dolgin recorded with Di Naye Kapelye for their still unreleased CD “Traktorist”… he fell in love with the kontra sound and took Puma into the studio one afternoon to record extra tracks.
Last fall Dolgin and his family organized a two week heritage boat cruise on the Dnieper River in the Ukraine, visiting his family’s roots along with an all star collection of Klezmer musicians, all of which was documented by a Canadian Film board film crew. Except for a short set at last year’s A38 Klezmer festival, Josh hasn’t played Budapest yet – although he has visited while traveling through Europe. He’s had a beer in the Siraly, checked out the scene at the Szimpla kert, bought used records at Oktagon. The next time he visits he won’t be so invisible.
De hát már tökrég ott az Oivavoi, a triphopos klezmerjével, az szerintem az még jobb is.
A Ghetttoblaster annyira nem new, tavalyi. Es volt mar neki, az annyira allitolag nem jo, The Socalled Seder: a Hip-Hop Haggadah. A Khasene tortenetet biztos jobban tudja Bob Cohen, de azert az Solomon and Socalled neven fut, szoval nem teljesen ‘her’ album, ha megnezi az ember a zeneszerzoket plane…
Ja, es ahogy azt valamikor Shadaijal megtargyaltuk a ZSKF-A38-buli (ami nagyon jo volt) ket eve esett meg, akkor meg meg nem is volt Siraly.
Viszont a klipet nem ismertem, pedig a kedvenc szamom a Ghettoblasterrol.
pb:
A Ghettoblaster (viszonylag) új – határozottan idei: a hivatalos megjelenés 2007. június 12-én volt. A videóklip viszont vadiúj, ezen a héten jelent meg a JDub-on.
A Sirályos sztorit félreértetted: “Except for a short set at last year’s A38 Klezmer festival, Josh hasn’t played Budapest yet – although he has visited while traveling through Europe.” Ez azt jelenti, hogy az A38-as bulin kíül nem lépett fel még Budapesten, bár járt itt azóta is – amikor is benézett a Sirályba.
Szép hetet!