Beyond the Pale (Brave Old World album) explained
| Beyond the Pale |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Brave Old World |
| Cover: | Beyond the Pale (Brave Old World album).jpg |
| Released: | 1994 |
| Genre: | Klezmer |
| Label: | Rounder[1] |
| Producer: | Frank Dostal |
| Prev Title: | Klezmer Music |
| Prev Year: | 1990 |
| Next Title: | Blood Oranges |
| Next Year: | 1999 |
Beyond the Pale is an album by the klezmer band Brave Old World, released in 1994.[2] [3] The album title refers to the Pale of Settlement.[4]
Production
The album was produced by Frank Dostal. It contains original songs as well as interpretations of traditional Yiddish songs.[5] Founding member Joel Rubin departed the band prior to the recording sessions.[6] The opening and closing tracks, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, were written in 1990.[7] [8]
"Rufn Di Kinder Aheym" ("Calling the Children Home") was inspired by the New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden.[9] A cimbalom was employed on "Yismekhu".[10] "Di Sapozhkelekh" used the Misheberak scale.[3] Leon Schwartz taught the band a few of Beyond the Pales songs.[11]
Critical reception
The Globe and Mail wrote that "the dance tunes are as irresistible as ever, but the underlying spirit is not chutzpah or even nostalgia so much as a deep sadness and urgent compassion."[12] The Washington Post concluded that "much of the recording might be described as a meditation on the art of playing klezmer music in the Berlin of the 1990s, and the mixed feelings such an experience would necessarily call up."[13]
AllMusic called the album "appropriately reflective klezmer from Germany, where even the high-spirited freylekhs have a somber edge and Kurt Bjorling's probing clarinet is part accusatory finger, part triumph of intellect and love over will."
Notes and References
- Book: Strom, Yale. The Book of Klezmer: The History, the Music, the Folklore. April 19, 2011. Chicago Review Press.
- Book: Wood, Abigail. And We're All Brothers: Singing in Yiddish in Contemporary North America. April 8, 2016. Routledge.
- Book: Mazal Tov, Amigos! Jews and Popular Music in the Americas. Amalia. Ran. Moshe. Morad. January 12, 2016. Brill.
- Book: Rogovoy, Seth. The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music, from the Old World to the Jazz Age to the Downtown Avant-garde. January 1, 2000. Algonquin Books.
- Book: American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots. August 19, 2002. University of California Press.
- Davidow . Ari . Klezmer! — Beyond the Pale by Brave Old World . Whole Earth Review . Fall 1995 . 87 . 92.
- News: Dempsey . Dale . Klezmer Music: Jewish Genre Given Rebirth in Germany . Dayton Daily News . June 9, 1996 . 1C.
- News: Mills . Kathleen . Brave Old World works to transform tradition . The Herald-Times . July 5, 1996 .
- News: Kreiswirth . Sandra . A Touch of Klez – An Eastern European tradition puts down strong roots in America . Daily Breeze . April 11, 1997 . K22.
- Baade . Christina L. . Jewzak and Heavy Shtetl: Constructing Ethnic Identity and Asserting Authenticity in the New-Klezmer Movement . Monatshefte . Summer 1998 . 90 . 2 . 210. University of Wisconsin Press.
- Book: World Music: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific . 1999 . Rough Guides Ltd . 590.
- News: Bernstein . Tamara . Recordings . The Globe and Mail . 22 July 1994 . C1.
- News: Page . Tim . Klezmer: Revival of the Traditionalists . The Washington Post . 9 June 1996 . G1.
