Feature: Radical Klezmer Fills Volume Two
By Kapp Singer, published in Greater New Haven Arts Council
“A dense collage of Yiddish and English lyrics filled the narrow room. The bellow of an accordion pulled sounds of the tenement, sounds of the Pale, and sounds of the turn-of-the-century labor movement into the present. When Maia Brown gestured to the audience, attendees joined in with their own lai-lai-lais.
Last Thursday evening, Volume Two: A Never Ending Books Collective hosted the Seattle-based klezmer trio Brivele at its 810 State St. home, on a triple bill that also included Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps and Levoneh, the stage name of solo musician Ross Kirshenbaum. They played a diverse, genre-bending set, from canonical American tunes translated into Yiddish to anarcho-socialist Yiddish poetry translated into song.
Brivele is made up of Brown (vocals and banjo), Stefanie Brendler (vocals and accordion) and Kirshenbaum (guitar, temporarily taking the place of member Hannah Hamavid). New Haven was the third stop of the band’s East Coast tour, which will conclude in Quebec for the annual klezmer festival KlezKanada.”