Hot Pstromi

So, over at Congregation Adas Emuno last Friday night we were fortunate to have with us special musical guests Yale Strom and his klezmer band, Hot Pstromi.

Klezmer is the soul music for Ashkenazic Jews, that is, Yiddish-speaking Jews originating from Germany and Eastern Europe (that includes me, in case you were wondering).  Oy!  And in recent years, klezmer has become popular outside of Jewish circles as a distinctive type of ethnic music, and insofar as it crosses various cultural boundaries, a kind of world music.  Anyway, don't ask me, go ask Mr. Wikipedia if you want to know more:  Klezmer entry.

 So, I did up a bunch of blog posts about Yale and his band over on the Adas Emuno blog, and I thought I'd put together the highlights for you in a single post here on Blog Time Passing. 

So, let's take a listen, shall we?  Here's a video courtesy of JLTV's YouTube channel.

That's Yale Strom on violin, Elizabeth Schwartz singing and Lou Fanucchi on accordian performing "Ben Avrameni".  And here's some more Hot Pstromi, performing "Getshinke" with traditional Yiddish lyrics set to music by Mr. Strom:

And here they'e performing Avram Goldfadn's "Rozhinkes Mit Mandln":

And this is "Shpilt Mir Op Dem Naye Sher," a traditional Yiddish piece:









And for one more helping of Hot Pstromi, here's Yale Strom on violin, with friends, playing klezmer music at Festival Zachor in Białystok, Poland:

You might say he played Bialystock to the max--unless he brooks no puns...  And before we leave good old Bialystock, here's an interview with Yale Strom about klezmer music, and bringing the old country back to the old country:





This just gives you a taste of the performance Yale and his band served up for us last Friday night, but it left me saying, klezmer bist du schoen (if the Andrews Sisters reference doesn't do it for you, then, well, oy!).