![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/kosher-records.jpg\" "\\"kosher")
<\/a>Notso Kosher Records<\/p><\/div>\n
My desk<\/strong><\/span> is piled high with free CDs: Ezekiel\u2019s Wheels,<\/a> Golem<\/a>, Vulfpeck<\/a>, Winograd<\/a>, all kinds of Dutch and Polish bands, and the old standbys like Klezmer Conservatory Band<\/a> and the Klezmatics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drum roll<\/em> . . . Here are the best klezmer recordings of 2015:<\/p>\n 1. Orlando<\/em><\/strong><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span> <\/em>Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars<\/a> take us on a tour of Disney World. \u201cMickey\u2019s Philharmonic\u201d features London on electric toothbrush (pulse position). \u201cWhistle While You Work\u201d is about short people — Jewish<\/em> short people: Billy Crystal, Abe Beame and Menachem Begin, and that\u2019s just the first 30 seconds.<\/p>\n 2. I Believe in Cod<\/em>. Andy Statman<\/a> flips out. Sample lyrics: \u201cMay cod bless you and guide you. Praise cod in the high heaven and in the deep sea. Teeming oceans, fire and hail, snow and mist, storm and wind, obey cod\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n Alan Douglass, Yiddishe Cup enforcer, 2011<\/p><\/div>\n 4. <\/strong><\/span>This Can\u2019t<\/strong><\/span> Be Klezmer<\/em> by Yiddishe Cup. A musical jail complete with corporal punishment. Perfect for the heartbroken, horny and dead. Yiddishe Cup mixes barely adequate musicianship with a touch of humor. It doesn\u2019t sound like klezmer, but then what did you expect with a title like This Can\u2019t Be Klezmer<\/em>?<\/p>\n 5. Strung Out<\/em> by Pete Rushefsky<\/a>. Nothing on the 1 and 3; it\u2019s all off-beats. Drives you crazy, but in a good way. There is an after-party. You have to be in New York.<\/p>\n 6. Anti Semit<\/em><\/strong><\/span> by Michael Wex<\/a>. Sixty LOL minutes from Wex’s KlezKanada emceeing. Can anybody top Wex\u2019s Walter Brennan-is-a-Jew sketch? No.<\/p>\n 7. Odorous<\/em> by Shtreiml<\/a>. Jason Rosenblatt spent years in the lab on this one. This smells like sulfur. \u00a0Le jazz hot<\/em> — and funky — from Montreal.<\/p>\n Jack Stratton, about 2008<\/p><\/div>\n 8. Without a Net<\/em>. Vulfpeck’s Jack Stratton<\/a> uses metal parts from surgeries gone bad — mostly hip replacements — to perform Meron drum licks. Particularly good cuts: \u201cBodies Thrown Back\u201d and \u201cClarity.\u201d\u00a0 The rest of the album is pretty conventional.<\/p>\n 9. <\/strong><\/span>In the Klezmer Aisle <\/em>by Yiddish Princess<\/a>. Sarah Gordon does freestyle rapping about Kashi Autumn Wheat and Island Vanilla cereals, which leads to kishke, which leads to ka-ka. Juvenile and fun.<\/p>\n<\/a>3. The Room Where I Was Born<\/em>. Steven Greenman<\/a> recreates the sonic architecture of his Pittsburgh childhood bedroom, complete with Steelers pennants and Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> LPs. Sweaty and no A\/C.<\/p>\n