New Music From Di Grine Kuzine on Calabash Music

Funky Pukanky

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:43:06 -0600

Here's an utterly engaging music video that's a little bit Cabaret, a little bit klezmer and a whole lot of fun. It's the result of a competition to find a song that extolled the multicultural face of modern Berlin. Alexandra Dmitroff, a second generation Bulgarian who fronts the band wrote the song, and the reward was their very own video. With a little help from a girlfriend choreographer, they developed the visuals, but it's the charm of the song itself that carries it. The band's sound is a combination of Balkan, Jewish and Germanic influences. In case you are wondering 'Di Grine Kuzine' is a slang expression; it's what established Jews might call a newly arrived relative.

Feribot

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:43:06 -0600

Raucous and unruly, Feribot is not traditional music. It's more like very hip village music played by urban post modernists. As the band says in the album's liner notes: "On this ship there is room for you all."

Klezmer's Paradise

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:43:06 -0600

Somehwere in between a Balkan village orkestra, circus music, and an American klezmer bigband...