The latest review of FleytMuzik In Kontsert!:
WHAT ARTISTRY!!!! WHAT PURE MUSICIANSHIP!!! WHAT VIRTUOSITY!!! Having listened to your CD's yesterday, I cannot tell you how impressed I am! What you do is so supremely musical!!!! I cannot get over the shapings, inflections, and other elements of expressivity that are truly all-pervasive, and it is all so natural. My long list of awesome attributes must also include your rhythmicity and the vocality that deeply informs your art without a trace of contrivance. WOW! WOW IN EXCELSIS!!
Charles Olegar, organist, Great Barrington, MA
Featured Recording: Greenbaum, Adrianne: “FleytMuzik In Kontsert” (self-distributed). I recently wrote a lengthy piece on the rise of “old-world” klezmer” in which I managed to discuss at length the violin and the tsimbl and the search for new sources of repertoire without once mentioning the place of the flute in this music. This live set from Adrianne Greenbaum offers an hour’s worth of testimony to my . . . let’s call it an oversight since there may be children listening. Greenbaum probably knows as much about klezmer flute as anyone in the world today, and with nine flutes in her collection used on this set she gives a double meaning to the old jazz compliment, “she plays a lot of flute.” Excellent performances by Greenbaum, Jake Shulman-Ment, Pete Rushefsky and Brian Glassman, and a wonderful collection of new and/or unfamiliar tunes. What more could you asked for in a klezmer album? Rating: 5 stars. George Robinson/http://www.shirimkhadashim.blogspot.com/
Adrianne Greenbaum and FleyMuzik are bringing Klezmer music back to it's European Roots. Wooden flute, hammered dulcimer and percussion are the prime elements here, providing a sound that's more reminiscent of 18th Century Europe than much of the Klezmer played today. The album has a Gypsy music feel to it that recalls its Middle-Eastern roots. FleytMuzik: In Kontsert! is a collection of 31 lives songs that will cut right to heart of history.
Adrianne Greenbaum is a master on the flute, renowned in both Classical and Klezmer circles. In Kontserti is her Master Class, providing both music fans and musicians with aural food for thought. The CD opens with Sher and an opportunity for Greenbaum to show off her virtuoso flute play leading into a lilting tune that sounds almost more like an Irish Jig than anything else. Dobridyen is full of melancholy sadness and speaks of generations of suffering. Freylekhs is a frantic run, almost sounding like a chase. Other highlights include Khosidi, Rivkele's Hora, Old People's Dance, Hangul and Rumanian Sirba.
Adrianne Greenbaum speaks to the heart of European-Jewish musical tradition. Klezmer as it was played several hundred years ago is alive and well here. FleytMuzik: In Kontsert! is a musical time-trip that is well worth the venture. Wildy's World
Each of the tracks on Adrianne Greenbaum's FleytMuzik In Kontsert! brings its own particular delights, whether joyous and celebratory or contemplative, even mournful. The liturgical material is treated with greatest sensitivity and respect, and the Mourner's Kaddish somehow has a very consoling quality about it, as indeed does the Kaddishe Fantasy. I commented about Adrianne Greenbaum's original FleyMuzik album, "It is fresh, refreshing, marvelously joyous and soulful at once - it's everything the best klezmer music, and the best music per se, should be, music that not only the ears listen to but the heart as well, and music that speaks to and delights both." I find that this also sums up the current FleytMuzik In Kontsert! just about perfectly. The music ranges from exuberant and exhilarating to profoundly sad, and everything in between. The rich timbres of Ms. Greenbaum's various flutes blend beautifully with the ensemble of fidl (violin), tsimbl (cimbalom) and bass. While the wooden flutes do tend to present a slightly warmer tone than the modern silver flute, Adrianne Greenbaum here also proves that this difference is not necessarily of vast importance and that much more is down to the embouchure and general technique of the flautist. I for one doubt that all but musicians and a minority of aficionados will be able to distinguish Ms. Greenbaum's playing on any of her wooden flutes from that on her silver one. The richness and warmth that she extracts from her modern flutes are quite as phenomenal as Ms. Greenbaum is as a flautist. Rainlore's World of Music
This is Greenbaum's newest CD! Loads of dance tunes plus soulful instrumentals - all done LIVE with audience participation! Read about the artists:
Adrianne Greenbaum, vintage flutes, is highly respected as both a classical flutist and clinician, and is considered the leading klezmer flutist performing today. She is founder of two ensembles, FleytMuzik and The Klezical Tradition — in the latter she is also pianist and leader of Yiddish dance. Adrianne has been a regular member of the faculties of
Yiddish folk arts programs of KlezKamp, KlezKanada and Klezmerquerque and has presented master classes and workshops in universities and conservatories across the US and the UK.
For its European debut, her ensemble FleytMuzik was a charter performer at the KlezMore Festival in Vienna. In addition to the fine musicians heard on this “FleytMuzik In Kontsert” album, Adrianne has performed with illustrious stars of Yiddish and klezmer (Adrienne Cooper, Fraidy Katz, Ken Maltz, Joyce Rosensweig, Cookie Segelstein, Joshua Horowitz, and Stu Brotman) and has collaborated with numerous cantors as both pianist and flutist. Adrianne is also a published arranger and composer, including a two-flute-and-string orchestra score of Franz Doppler’s “Andante and Rondo”( published by International), her self-published klezmer compositions of solo flute, and a complete orchestral score of selections from FleytMuik for solo and orchestra. The Klezical Tradition’s CD “Family Portrait” earned accolades including “Top 10 CD“ designations from “Moment Magazine” and the “NY Jewish Week,” and the ensemble was featured in the ABC-TV documentary “A Sacred Noise.” Her first solo flute album “FleytMuzik: Klezmer Music for flute, violin, cimbalom and bass” received high praise, reviewers
describing her as “The Andy Statman of the Flute” and as “an
International Treasure.” The album also was nominated for Best Album in 83 countries in the Just Plain Folks Indy award. Her classical album, “Sounds of America” was featured on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”
Adrianne received her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin College Conservatory and her Master of Music from the Yale School of Music. After many years with the New York City Ballet Orchestra as well as teaching at various universities including Wesleyan and Yale, she is currently Principal Flutist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor at Mount Holyoke College. In addition to her band and solo recordings, Adrianne can be heard on The Orchestral Music of Charles Ives (Koch International), Fifty Million Frenchmen (New World), and Magdalena (CBS Masterworks). Adrianne resides in Fairfield, CT.
Jake Shulman-Ment, violin, is among the leaders of the new generation of Klezmer and Eastern European folk music performers. He has co-founded, performed, and recorded extensively throughout the United States and Europe since the age of fourteen with groups including Romashka, MetróFolk, the Klezminors, the Village Klezmer Quintet, and Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar. He has performed with such luminaries as David Krakauer, Frank London, Duncan Sheik, Alicia Svigals, Deborah Strauss, Jeff Warschauer, Adrienne Cooper, Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, Életfa Hungarian Folk Band, and many others. He co-founded and regularly performs at "Tantshoyz," the monthly Yiddish dance party at Manhattan's JCC. His wide range of styles includes klezmer, classical, Romanian, Hungarian, Gypsy, and Greek. Jake has been a faculty member of New York's esteemed Henry Street Settlement since fall 2007, as well as the Yiddish folk arts program, KlezKamp, since 2006. Jake currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Pete Rushefsky is a leading performer and teacher of the tsimbl, or small cimbalom, the traditional hammered dulcimer of klezmer music. Pete learned his craft from tsimblists Zev Feldman, Josh Horowitz, Stuart Brotman, Alexander Fedoriouk, Sotirios Chianis and Jozef Jankowski and has become a popular instructor at the KlezKamp and KlezKanada festivals. Pete performs internationally and records with a number of Yiddish music luminaries, including Michael Alpert, Bob Cohen, Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Rebecca Kaplan, Dobe Ressler, Elie Rosenblatt, Joel Rubin, Jake Shulman-Ment, Madeline Solomon, Deborah Strauss, Alicia Svigals, Asya Vaisman and Michael Winograd. Additionally, Pete serves as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, a nationally renowned not-for-profit organization that works to maintain the vibrancy of immigrant and ethnic performing arts traditions in New York City. Interested in keeping the cimbalom tradition alive and well, Pete lectures frequently and has published a number of articles on klezmer music. Pete currently resides in Manhattan.
An extremely versatile musician, bassist Brian Glassman is best known for his extensive work in fields of jazz and Jewish music. He has performed, toured or recorded with renowned artists including Lionel Hampton, John & Bucky Pizzarelli, Paquito DiRivera, Dick Hyman, Benny Golson, Dr. Billy Taylor, James Moody, Gary Burton, Benny Carter, Hal Linden, Robert Goulet, Joe Piscapo, David Murray, Andy Statman, and Frank London. Brian keeps a very busy performance and recording schedule which recently included appearances in NYC and abroad with legendary songstress Margaret Whiting as well as The Ken Peplowski Quartet. He is also featured on ‘Ani Shelach,’ an album recording by internationally known recording artist, singer/songwriter Neshama Carlebach. Brian received his B.A. in Music from Rutgers Univ. and his M.A.T. in Music Ed. from City Univ. of NY. He resides in Closter, NJ.
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