Album Notes

Elie Rosenblatt & Pete Rushefsky are two of the leading performers of klezmer music's next generation.

Their new CD, entitled Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music for Hammered Dulcimer & Violin, is rooted in the earliest recordings of Jewish klezmer music from the first decades of the twentieth century.

Changing musical tastes and recording technology paved the way for clarinets and jazzy brass bands to dominate American klezmer music.

However, the pairing of tsimbl (hammered dulcimer) and fidl (fiddle or violin) formed the nucleus of the older, folkier European klezmer style.

Alternatively mournful and raucous, Rosenblatt & Rushefsky provide the perfect soundtrack for your neighborhood Polish tavern or village dance.

A Montreal native, Elie Rosenblatt is one of the finest young klezmer violinists on today's scene. Elie is a graduate of New York's Yeshiva College and studies at the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University.

He is a recipient of the prestigious Marienhoff scholarship and is a faculty fiddler at the KlezKanada festival. Coming from a family that is musically inclined, Elie has sung in many choirs and has been playing violin since he was eight years old.

Pete Rushefsky is a leading revivalist of the tsimbl (cimbalom), or traditional klezmer hammered dulcimer. A string instrument played like a xylophone, the tsimbl employs over 100 strings to create a mystical harp-like sonority. It was a popular instrument in Jewish klezmer bands across Eastern Europe from the 1600's through the first decades of the twentieth century.

Today Pete Rushefsky is one of just a few brave young klezmer musicians to use archival research and fieldwork to create a performance style for the tsimbl. He performs with some of the finest practitioners of traditional klezmer music including Adrianne Greenbaum, Steven Greenman, Rebecca Kaplan, Joel Rubin and Alicia Svigals. His new Yiddishland Records release with singer/pianist Rebecca Kaplan is entitled "On the Paths: Yiddish Songs with Tsimbl." He won much critical acclaim for his CD with violinist Elie Rosenblatt entitled "Tsimbl un Fidl: Klezmer Music for Hammered Dulcimer & Violin" and he appears with clarinetist Joel Rubin and cimbalist Kalman Balogh on the CD "Midnight Prayer" (Traditional Crossroads) as well as on violinist Steven Greenman's CD of original klezmer compositions entitled "Stempenyu's Dream."

Pete can also be heard accompanying Michael Alpert and Deborah Strauss on Yiddish poet/songwriter Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman's CD "Af di gasn fun der shtot - On the Streets of the City" (Yiddishland Records) as well as clarinetist Dobe Ressler & di bostoner klezmer on the CD "Nakhes fun Klezmer." A popular instructor at KlezKamp and KlezKanada who has performed across North America and Europe, Pete is also the author of a pioneering instructional book on adapting the American 5-string banjo for klezmer.

Pete serves as Executive Director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, a New York not-for-profit dedicated to preserving and nurturing the performing arts traditions of immigrant and ethnic communities. He is a well-known lecturer on klezmer and other traditional musics and has a number of published articles to his credit.

Contact Information: Elie Rosenblatt, elrosen@aol.com, (514) 487-5456 Pete Rushefsky, prushefsky@yahoo.com, (917) 326-9659.