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Bio

More About Putumayo and the Artists of A Jewish Celebration

Putumayo World Music was established in 1993 to introduce people to the music of the world’s cultures. The label grew out of the Putumayo clothing company, founded by Dan Storper in 1975 and sold in 1997. In the past eighteen years, the record label has become known primarily for its upbeat and melodic compilations of great international music characterized by the company’s motto: “guaranteed to make you feel good!”

Putumayo’s CD covers feature the distinctive art of British illustrator Nicola Heindl, whose colorful, folkloric style represents one of the company’s goals: to connect the traditional and the contemporary. By combining appealing music and visuals with creative retail marketing, Putumayo has developed a unique brand identity, a rarity in today’s artist-based music industry.

Putumayo is considered a pioneer and leader in developing the non-traditional market. A large portion of its target audience consists of “Cultural Creatives,” a sociological term for 50 million North Americans and millions more around the world with an interest in culture, travel and the arts. To reach these consumers, Putumayo has built a proprietary network of more than 3,000 book, gift, clothing, coffee and other specialty retailers in the US and thousands more internationally that play and sell its CDs, in addition to maintaining a strong presence in record stores.

Dan Storper’s vision of establishing a global company and lifestyle brand is being furthered by CD distribution in more than 80 countries. The opening of Putumayo Europe in the Netherlands in 2000 enabled the company to connect with the European music and retail scene. The expansion of Putumayo International has also extended the label’s presence in South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The company now has offices in 10 countries around the world.

The Putumayo Kids division was created to introduce children to other cultures through fun, upbeat world music. Since the release of the best-selling World Playground CD in 1999, Putumayo Kids has become one of the world’s leading children’s record labels, winning critical acclaim and honors from Parents’ Choice Awards and many others. The division is expanding its globally-themed product offerings in 2011 with three fun, educational coloring books and sticker collections with African, Latin American and European themes. With its growing collection of children’s albums and other cultural products, Putumayo Kids endeavors to inspire children’s curiosity about the world.

Putumayo launched the Putumayo World Music Hour in 2000. The first commercially-syndicated world music radio show, it is now heard internationally on more than 150 commercial and non-commercial stations. Periodically, Putumayo presents thematic tours in conjunction with its CD releases. Acoustic Africa, a CD and successful international tour in 2006, returns to 32 cities in North America in 2011. Putumayo Kids has also produced several thematic tours.

The company’s commitment to helping communities in the countries where the music originates has led to the label contributing more than one million dollars to worthwhile non-profit organizations around the world.

Charitable recipients include Amnesty International, whose 50th anniversary Putumayo is commemorating via a parnership on the new Kids World Party CD, Coffee Kids, Oxfam, Mercy Corps and many more.

As international markets and consumer awareness of world music grow, Putumayo continues to develop creative ways to present exciting, underexposed global music and engaging cultural products. Please visit www.putumayo.com for more information, news and updates on Putumayo World Music, its releases and events.

ARTISTS

Abayudaya

The Abayudaya, a community of approximately 600 people living in villages surrounding Mbale in Eastern Uganda, are practicing Jews. Many members scrupulously follow Jewish ritual, observe the laws of the Sabbath, celebrate Jewish holidays, keep kosher, and pray in Hebrew. Other communities of indigenous African, such as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia and the Lemba of South Africa and Zimbabwe, claim Jewish lineage. The Abayudaya do not; their ancestors converted to Judaism in 1919. Moved by their belief in the truth of the Torah (the five books of Moses), they developed their Jewish practice and liturgy in the process of separating themselves from Christian missionary activity and British political rule.

The Abayudaya have developed a unique musical repertoire, which has grown from a variety of sources: Malakite music adapted by the community’s founder, Semei Kakungulu; liturgical selections learned from their early contacts with occasional Jewish visitors and the expatriate congregation in Nairobi; music of worship and celebration composed by Abayudaya youth in the late 1980s; and traditional and contemporary music learned by their recent contact with Jews from North America and Israel.

Abayudaya: The Music of the Jews of Uganda (Smithsonian Folkways, SFW40504) presents a unique collection of African-Jewish music in which the rhythms and harmonies of Africa blend with Jewish celebration and traditional Hebrew prayer. This compelling repertoire is rooted in local Ugandan music and infused with rich choral singing, Afro-pop, and traditional drumming. The repertoire includes lullabies, political and children's song, religious rituals, hymns, and celebratory music, with song texts in Hebrew, English, and several Ugandan languages. This singular community of African people living committed Jewish lives has survived persecution and isolation and asserts, "We have been saved by our music."

Alisa Fineman

With early roots as a folk singer in Big Sur, California, Alisa Fineman emerged as an award-winning singer/songwriter and, later, a cantorial soloist, recording and touring the country for more than 20 years.

In her community, Alisa is one of six Monterey County residents named Monterey County “Champions of the Arts” for 2011. Recently invited to perform for the annual conference of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis, she was also honored for her original Jewish music at the Shalshelet Jewish Music Festival in New York City.

Alisa and her long-time musical partner Kimball Hurd were also invited to perform at “Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival” in Israel in 2011.

In addition to touring the folk circuit, Alisa has garnered many awards for her “quietly radiant folk songs,” says Larry Kelp of KPFA, Berkeley. A nationally touring and recording artist, Alisa has performed at folk festival stages across the country such as Texas’s Kerrville Folk, Washington’s Spokane New Folk Contests, Austin’s SXSW, California Strawberry Music Festival, the Kate Wolf Music Festival, and Oregon’s Sisters Folk Festival.

Alisa has been voted “Best Folk Artist” four years in a row by Monterey County Weekly readers.

Committed to building diversity and bridges of understanding in our community, Alisa has been invited to teach Jewish music and prayer in a variety of non-Jewish settings. Her songs have been sung in congregations across the country and appeared in the film documentaries Seasons of the Soul- Holistic Teachings on the Jewish Holiday Cycle and Sulha California 2004.

Closing the Distance, Poems, Prayers & Love Songs produced by Alex de Grassi, marks a natural direction for Alisa’s musical and humanitarian sensibilities, endeavoring to inspire unity through sacred text and poetry with communities of all faiths.

Alisa has received enthusiastic international response to the CD, described as “a lush recording that highlights the wisdom teachings and beauty of Judaism for everyone and a very cool mix of the Jewish Diaspora,” by Laney Goodman of NPR’s Women in Music.

With innovative arrangements of traditional and original songs of the Jewish Diaspora, Alisa delivers “a compelling and new experience in world music for all to enjoy.” (Monterey County Weekly) “The music is as exquisite as it is sensitive,” continues KPFA’s Larry Kelp.

Alisa showcases the richness of her musical and spiritual heritage in a lush setting of world-music instrumentation with guest musicians such as Lebanese artist Elias Lammam, Sufi teacher Shabdah Kahn, Michael Mannering of Windham Hill renown and cellist Barry Phillips who tours with Ravi Shankar. “A first class recording… Alisa's luminous vocals meld with inspired musicianship on this superb albu.”states Randee Friedman of Sounds Write Productions.

Other recordings include Cup of Kindness, Better with Time and Faith In Our Love with musical partner Kimball Hurd. Their songs explore the joys and struggles that shape our lives, what it means to care well for each other and the places we live. They appear on many CD compilations.

Alisa has served as a Cantorial Soloist for Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel, California since 1998. She has been invited as guest cantor and artist-in-residence at a variety of synagogues and has offered her music in many Jewish settings and celebratory events in Northern California since 1990, including JCCs, the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, summer camps, religious schools, and homes for the elderly, and many inter-faith events.

“Congregation Beth Israel’s own musical voice has grown as we have had the privilege of working with Alisa as our Cantorial Soloist. Alisa has contributed greatly to the transformation of our Shabbat evening service, bringing her beautiful voice and soulful spirit to our new Shabbat evening worship service. She has also been integral in training our B’nai Mitzvah students, and has brought a new spirit and musicality to our children in religious school.” (Congregation Beth Israel Shofar)

Alisa was also a member of the San Francisco Bay-based vocal and instrumental band, Ya Elah!, a spiritual and interfaith ensemble endeavoring to inspire unity through sacred text led by artistic director Bon Singer and appears on their debut CD, Each of Us.

Ben Rudnick and Friends

Since the release of Emily Songs in 2000, Ben Rudnick and Friends have been playing family friendly music featuring instantly hum-able original songs and fun spins on well-known traditional material. Boasting a high level of adventurous musicianship, their award winning recordings contain a unique acoustic sound ranging from light folk to bluegrass, calypso, and rock. As Booklist Magazine said in their January 2003 issue, “What comes though is a distinct personality, far from the slick, polished anonymity found on some popular recordings for this age group.” Their exciting live shows only reinforce that observation. Drawing on the original songs and traditional material from their recordings, Ben Rudnick and Friends seamlessly integrate classic songs such as “Route 66,” “Oh Boy!,” “Jambalaya/Hey Good Looking, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and Beatles’ tunes into their sets. As Buzz McClain of the Washington Post commented “Ben Rudnick refuses to pander by making ‘children’s music,’ with the result being a disc of sophisticated melodies, precise instrumentation and witty lyrics that delight the entire family.” Since Ben Rudnick and Friends original songs aren’t overtly children’s music, and enthusiastic renditions of well known songs appeal to all, everyone in the audience from the oldest to the youngest become involved in the excitement of the moment. Joy spreads across young faces and years fade from old faces. Performances tend to be events, a slice of time where families relax and enjoy each other’s company. As Betsy Siggins Schmidt of Club Passim said, “Not only did the kids love the show, but the parents (and the grandparents) were singing and dancing as well.”

Ben Rudnick began writing family music for his daughter’s fourth birthday party. Ben Rudnick and Friends began playing these songs in libraries and on town greens and before long found themselves in much larger and more diverse venues: New York’s Lincoln Center, Boston’s Hatch Shell, repeat engagements at notable venues such as Club Passim and Café Lena, Lowell’s Boarding House Park, and theaters, museums and celebrations from Maine to Colorado.

Live Band Personnel: Arnie Ashford (bass guitar and vocals), Ben Rudnick (guitar and vocals), Dave Dillon (drum kit) and John Zevos (mandolin and vocals).

Finjan

The Canadian group Finjan performs innovative arrangements of Eastern European, klezmer, Yiddish folk and theatre tunes for appreciative audiences. Founded in Winnipeg in 1982, Finjan helped inspire a northern branch of the klezmer revival movement started by young musicians to revitalize Jewish music traditions that were in danger of being lost.

Sasha Boychouk: clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones, percussion, whistling
Shayla Fink: accordion, piano, vocals
Daniel Koulack: guitar, banjo, mandolin
Kinzey Posen: accoustic bass, vocal, whistling
Myron Schultz: clarinet, percussion, whistling
Victor Schultz: violin, mandolin

Golem

Klezmer-rock band Golem was founded by Annette Ezekiel Kogan in 2001, and since then they have become the leading re-interpreters of Yiddish and Eastern European music as well as innovators, creating new songs and pushing tradition forward into new territory. Golem performs nationally and internationally, from the east coast to the west, from Paris to to Stockholm to Warsaw. The band is at home in venues as varied as rock clubs, festivals, and theaters, and at weddings and bar mitzvahs as well. They have two albums, “Fresh Off Boat” and “Citizen Boris” released on independent Jewish label, Jdub Records. Golem is known for its theatricality and fearless wild energy, combined with love and reverence for tradition.

Julie Silver

Julie Silver is one of the most celebrated and beloved performers in the world of contemporary Jewish music today. She tours throughout the world, and has been engaging audiences with her lyrical guitar playing, her dynamic stage presence, and her megawatt smile for over 25 years.

Although she resides in Southern California, Julie’s roots are deep in New England. She was raised in Newton, Massachusetts and by the time she was 18, she was leading raucous song sessions throughout the Reform Jewish movement and playing coffeehouses in and around Boston. Eventually, she would become one of the most sought-after song leaders in the country. She graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and was selected by her senior class to deliver the commencement address and sing an original song at Graduation in May, 1988. It was her first audience of thousands—the first of many.

After college, Silver landed a job as an on-air personality at WMJX, Magic 106.7 in Boston, the number one adult contemporary radio station in the city. She started as an overnight DJ, and quickly became the weekend host of “Bedtime Magic”, a show that consistently hovered at the top of the Boston radio market. It was a natural fit for Silver who has impeccable comic timing as well as a silky-smooth speaking voice.

However it was her singing voice, her overwhelming desire to play her own music that would eventually take center stage. Silver moved to Santa Monica in June of 1994 to continue writing and recording. By the time she released her first album, Together, Silver was stepping confidently into the national spotlight—a place where she shines most brightly to this day.

Without backing from a major label, Julie has sold more than 100,000 copies of her CDs. She released four highly successful albums of original Jewish music on the Sounds Write record label between 1992 and 2000 (Together, From Strength to Strength, Walk With Me, Beyond Tomorrow). Her Jewish songs have become so tightly woven into the fabric of American Judaism that they have become “standards” in worship, camp, and academic settings.

In 2002 Julie released Notes from Montana, a collection of original folk/rock songs that featured a duet with the Academy Award winning actress Helen Hunt. Julie’s children’s CD, For Love to Grow, was released in spring 2005 and quickly honored as a Parents’ Choice Blue Ribbon Recommended work. The honor is especially sweet for Julie, who recorded this beautiful CD as a tribute to her childhood music teacher, the prolific Boston-based composer, Aline Shader. It’s Chanukah Time, was recorded in 2007, and was the first Jewish holiday CD produced exclusively for the Barnes and Noble bookstore chain. It was also the ONLY Jewish album to ever be recognized on Billboard, peaking at #5 in 2009.

Julie’s latest release, Reunion is a collection of twelve “songs from a faithful heart” that reflect Julie’s journey over the last ten years. Reunion features a mix of new liturgical settings (“Dodi Li,” “R’faeinu,” “Halleluyah (Psalm 150)”) and narrative story-songs with smart, sophisticated lyrics in English (“Monica’s Chair,” “The Barefoot Sisters”). As a bonus, Julie includes a cover of Carole King’s classic “Been To Canaan.” Produced and arranged by Julie’s longtime collaborator, David Kates, this collection of songs is sure to resonate with your journey as well.

These days, Silver is focused on traveling the world, mentoring up-and-coming singer-songwriters, participating in Social Justice projects and making the Jewish experience more meaningful. “I try to enhance the way people experience Judaism by adding my own take on our sacred texts” Silver says. “I also want people who have historically been marginalized to feel included in the Jewish community or in any community and to be encouraged to tell their stories and live their lives openly. Our tradition compels us to express ourselves…our joys, our hopes, our faith and our fears. The only path to healing is through sharing our stories with one another. As a songwriter, I just write and sing what I feel and hope it resonates with people”

Julie plays regularly for The World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), Limmud UK, the largest European Jewish convention held in England, and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) throughout North America. She also performs for The National Council of Jewish Women, American Jewish World Service, and “wherever and whenever I can be of service”, Silver says.

During the summer of 2011, Julie sang the National Anthem before 38,000 fans at her beloved Fenway Park in Boston, a dream come true for a life-long Red Sox fan. A published author, Julie’s latest essay, “From Exile to Redemption” is included in the forthcoming anthology, “Dancing at the Shame Prom” (Seal Press, September 2012). Additionally, Julie made her acting debut in the feature film, Then She Found Me, in a scene opposite Bette Midler in 2008.


Silver lives in Southern California with her partner Mary Connelly, the Executive Producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and their two miraculous daughters, Sarah and Catherine.

Karsten Troyke

...singer, speaker and actor, song-writer with a strangely husky voice. He is well-known at home and abroad above all for his rendering of Yidish songs. On his more recent tours he has included chansons by Georg Kreisler, Hermann Leopoldi and others. He has participated in radio plays, worked as Voice for advertising and synchronisation and acted in very varying stage plays. As an ambassador of Yiddish song art he went to many countries as such as Poland, France, Norway, Belgium, Danmark, Sweden, Croatia, Israel, USA and more... The songs he has written himself, and songs in Yiddish and German can be heard on several CDs.

Kayama

Mikael Zerbib is the artist behind Kayama. Born in Bordeaux, France, he joined the Diaspora Yeshiva in Jerusalem seeking enlightenment and spirituality. His exploration of the Torah and the Talmud led him early on to dedicate himself to researching and mastering the knowledge of the Soul. While in yeshiva, he was part of the Diaspora Yeshiva Band with whom he performed all over Israel.

He has been a Reggae fan since his youth, feeling uniquely connected to the melodies of Bob Marley, Steel Pulse and many other reggae artists.

The title "Mussareggae" means Reggae with Ethics, songs advocating integrity in relationships with others, and above all, acknowledging "Your Neighbor" as in "Love your neighbor like yourself".

King Django

King Django is internationally loved and respected as an important proponent of Jamaican and Jamaican-influenced music. With a career now spanning nearly three decades he has made his mark as an influential bandleader, singer, songwriter, arranger, engineer, producer and musician, especially in the genres of ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and even hardcore/punk rock, touring many times throughout the US, Europe, Canada, and Japan as the leader of Stubborn All-Stars, Skinnerbox and the King Django band and as a sideman with such renowned acts as Rancid, Murphy’s Law, The Slackers and the Toasters. He currently performs regularly with the King Django X-tet and Bad Luck Dice.

In 1997 he assembled the Version City recording studio which rapidly became the hub of the NYC ska and reggae scene. Django moved the studio to New Brunswick, NJ in 2000, where he continues his engineering and production work for a wide roster of international clients. In 2012 he celebrated the 20th anniversary of his independent label, Stubborn Records and the 5th year anniversary of his “Version City” vinyl label based in Kingston, Jamaica.

Klezmer Conservator Band

From the shtetls of Eastern Europe, through the emigration to America, from the jazz clubs of cities and the stages of Yiddish theater comes the music of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Klezmer music began in medieval Europe, where bands of itinerant Jewish musicians went from town to town playing for Jewish festivals and special events. By the 19th century, klezmer music had become a well-developed musical style, taking its inspiration not only from the synagogue, but from the non-Jewish culture that surrounded it. In America, immigrant Jewish musicians adapted this music to the new rhythms and instruments they found, creating new klezmer forms. Until the 1940's, klezmer orchestras flourished, but with the new styles of music, and the immigrant Jews' desire to appear "American," the klezmer tradition faded. Today, however, a klezmer revival is in full swing, with the Klezmer Conservatory Band playing a prominent role. Fueled by a desire to return to his roots, and the inherent appeal of the music, Hankus Netsky, the band's founder, discovered that both a grandfather and an uncle were in Philadelphia klezmer orchestras in the 1920's. In 1980, while an instructor at the New England Conservatory of Music, he formed the band.

Since its formation in 1980 the KCB has performed concerts from coast to coast. In April of 1990, the Klezmer Conservatory Band made its debut tour abroad, performing several concerts in Germany and giving a remarkable performance at the first-ever International Yiddish Festival in Krakow, Poland. The band has toured Europe regularly, and has also appeared at Australia's Adelaide Festival, New Zealand's International Festival of the Arts and Womad.

The band has made numerous appearances on Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor. In 1994 the band performed with Joel Grey in his recreation of Mickey Katz’s Borscht Capades and appeared in a PBS special with renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman called In the Fiddler's House, filmed in Krakow, Poland and New York. The program traced the Klezmer roots of Perlman's artistry and featured the soulful sounds of the KCB. A joint recording on EMI was released in the fall of 1995 (live version was released in the fall of 1996), and "In the Fiddler's House" concerts were performed in major venues, including Wolftrap, Great Woods, Radio City Music Hall, the Ravinia Festival, the Saratoga Music Festival, and the Mann Music Center (Philadelphia). In December of 2002 the Klezmer Conservatory Band performed a concert of orchestral arrangements of klezmer and Yiddish vocal music with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

KCB has the following recordings: Yiddishe Renaissance, Klez, and A Touch of Klez on the Vanguard label; Oy Chanukah, A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden, Old World Beat, Live! The Thirteenth Anniversary Album, Dancing in the Aisles andthe highly acclaimed Dance Me to the End of Love on Rounder Records.Their 10th album, A Taste of Paradise was released in November of 2003. The band was featured in the 1988 documentary film, A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden and was also featured in the film Enemies, A Love Story. The KCB filmed a children's video for Rabbit Ears Productions entitled “The Fool and the Flying Ship,” with narration by Robin Williams and an original score composed by Hankus Netsky, which aired nationwide on Showtime Cable Network.

Klezmer Juice

Klezmer Juice is the new generation of jewish Soul musicians. Torchbearers of an ancient tradition craft that unites generations in spirit. Fresh interpretations of traditional tunes, such as Papirosn, Ot Azoi, Zemer Atik, Eli Eli, Donna Donna, among others, capture the heart of a new generation of fans.

The average age for the members of the band is 30; they are based in Los Angeles, California, but come from various different parts of the world.

Bandleader and clarinet player Gustavo Bulgach was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, learning Klezmer music from his family at a young age. He adds the original and soulful sound of the traditional Klezmer clarinet, that “laughing-crying Yiddish soul”. Many great things have been said about Gustavo’s playing, but we think that the music speaks for itself…

In 2004, Klezmer Juice worked in the New Line Cinema’s new comedy movie called The Wedding Crashers starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Christopher Walken. The movie was released in the spring of 2005. Their version of “Hava Nagila” is to be included in the soundtrack CD.

Klezmer Juice are also the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance house band and they have participated in many many community events.

Simka

Simka’s name was chosen from the Hebrew word for celebration. The band has been playing at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, parties, and charity events in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1995. Besides klezmer music, the band’s repertoire includes, European Cafe Music, swing, tangos, polkas, and bluegrass.

Band originators Leta Davis (violin) and Andy Weinberger (guitar), as well as drummer David Ross, live in Sonoma. Leta is classically trained and went outside the lines later on. Andy, on guitar, moved from the East Coast to open a bookstore in Sonoma, and he brought with him a genetic disposition for klezmer and jazz. David, besides being a versatile drummer, is also a classical pianist. Bass player Blair Hardman is a local legend and rocks the root of the band.

Ruth showed up on Simka's doorstep versed in French, Italian and polka music. She has since mastered the exciting rhythms and textures of klezmer music, while also slyly weaving in the smooth romance of French and Italian tunes which are so appealing on the accordion. The chemistry of the band has never let up.

“The real signature of our band,” says Leta, “is that we have a great time playing this music together. We are happy when we play! That’s why we chose the name Simka.“The band has a great chemistry, and anyone listening to their CD, Café Society, can hear that in a second". find us at SimkaSonoma.com

Bie Mir Bistu Shein was made famous by the Andrews Sisters as a vocal. The title refers to the a great looking woman in yiddish. We do it as an instrumental here.

Vira Lozinsky

Vira Lozinsky, one of today's outstanding Yiddish singers,blends her singing with a variety of musical styles from East European folk (Klezmer, Gypsy, Romanian, Russian) to South American Tangos. An enchanting performer in every way, Vira’s mellifluous alto voice is powerful, warm, expressive, and pure.

Vira was born in 1974 in Beltz, Moldova (Bessarabia), to a family of Jewish artists. Vira started playing the violin at the age of six, but her real passion was always singing. As a child she was exposed to the cultures and musical styles of different ethnic groups living in Moldova like Moldovan/Romanians, Jews, Roma, Russians and others.


After moving to Israel at age 16, she earned her BA in Musicology and Yiddish literature at Bar-Ilan University. In 2000 she graduated with honors from the vocal program of Israel’s prestigious Rimon school of Jazz & Contemporary Music. Vira Lozinsky has performed at theatres and festivals throughout Israel, Europe, North and South America.


Her performances were broadcast on Arte TV , Israel's channel 2 and radio channels CBC (Canada), Deutsche Welle (Germany) and others.