Crossroads Ensemble

Music Samples:

• Beer Besade
• Frevo
• Los Bilbilicos
  

7:30pm doors
Thursday 11.10.05



1638 W. Belmont, Chicago (MapQuest)
In Lakeview @ Ashland and Lincoln
2 blocks from Paulina 'L' stop
Ample street parking and Belmont Bus access

presented as part of

Award winning instrumentalists Juancho Herrera of Caracas Venezuela and Mattan Klein of Jerusalem, Israel were born over 6000 miles apart. Their roads, however, have crossed in the U.S.A. and their musical and cultural backgrounds created the foundation for one of the most exquisite world-music collaborations in North America. Juancho and Mattan's love and admiration for each other's musical tradition and rich religious culture brought together two of New York's busiest composers and performers to create a true world-music cross-over project, which involves Latin, Jewish, Brazilian, Ladino, Jazz and Funk elements, but all the while preserves the innovative voices they both carry as representatives of their nations.

Ben Zwerin, bass, was born in Paris, France. His incredible knowledge of music from South America, Africa and the Middle East, in addition to his experience as a leading Jazz artist on the New York scene make him a unique addition to the ensemble's sound. Being the son of Jazz legend Mike Zwerin (played with Miles Davis, Eric Dolphy and many more), Ben has absorbed a wide range of influences into his performance.

Mathias Kunzli, percussion, is one of the busiest drummers/percussionists in New York. He is a recording artist with the John Zorn Tzadik label, and performed with figures such as Yo Yo Ma Silk Road Project, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Randy Brecker, Oscar Castro-Neves, John Zorn’s Electric Masada, Bob Berg, Bobby Watson, Paul Winter Consort, Dave Samuel and many more. Mathias specializes in music from South America and the Middle East.

World Music Festival: Balkan Beat Box & Golem @ Wild Hare

Blue Fringe and Heedoosh @ Martyr's Live

appearing with

Blue Fringe is one of the hottest Jewish rock bands around, having just released their second album, 70 Faces. Their style incorporates influences such as the Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay and John Mayer, and their popularity has seen them tour all across North America and in Israel and Australia, regularly performing for sellout crowds of 1,000 and up. mp3: Kacha Lo

As its name implies, Heedoosh is something of a musical revelation. Its soul-searching themes are unafraid to question foundations of faith, nor long for redemption. Influenced by Stone Temple Pilots, Oasis and Radiohead, Heedoosh reaches out to the unknown for answers with sacred songs combined with contemporary Hebrew verse and gilded with true rock edge. Their style is a new discovery on an ancient text: a Heedoosh. Sound Sample: Lev Tahor


Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

SoCalled @ Crush

Hard Rockin' Hamentashen: Moshe Skier Band @ Subterranean

featuring

plus special guests

Moshe Skier Band

A power rock trio performing original Jewish music in a classic rock style. In addition to their searing original songs, the trio covers well known traditional melodies with spare, bluesy arrangements. The rock trio's razor- sharp edge emanates from guitarist Mendy Appel's blistering technique, hailed by Yossi Piamenta as "Amazing!" The band is led by bassist Moshe Skier, formerly of Shlock Rock and Kabbalah and rounding out the outfit is Dan Lawitt's precise percussion. The Moshe Skier Band will rip through your notions of Jewish music and rock you until you can't tell the difference between Mordechai and Haman. Hear their music:

• Gesher Tzar Meod

• Shma Yisroel

• Carlebach/Jeff Beck Jam

• Amar HaShem

• Shoshanas Yakov

Ari Ben Moses Band Reggae bass lines, Latin beats, Middle Eastern and traditional Jewish scales are punctuated by gritty funk grooves with this rock & world beat act. Hear their music: On That Day

Heedoosh (Israeli rock band) The Purim Song

9:00pm - 1:00am Saturday, March 26th @

2011 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park (map it)

(at Milwaukee and Damen) 21+ venue

Tickets: $15 on secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

Cleetus Friedman: White Like Me @ Strawdog Theatre

It's Pikesville, MD, 1979 - a middle to upper-class Jewish suburb of Baltimore where boys grow up and become doctors or lawyers, buy a house close to their parents, and produce a family to repeat the cycle. But 10- year old Cleetus Friedman is different. His parents are divorced. He listens to different music. All his friends are black. He watches black TV. His sister doesn't get him. His mother is in denial. Then he hears Rapper's Delight' by Sugar Hill Gang, and all bets are off: he's gone to rap.

White Like Me is a hip-hop autobiography told by Cleetus Friedman with musical accompaniment by DJ Sapien that loosely mirrors the iconoclastic "Lech Lecha" story of Abraham the patriarch. As Friedman leaves his father's house to a land and culture unknown, he smashes preconceived notions in order to "go to himself. " In this unique performance, Friedman weaves together character sketches, monologues and narrative raps like a Jewish John Leguiziamo to tell his own sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking story. It's a modern coming of age story about Jewish man finding himself, finding the beat, and following his dreams. Here a little sample: JewPac.

@ Strawdog Theatre in Lakeview, 3829 N. Broadway in Chicago (Directions/Parking)

Tickets: $15 on safe, secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

The Afro-Semitic Experience @ HotHouse

The Afro-Semitic Experience is a jazz ensemble dedicated to preserving, promoting and expanding the rich cultural and musical heritage of the Jewish and African diasporas. This is a band that can present interpretations of music from traditions as rich as Gospel, Klezmer, Niggunim, Spirituals, and Swing- all within the same tune. That's the Afro-Semitic Experience- a group as comfortable playing a bulgar as swingin' a blues, that knows how to play a freylakh or some funk.

African-American jazz pianist Warren Byrd, and Jewish-American jazz bassist David Chevan combine their talents to fuse centuries-old melodies, selecting pieces from their respective traditions that speak to the soul and that emphasize and reveal the similarities at the heart of the passions, suffering and joys of these two worlds.

"A brilliant piano-bass duo reading of tunes from the Jewish and African-American sacred traditions and easily the best record this year. Warm, intelligent and swinging..." The NY Jewish Week

"A hauntingly effective balance between parallel cultural traditions..." Jazz critic Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune

Sound Clips:

• Let Us Break Bread Together

• Oseh Shalom (take 2)

• Eliyahu HaNavi

• Soon I Will Be Done

Avoid lines and sellout crowds with secure online ticketing. Click on PayPal or Ticketweb to buy advance tickets:Avoid lines and sellout crowds with secure online ticketing.

Tickets: $15 on secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

KNISHMAS @ Hothouse

Do you wish Hanukah wasn’t so early this year?

Not joining in any Reindeer games?

Lonely Jew on Christmas?

Not gettin’ any… gelt?

Bah Humbug!

Fellow Hebrews and Shebrews, have yourself a
Merry Little Knishmas at a rockin’ mini-festival

of contemporary Jewish culture on the
least Jewish night of the year.

NYC’s hottest Jewish rocker's Kacha Lo “Sounds like John Mayer, only… circumcised.” “A cultural phenomenon” Jewsweek
Folk rockers Evën Sh’Siyah's Mi Hu Zeh “Jewish Allman Brothers” JUF News
Human BeatBox Yuri Lane's Mix It Up (From Tel Aviv to Ramallah) “A Must See…” San Francisco Bay Guardian
Farbrengiton's I am a Jew “Garage band, Chabad House & Commune rolled up into one.”
Listen Up! Jewish Acapella's Tum Balalaika “Redefining musical rules” Chicago Tribune

$20 door, $18 advance tickets using

Tickets: $15 on secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

RebbeSoul Returns @ Beth Emet The Free Synagogue

This exciting percussion trio blends world music rhythms and traditional Hebrew lyrics and melodies for an ageless, yet pulsing progressive sound. RebbeSoul performs melodies heard throughout the Jewish world, from Sephardic piyutim to Lubavitch Hasidic niggunim to tunes from the Carlebach songbook, mixing mesmerizing percussive beats, Mizrahi chant, and the exotic sounds of balalaika, cajon and darbouka.

Hear the Music:

• Esa Enai (Carlebach)
• Tzamah L'Cha Nafshi (Lubavitch)
• Kaddish (Rebbesoul)
• Rock Of Ages (Trad.)
  
• Eliyahu (Rebbesoul)
• Avinu (Trad.)
  
• Kol Dodi (Sephardic)
  

8:30pm Saturday December 18 @ Beth Emet: The Free Synagogue,

Ridge & Dempster, Evanston, IL (map it), free parking

Tickets:

LAST MINUTE RUSH ADVANCE DISCOUNT: $8 in advance via secure ticketweb

$15 door Got a group? Get a discount!

Tickets: $15 on secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

Ari Ben Moses Band @ Nevin's Live

The ARI BEN MOSES BAND has emerged as a new force in World Rock & Reggae, captivating audiences across the United States. Reggae bass lines, African and Latin beats; Middle Eastern and traditional Jewish scales, punctuated with gritty Funk Rock grooves are masterfully blended by this international ensemble. The band performs a show at Nevin'’s Live on Sunday October 24, presented by KFAR Jewish Arts Center, one of the 3 year-old Evanston music venue’s last shows before it ceases to present music on October 28.

Ari’s music often compared to Carlos Santana and Peter Gabriel, Ari’s compelling lyrics, powerful voice and brilliant piano playing have captivated audiences across the United States. With the release of his CD, “Burning Bush”, his innovative sound has been featured on WLIB-AM, WBAI-FM and WSIA-FM Radio stations in New York City, WNUR-FM in Chicago, as well as on Radio Eshel 106-FM in Israel. Through the Internet, he has successfully reached listeners in Holland, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Japan; the Pacific Rim and UK.

A native New Yorker, Ari grew up in Westport, Connecticut. After a brief stint in acting (he was the first ‘Jason Voorhees’ in the horror classic “Friday the 13th”), he turned to his passion and trained in classical music and jazz. Recognized at an early age for his musical abilities by famed jazz musician and educator Dr. Billy Taylor, he won a scholarship to Berklee School of Music. In the 1980s, after he returned to New York City, where he studied big band orchestration and jazz piano with Joanne Brackeen, Jim McNeely, Gay Mehegan and Vladimir Shafranov, and began to explore beyond Western tradition. Finding inspiration in the West African and Reggae music scenes, Ari toured nationally and in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, as keyboardist and vocalist for many top artists, including Ishmael Isaacs, Ijahman Levi, Sister Carol; and Majek Fashek, with whom he made two albums, “Spirit of Love” (Interscope) and “Rainmaker” (Tuff Gong).

In the late-1990s, Ari re-discovered the music of his Jewish ancestors, infusing traditional melodies and rhythms into his eclectic compositions. To reveal the direction of his music, Ari formed a group of the best local artists, the Ari Ben Moses Band. Together, they approached Ari’s exotic musical expressions with a refreshing, vibrant energy and urbane confidence nourished by the multi-cultural setting of New York City.

Tickets: $15 on secure ticketweb.com

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series

Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys @ Abbey Pub

Call it Jewgrass or a Hasidic Hodown, but this Appalachian/Ashkenazic combo is a hit!

Klezmer clarinetist Margot Leverett joins forces with today’s stars of klezmer and bluegrass to explore the shared musical spirit of two genres literally worlds apart. Appalachian and southern fiddle tunes by Bill Monroe meet klezmer melodies from pre-war Russia and Eastern Europe, some newly discovered. The resulting medleys and improvisations are at once raw, funny, melancholic and footstomping.

Hear the music:

• Kentucky Dance Medley
• Processional
• Lonesome Moonlight Waltz and Volich
  

presented as part of the City of Chicago's

$8.00 in advance, $10.00 at the door 21+

buy advance tickets on sale using

Presented as part of KFAR's concert series