Beyond the Pale (Brave Old World album)

Beyond the Pale
Studio album by
Brave Old World
Released1994
GenreKlezmer
LabelRounder[1]
ProducerFrank Dostal
Brave Old World chronology
Klezmer Music
(1990) 		Beyond the Pale
(1994) 		Blood Oranges
(1999)

Beyond the Pale is an album by the klezmer band Brave Old World, released in 1994.[2][3] The album title refers to the Pale of Settlement.[4]

Production

The album was produced by Frank Dostal.[5] It contains original songs as well as interpretations of traditional Yiddish songs.[6] Founding member Joel Rubin departed the band prior to the recording sessions.[7] The opening and closing tracks, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, were written in 1990.[8][9]

"Rufn Di Kinder Aheym" ("Calling the Children Home") was inspired by the New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden.[10] A cimbalom was employed on "Yismekhu".[11] "Di Sapozhkelekh" used the Misheberak scale.[3] Leon Schwartz taught the band a few of Beyond the Pale's songs.[12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[13]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide[5]

The Globe and Mail wrote that "the dance tunes are as irresistible as ever, but the underlying spirit is not chutzpah or even nostalgia so much as a deep sadness and urgent compassion."[14] The Washington Post concluded that "much of the recording might be described as a meditation on the art of playing klezmer music in the Berlin of the 1990s, and the mixed feelings such an experience would necessarily call up."[15]

AllMusic called the album "appropriately reflective klezmer from Germany, where even the high-spirited freylekhs have a somber edge and Kurt Bjorling's probing clarinet is part accusatory finger, part triumph of intellect and love over will."[13]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Berlin Overture" 
2."Brave Old Hora" 
3."Basarabye" 
4."Big Train" 
5."Waltz Roman à Clef" 
6."Borsht" 
7."Oy, di Dreydlekh" 
8."Di Sapozhkelekh" 
9."Yismekhu" 
10."A Tish-Nign" 
11."Bobover Wedding March" 
12."Rufn di Kinder Aheym" 
13."Doina Extravaganza" 
14."Berlin 1990" 

References

  1. ^ Strom, Yale (April 19, 2011). The Book of Klezmer: The History, the Music, the Folklore. Chicago Review Press.
  2. ^ Wood, Abigail (April 8, 2016). And We're All Brothers: Singing in Yiddish in Contemporary North America. Routledge.
  3. ^ a b Ran, Amalia; Morad, Moshe (January 12, 2016). Mazal Tov, Amigos! Jews and Popular Music in the Americas. Brill.
  4. ^ Rogovoy, Seth (January 1, 2000). The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover's Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music, from the Old World to the Jazz Age to the Downtown Avant-garde. Algonquin Books.
  5. ^ a b MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 2000. p. 113.
  6. ^ American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots. University of California Press. August 19, 2002.
  7. ^ Davidow, Ari (Fall 1995). "Klezmer! — Beyond the Pale by Brave Old World". Whole Earth Review. No. 87. p. 92.
  8. ^ Dempsey, Dale (June 9, 1996). "Klezmer Music: Jewish Genre Given Rebirth in Germany". Dayton Daily News. p. 1C.
  9. ^ Mills, Kathleen (July 5, 1996). "Brave Old World works to transform tradition". The Herald-Times.
  10. ^ Kreiswirth, Sandra (April 11, 1997). "A Touch of Klez – An Eastern European tradition puts down strong roots in America". Daily Breeze. p. K22.
  11. ^ Baade, Christina L. (Summer 1998). "Jewzak and Heavy Shtetl: Constructing Ethnic Identity and Asserting Authenticity in the New-Klezmer Movement". Monatshefte. 90 (2). University of Wisconsin Press: 210.
  12. ^ World Music: Latin and North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific. Rough Guides Ltd. 1999. p. 590.
  13. ^ a b "Beyond the Pale". AllMusic.
  14. ^ Bernstein, Tamara (22 July 1994). "Recordings". The Globe and Mail. p. C1.
  15. ^ Page, Tim (9 June 1996). "Klezmer: Revival of the Traditionalists". The Washington Post. p. G1.