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Chapter 98: Mazel Tov

Klezmer, Russian & Eastern European music

As a Jew with Eastern European roots, this is more or less the music of my people - melodies I’ve heard since I was an infant, songs I’ve danced to at weddings and bar mitzvahs. It must have imprinted on my brain deeply, because I’m still a sucker for all the gimmicks in the klezmer bag of tricks - breakneck speed, big crescendos and accelerandos, and long knotty melodies (Ivo Papasov plays his clarinet like a broken robot). Zdob si Zdub closes the set by putting these tropes in a rock context, an inspired combination.
1. Giora Feidman

Mazel Tov

2. Folk Song & Dance Ensemble Suzirya

Boys, Unharness the Horses!

3. Parno Graszt

Rávágok a Zongorára (Hit The Piano)

4. Alexandrov Ensemble

Kalinka

5. Ivo Papasov

Ivaylovsko Horo

6. The Stars of St. Petersburg

Poliouchka Polie

7. Dave Tarras

A Vaibele a Tsnien

8. Ural Cossacks Choir

Katyusha (ft. Uzory)

9. Meshugge Klezmer Maniacs

Hava Nagila

10. Zdob și Zdub

Videli Noci