With this title the biggest newspaper in Sweden honors not only these great musicians but the Great Synagogue of Stockholm, I translate parts of the review.
Extracted and freely translated from journalist “Dagens Nyheter” Nanushka Yeamanäs review.
“Avant-garde klezmer Chief Rabbi Frank London’s previous collaborations with LL Cool J feels pretty distant when he performed Jewish ceremonial songs in Stockholm’s synagogue with his former Klezmatics-musketeer, vocalist Lorin Sklamberg. The songs, which are mostly in Hebrew (the other three in Yiddish), are all taken from their latest album “Tsuker-zis” but live, the disc ud, tabla virtuoso and el guitarist replaced with pianist Rob Schwimmer. A wonderful choice because Schwimmer with rare sensitivity gives each song just that little detail it needs to sparkle a little extra, be it piano or the space sounds of the theremin.
With delight the trio took us through ceremonies as the Jewish Passover (Pesach), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and Tabernacles (Sukkot), and we are grateful to Frank London, with this particular repertoire and no more difficult listening subject matter as the cantor disc “Hazònos” or the instrumental “The days of awe”. Especially the songs harmonize perfectly with the sacred concert hall”.
I mostly agree, a big applause to my colleagues of the cultural section at the jewish community and “Reorient” who organized and brought these excellent musicians to Stockholm .
Lorin, Rob and I had a great time. The warmth and engagement of the audience combined with the spiritual ambience and wonderful acoustics of the Great Synagogue made this a concert to remember for us. One note – Lorin and I are not “former Klezmatics – Musketeers”, but still continue our ongoing work with The klezmatics together. Until the next time in Stockholm, Shalom.