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ReviewsFolkworld (European folk music central, Germany, GB) Review March, 2009 "Lichtenberg and Katz surprise with pure, acoustic music on a high level. They change from jazz to classical music with Jewish tradition the constant and main ingredient. Sometimes soft guitar and careful vocals, other times Lichtenberg shows every corner of her voice...music on the highest level..." Eelco Schilder, FolkWorld Issue 38 03/2009 Swinging with Sisters December 19, 2008 Know any fans of the Barry Sisters' Yiddish swing vocals of the 1930s and '40s? If so, you may want to buy them tickets now for the Sisters of Sheynville performance at the next Chutzpah! festival, even though it's not till February. After all, they were just named Vocal Group of the Year at the 2008 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Founded by Lenka Lichtenberg and Isabel Fryszberg, the Toronto band debuted just over three years ago. Their sound includes improvisation and original material, and the three-part vocal arrangements are supported by jazz and klezmer instrumentalists Fern Lindzon (piano, vocals), Kinneret Sagee (clarinet), Rachel Melas (double bass) and Lorie Wolf (drums). Lichtenberg explained the group's origins to the Independent. "Isabel and I met at Zalmen Mlotek's Yiddish song workshop that I organized in Toronto, I think in 1993. She may not remember that, but I recall what she sang: 'Rabenyu Tam.' In 2001, at a concert of the female group Mikveh, she approached me and asked if I'd be interested to form a band with her, based on the material of the Barry Sisters – doing Yiddish swing. I had never heard of the Barry Sisters, nor Yiddish swing. I was a classically trained folk singer, a Chava Alberstein and an Ofra [Chaza] fan, with a leaning towards Mizrachi, Middle Eastern music, and this was definitely not my interest. So, I said 'no'; also, I was very busy and could not fit a single extra thing into my schedule of family, university and performing. "One thing about Isabel you get to know," continued Lichtenberg, is that "she is the most determined person you can find, and she had a vision! About a year later, she called and asked if perhaps I had changed my mind, and was I still so busy? I was a bit less busy, and felt bad about brushing her off, especially because I really liked her as a person, so I promised I would at least check out the music. "I bought two Barry Sisters CDs and could not stand the music, with all the cheesy orchestrations and big sound. However, I was really impressed with their singing. This really gave me an out – I felt that there was no way at all we could sound anywhere near as fantastic as that. But when Isabel called again in 2003, I felt I was ready to try something new ... perhaps I could get used to this music. And, perhaps, we may even be able to sing this material – just differently. After my second CD came out in December 2003, we got together and started working. We spent a year working, some of it with a vocal coach, on the songs that now form the original core of the band's repertoire." Once the pair had enough material for a full concert, they started their search for a piano player. Lichtenberg said, "I voted for a woman (and, subsequently, kept insisting to stick to an all-female line-up) – joking that this was the only way my Sephardi husband will let me go on the road. Perhaps there was some truth to that! I knew Fern Lindzon, a jazz singer and a pianist ... and she was interested. We spent two months working with her, then we found the horn player, bass player and drummer. After a few short weeks of rehearsal with these new musicians, we debuted at the Free Times Café in Toronto, in April 2005. We seemed to have struck gold. As unpolished and raw as we were, people could not get enough of the music." While others were impressed, Lichtenberg said she didn't understand it: she still didn't like the music, but she did like being in the band. She gives much credit to Fryszberg: "She was right that the timing was ripe for this kind of music. So, while now our repertoire and sound are clearly evolving, now more accommodating of my musical taste, as well as the other band members', it was Isabel who came up with the Barry Sisters concept, as well as suggestions for some old roots music that she sang with her mom, sometimes adding Yiddish lines into the text of the English songs. In her mind and heart, this band is really for her mom, who, sadly, passed away some five years ago. As I am Czech, raised in Prague, this music never was in my background, nor of any of the other band members' (all Jewish). I only began studying Yiddish as an adult; Isabel is the only native Yiddish speaker in the band, our link to authenticity." As for the group's quick rise to success, Lichtenberg said, "I do think we have a certain special sound, the result of the particular way our three voices blend, and the way the arrangements are written – and the instrumentalists' particular take on the music. Once we moved past the copying of the Barry's harmonies, we entered a new territory. Often, there are hidden or less hidden disharmonies, some subtle 'clashing' notes, some of the 'obvious' notes are missing, replaced instead with a bit of strangeness. I love that. I love unpredictability in art. "The band is not always too happy to endorse this kind of writing," she continued. "At first, there are the raised eyebrows, when they see the time signatures changing a bit too often ... or clumps of sounds instead of nice neat chords. We have even had a near-revolt just recently (I did go a little too far with that particular composition). But I do believe that's one of the important elements that makes us 'us.' We are not a Barry Sisters tribute band – theirs is a very special material with rich and important history, for many sweetly nostalgic, but we need it to be our own." Lichtenberg said Lindzon's "particular jazz style of playing, with emphasis on improvisation governed by her sophisticated, good taste, is what really separates us from the Barry Sisters genre." She lauded the talent of Sagee, "our fiery, classically trained clarinetist"; Melas, "our solid as a rock double bass player"; and Wolf, "the baby of the band," who has "several music degrees, and [is] just starting out her career as a composer with her first CD (Taibele and her Demon)." Lindzon also has a CD, Moments Like These, and Lichtenberg has three, Deep Inside, Open the Gate and Pashtes (with Brian Katz). The Sisters of Sheynville released their critically acclaimed debut CD, Sheynville Express, in 2007. Lichtenberg described Fryszberg as "the ideas person. She comes and gives me a CD of songs she thinks would work for us. She thinks about all this, the style, the genre ... I just pick then what I like best and spend the next three weeks writing the arrangement. Being a trained visual artist, she is also the graphics person, designing our merchandise and posters and all visuals. She also wrote one of the songs we recorded, and wrote several new lyrics in Yiddish to some of our arrangements; musically, she is a roots musician and, of course, she is one of us three singers, singing usually the middle or the lower parts." Lichtenberg said she generally covers the higher vocal parts, while Lindzon "sings the low or middle part, even though she has a lovely high voice." Lichtenberg said that both she and Fryszberg do publicity and find the band work. Lichtenberg is "also the administrator (at the tune of roughly five hours a day at the computer) and the accountant, what fun!" She credited Lindzon for, in many ways, running the instrumental aspect of the group's live performances. "We try to rehearse once a week, on Monday evenings," said Lichtenberg. "It does not always work out, with six people's schedules. I think we really enjoy our rehearsals. Everybody has input when we rehearse. Our core, Barry's repertoire, was arranged entirely in rehearsals, with everybody's pitching in." Lichtenberg's schedule – regular solo work, as well as singing with Katz and performing with Sisters, along with writing new material – is very full. "I do have three kids, but I also do have more time now than I have had in many years. I quit my teaching job at Ryerson University in 2005. My kids are 14, 16 and 18 years old. The eldest, Hannah, is on a Young Judea one-year course in Israel this year.... I try to be there for my kids of course, and do whatever is needed ... but the reality is that they don't need me as much as they used to. So, in a way, it works out well, as I am getting more and more busy, and travel so much more than ever before." Lichtenberg said she has performed in nine different countries in the last four years and has travelled to Europe four times this year alone. "The one I worry most about not getting enough of me is my husband of nearly 20 years, Rubin," she said. "He is really trying to be supportive and understanding these days, but I do worry that I am stretching his good will at times. He travels with me sometimes – and that's really wonderful." Lichtenberg is also studying to be a cantor and she described herself as a "cantorial soloist." She belongs to Darchei Noam Congregation, where she said she is often involved in musical Shabbats, singing and playing the guitar, usually along with two or three other musicians. At times, she leads the Torah service and she is very involved in the High Holiday services, especially on Yom Kippur. "I wish I could attend and sing at every Shabbat service, as it fills me with light and total happiness," she said. "I now also regularly co-lead Kabbalat Shabbat services in Prague's Spanish Synagogue, whenever I am there, several times a year. For me, that is an unbelievably meaningful experience, to do that in Prague." Lichtenberg is working on a CD of Jewish liturgy. "There is something about liturgy that makes me sing differently, and people really relate to it, it seems," she said. "My husband sees this beautiful response and thinks I am wasting my time doing any other kind of music." Nonetheless, Lichtenberg is working on another project with Katz: "a Yiddish CD of arrangements of Mordekhai Gebirtig's songs, whose work has long been a treasure box and inspiration for me. At this point, I've chosen most of the songs, composed one of the arrangements ("Dray Tekhterlekh").... I still would like this to be done mostly in 2009, and released in 2010. Then, a world tour!" Lichtenberg also said she is toying with the idea of a Czech neo-folk band, that she has chosen a name for it already and has even booked the band for a concert, "even though it is no more than a sparkle in my eye at this point." And, she said that she still makes time to "dabble into academia, having presented a paper at a conference on music during the Holocaust, in London, last April. It was about my mom's involvement with music in Terezin, where she spent two years as a child. In fact, this is another project currently on a back burner, but one I know I must do one day: a program built on mom's stories, incorporating Terezin and the Czech music of the time." Lichtenberg, who lived in Vancouver for seven years, said she loves the city and British Columbia. "It is a dream come true, in many ways, to be booked for the Chutzpah! festival with our Sisters of Sheynville. Chutzpah is an important, major North American festival and it is a great honor and pleasure for us to be part of it.... Through Chutzpah!, I will also be offering a Yiddish song workshop, and I hope many people will want to participate in this opportunity to learn something new – and have some fun with me!" Lichtenberg promised that anyone who attends the Sisters of Sheynville concert will "be dancing home, smiling all the way!" For Chutzpah! tickets or information, call 604-257-5145 or visit www.chutzpahfestival.com Cynthia Ramsay, Jewish Independent
American Jewish Libraries Newsletter November/December 2008 Lichtenberg, Lenka and Katz, Brian. Pashtes. Toronto:Sunflower Records, 2006. 1 compact disc (41 min.) $14.99. Pashtes (Simplicity) is a treat for Yiddish and music aficionados— a rare opportunity to hear quality new Yiddish repertoire. The album features Lenka Lichtenberg (vocalist, composer) and Brian Katz (guitarist, pianist, arranger), in ten compositions from Simcha Simchovitch’s Yiddish poetry. The accompanying booklet includes lyrics in Yiddish, transliteration, and English translation. The songs are beautiful, stirring, and original. Simchovitch’s masterful poems are rooted in the Yiddish literary tradition (“Di Goldene Pave,” “Morris Rosenfeld”) and inspired by the world (“Calcutta”). Lichtenberg’s use of Simchovitch’s words is fresh and genuine. Her delightfully light, expressive, and versatile voice aptly conveys Simchovitch’s many moods, while Katz’s guitar and skillful arrangements provide a beautiful and flexible complement to the vocals. At times, the songs recall Joni Mitchell with their thoughtful lyrics and varied styles. “Tsum Kval” (To The Source: Elegy for Yiddish Poets) is powerful and poignant, while “Di Gortn-Parti” (The Garden Party) is playful and full of interesting rhythms and chords, and “Yo, ikh gloyb” (Yes, I Do Believe) is a hopeful and stirring call for a better world. Pashtes is a fresh musical interpretation of today’s Yiddish literature. Highly recommended for academic and synagogue libraries. Amanda Seigel, The New York Public Library, New York, NY
American Jewish Libraries September/October 2008 .... (Lenka's arrangement of) "Sheyn vi de Levone, (is) a real klezmer-revival triumph, because it enhances and modernizes the original, retaining its yearning soulfulness while avoiding the tendency to schmaltz that can overpower this song." Beth Dwoskin, Proquest, Ann Arbor, MI
RadioIndy Review of "Pashtes" CD February 25, 2008 "Pashtes"
by Lenka Lichtenberg and Brian Katz is a tremendously creative and
musically inspiring CD. The instrumentation on the CD is brilliant
- Especially Brian Katz's acoustic guitar work. This professional
musical accompaniment provides an effective backdrop for the tremendous
vocal performances of Lenka, whose voice provides pitch-perfect
vocals in a very smooth and soothing manner. The CD is filled with
subtle details of intricate play between the vocals and instruments
that demonstrate the care that went into this recording. The production
and recording quality provide a crystal clear experience for the
listener. "Zing a Gezang" is one of our favorite tracks,
with its upbeat catchy tempo and tremendous acoustic guitar work.
"Yo, Ikh Gloyb" has a more jazzy feel, with an intricate
musical depth provided by counter melodies of a horn section. If
you enjoy world music or hearing the works of musical virtuosos,
this is a CD that is definitely worthy of your attention.
Sing Out! Summer 2007 "One certainly does not need to understand Yiddish to appreciate these songs. The emotion and depth of the lyrics, and the musical creativity of the settings and arrangements, are communicated through Lichtenberg and Katz’s fine performances."
HBN Radio ~ Rankin World Party Live April 16, 2007 I think I'm in love. Beautiful, haunting, inspiring and mesmerizing are but a few of the adjectives that describe this aural delight. Featuring her original work, Lenka's amazing range and power are showcased on this release. Soothing, enticing, and full of vibrancy, Lenka has one of the sweetest voices in the world, and it's time the world heard it. Look for tracks 1, 6, 8 and 11 to be featured on this week's World Party. Thank you for your wonderful gift! Rankin, hbnradio.org - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Sing Out! Summer 2007 - Vol. 51#2 - p. 41 (review Pashtes) Simcha Simchovitch, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor from Poland who immigrated to Canada in 1949 and now lives in Toronto, is an important Yiddish-language poet and prose writer with 16 books to his credit. On Pashtes, Czech-born singer Lenka Lichtenberg, herself a child of Holocaust survivors who also now lives in Toronto, offers nine of her musical settings of Simchovitch’s poems and presents them in arrangements created by guitarist and pianist Brian Katz. As well, there is a beautiful solo guitar instrumental by Katz that was inspired by another of Simchovitch’s poems. One certainly does not need to understand Yiddish to appreciate these songs. The emotion and depth of the lyrics, and the musical creativity of the settings and arrangements, are communicated through Lichtenberg and Katz’s fine performances. The non-Yiddish speakers will want to listen with the CD booklet in hand as the original lyrics are printed in Yiddish, and in Simchovitch’s own translations of his work. And even in the transformation from one language to another, none of the poetry seems to be lost. Among my favourite songs are "Tsum Kval (To the Source)", a beautiful, sad elegy to past generations of Yiddish poets, and "Morris Rosenfeld", a tribute to the great Yiddish poet and songwriter whose minor-key folkish melody echoes Rosenfeld’s own "Mayn Rue Platz". Another is "Zing (Sing)", a bright celebratory song with a Brazilian arrangement. The album’s finale is its crowning achievement. "A Lid Vet Farblayben (A Song Will Remain)", is a defiant song of survival, obviously inspired by the Holocaust, with an almost anarchic free jazz arrangement that communicates the devastation of that terrible time in modern history. MR
DJ Reviews - Reviews from radio stations July 2007 • What a lively and lovely mix of joyful world
music. I'll play it a lot on my shows...Great musicianship and hot
passionate vocals."ZING" is a song of joy!! Thanks. • ... a genuine sound... • ....Pashtes is an interesting, informative and creative
soundscape into the world of Yiddish sung works... • Radio Sefarad, Madrid, Report about Pashtes - in Spanish by Jorge Rozemblum
MOE Jazz Magazine, Florida April/May 2007(review Pashtes) "...Lichtenberg and Katz crafted music that allows even non-Yiddish speakers to appreciate the beauty of the words. To my ears, their settings are primarily chamber jazz arrangements with touches of Brazilian, flamenco, classical and theater music adding color. The opening track, "The Golden Peacock," floats on a moody bass riff that recalls Jaco Pastorious' work with Joni Mitchell. "The Garden Party" makes me think of the early work of the Paul Winter Consort. Throughout the disc, Lichtenberg and Katz infuse the music with such a joy for living that it crosses linguistic and cultural borders. Listening to Pashtes/Simplicity makes you feel good, no matter what language you speak.... the purity of spirit (on this CD) is something to behold.... Aside from the fact that these artists are making wonderful music, they are also showing us through their actions that people of different ethnicities, religions and traditions can live and work together. These artists demonstrate that harmony is possible in this world. For the duration of a CD, it is possible to believe that the cultural and political differences that are tearing the world apart can be overcome. For as long as the disc plays, there is harmony in the world. Bob Pomeroy, Ink 19 :: Jazz and Traditions
Jewish Currents, New York March/April 2007 (review Pashtes) "….Another example of the vitality of transmission is the collaboration between Toronto-based, Prague-born singer Lenka Lichtenberg and Polish-born poet (and Toronto resident) Simcha Simchovitch. On Lichtenberg's new CD, Pashtes (Simplicities), she sets Simchovitch's acclaimed Yiddish poetry to music. While Lichtenberg learned Yiddish only as an adult, the confidence she brings to her work comes only to someone completely at ease in the language. The effervescent music she's written for Simchovitch's poems lifts them in a way that is still sensitive to their brooding undercurrent, while expressing her own vision of a greater theme. Her setting of the title track says it all, with the bright accordion and fiddle swooping along with Lichtenberg's voice. "Come simplicity, true beauty, we'll fraternize anew/ thus my word shall become clear and to itself true." Rokhl Kafrissen, The Rootless Cosmopolitan
Philadelphia
Jewish Radio WNWR AM 1540
March 1, 2007 (review
Pashtes) Barry Reisman, Program Host
The New York Jewish Week
December
1, 2006 (review Pashtes) George Robinson, New York
The Wholenote Magazine: Disc of the month November 2006 (review Pashtes) "…deliciously melancholy…boasts an A-List of guest artists… Pashtes (Simplicity) is a delight. Prague-born vocalist Lenka Lichtenberg has a lovely, confectionary, gamin-like quality. Her soprano voice sails above and around the notes with perfect control, weaving a luminous mystical web. She is in the midst of an amazingly diverse career, including singing as a member of the wildly successful Sisters of Sheynville and also performing as a cantor at various functions. Brian Katz has a sumptuous guitar sound, full of facile runs and lush harmonics. The material on Pashtes has been composed entirely by Lichtenberg and arranged by Katz, who have been performing and collaborating together since 2001. Many of the plaintive melodies on Pashtes have an undercurrent of pulsing Latin rhythms that seem to work symbiotically with the poetry of the iconic Polish-born Yiddish poet, Simcha Simchovitch. …Katz and Lichtenberg have surrounded themselves with local musicians of the highest order, including the extraordinary George Koller on bass, Ernie Tollar on soprano sax, the dexterous Alan Hetherington on a whole mess of multi-ethnic percussion and the uber-talented Sasha Luminsky on accordion. Although forged firmly in tradition, this recording has a very contemporary feel that will leave you uplifted and spiritually refreshed – just like a great piece of strudel and a 'glass tea'." Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
Spin
The Globe: World Music News December
15, 2006 (review Pashtes) Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
The Live Music Report, www.showtimemagazine.ca January, 2007 (review Pashtes) "…beautifully produced…managed to
generate a new sound…Lichtenberg’s style is cabaret
recitative, melismatic, as authentic as a “knaidle”,
and bubbles with emotion… with purity and colour control in
her vocalizations…Katz’s composition “The Garden
Party” is a sophisticated Latin cum Euro-jazz creation…
maybe you never heard anything Stanley Feferman
Radio Upper Galilee, Jacob's Ladder Festival January 2007 (review Pashtes) "…Beautifully performed, packaged and presented. The poetry is beautiful, and thought provoking. The richness of the Yiddish language in poetry and song is something one does not often encounter." Menachem Vinegrad, Israel
Canadian Jewish News December
7, 2006 (review Pashtes) Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf, Toronto
Jewish Independent December 15, 2006 (review Pashtes) "Eclectic Jewish Music : Yiddish music thrives" … Lichtenberg's Pashtes/Simplicity (Sunflower Records) is anything but simple. With Brian Katz, she has set the poetry of Simcha Simchovitch to melodies that are influenced by Jewish, jazz, Brazilian and other world music. The arrangements highlight the poignant optimism of Simchovitch's poems and bring his Yiddish to life." Click here to read full review Cynthia Ramsay, Vancouver
"This CD is EXCELLENT!" (Pashtes) Simon Rutberg, Hatikvah Music International, Los Angeles
"Congratulations. A rare project!" (Pashtes) Itzik Gottesman, Associate Editor, The Yiddish Forward, New York
"A very enjoyable album …A sheer delight! (Pashtes) Harold Ellison The Jazz Cafe TripleU-FM Nowra, New South Wales, Australia
"A truly wonderful CD!" (Pashtes) Kozlovsky, Summer Breeze, Jazz FM, Minsk, Belarus
"…keeping the Yiddish 'concept' alive… a great mix of different styles with a very creative voice. An album that will please many 'world' listeners." (Pashtes) Tony Bates, Highlands 100.7FM, Melbourne, Australia
"Lenka Lichtenberg …astounding talent…" Jowi Taylor, CBC Radio Global Village, Canada
"…a bright and clear soprano voice which, when coupled with engaging melodies and a flair for words, makes for a splendid release…delightful rhythmic structures…." (Open The Gate review) S A Hamilton, Zeitgeist, Edinburgh, UK
" …second CD from this Canadian artist, a step forward from her first, with some smart writing….she's definitely got something; the lyrics are frequently clever, in four different languages." Rating: YYYY (Open The Gate review) George Robinson, The New York Jewish Week
"I received your two CDs, and I can’t wait to get them on the air. I played them in my car on the way home, and then I played them when I got home. Your music from Deep Inside and Open The Gate is a wonderful gift to my listeners on WNWR and www.wnwr.com in Philadelphia. Whether you are singing one of your own compositions or a traditional Jewish song, your music is fresh, innovative, and delightful. To hear you is to want to hear more – and my listeners are going to hear a lot of Lenka Lichtenberg!" Barry Reisman, Program Host, WNWR
AM 1540, Philadelphia June,
2005
…"passionate 12-cut debut album from the versatile singer-songwriter…" (Deep Inside review) Geoff Chapman, Toronto Star
…"impressive music and arrangements…strong singing…excellent back up players…" Carl Wilson, Globe and Mail
…"a lively amalgam of musical styles from Middle Eastern and klezmer to jazz. Lichtenberg’s songs are wonderfully entertaining showcases for her talent, which impressively crosses many different genres. She pulls each off beautifully, carefully adapting her voice…Lichtenberg reinvents traditional tunes and invents new ones…" (Deep Inside review) Lisa Cooperman, The National Post
…"deserves a lot of credit for taking on some unusual topics in her English-language originals…the performances here are spirited…" (Deep Inside review) George Robinson, The New York Jewish Week
…"Ms.Lichtenberg is an excellent singer….eminently listenable voice…polished musical presentation overall…delightful instrumentations… songs come from the heart, deep, heartfelt convictions…generally noble sentiments…" (Open The Gate review) Renaissance Man/Rainlore, UK
…"an entertaining and important contribution to modern Jewish culture…" Click here to read full review Nomi Kaston, The Canadian Folk Music BULLETIN
(Deep Inside review) Ari Davidow, Klezmershack
..."a vivacious singer with a pleasing soprano voice, who can easily ignite the crowd...." (Concert review) Paula Citron, The Canadian Jewish News
..."a lovely voice and performance..." (Concert review) Eva Strizovska, Cesky dialog (Czech Dialogue) |
