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RSR 008CD
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"The 1973 release by the internationally beloved Yiddish female duo. 'We take a tune that's sweet and low, and rock it solid and make it gold.' And rock it solid they did, on Our Way, The Barry Sisters' eleventh, and last, full-length studio recording. Throughout their career, they consistently drew from the wells of Yiddish and English popular song, everything from 'Without A Song' and 'Cry Me A River' to 'Hava Nagila' and 'Chiribim Chiribom.' If adapting Jewish music to the rhythms and contours of the American pop landscape can be considered one of the dominant aesthetics of early 20th century popular music, then The Barry Sisters ought to be considered crucial bi-cultural pioneers, part of the same treasured artistic genealogy that usually starts and stops with the Tin Pan Alley likes of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Harold Arlen. They didn't turn America Jewish, they made Jewish sound more American. On Our Way, The Barry Sisters choose the elegant tradition of popular song itself. They took on the '20s pop chestnut 'Tea For Two,' used Yiddish to return the vanilla Perry Como smash 'It's Impossible' to its Mexican bolero roots, raided Hollywood for 'Love Story' (imagine Ryan O'Neal crooning in Yiddish at the bedside of a dying Kelly McGraw), raided Broadway for 'Cabaret' and 'Alice Blue Gown,' and turned out what just might be -- second only to the one Cuban audio priestess La Lupe did just three years earlier -- the most liberating version ever of the Sinatra staple, 'My Way.'"
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RSR 007CD
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"Much like Gershon Kingsley, Katz has had one of the more extraordinary, if off-beat careers, in contemporary music. Katz made his biggest mark by bringing the cello into the forefront of the jazz repertoire, most notably as a member of the ever-experimental ensemble, the Chico Hamilton Quintet. The most admired, if under-discussed, Katz album though is probably this one, Folk Songs for Far Out Folk, which he said was dedicated to the idea that all jazz is born from 'the roots of people.' The roots he explores here are folk songs -- American, Hebrew & African. The Hebrew ones no doubt speak to Katz's own roots as the son of a Kabbalist and Hebraic scholar. On 'Baal Shem Tov' and 'Rav's Nigun' Katz is joined by Paul Horn on sax and legendary L.A. jazzman Buddy Collette on flute. The tracks are from 1958 and sound prophetic, in their way pre-Knitting Factory, avant tackle of jazz and Jewish tradition alike."
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