"Challenging rhythms, slippery chord changes and furiously accurate fiddle playing... wonderful performers... This all-instrumental collection is a winner."

- Gigi Yellen-Kohn, The Jewish Transcript (Seattle), January 11, 2002

This is not only "roots" music in the sense of Jewish immigration from Europe, but it's also Seattle roots: This disc presents recordings made from 1982 to 1985, most recorded live in Seattle with a couple of studio tracks done in Portland. Some are performances by "The Mazel Tov Klezmer Band," said to be Seattle's first klezmer group. Layman was the fiddle player with that group, which predated the more recently disbanded "Mazeltones" by a few years, and included the same bass player (Rabbi Jim Mirel, now of the Shalom Ensemble).
Nostalgia aside, this and the new CD by Di Naye Kapelye (see below) provide real locally grown protein for the Northwest world-music diet. Layman (who, among her many credits, trained in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington) produced this wonderful collection, in which the performances breathe with all the energy of a bright day at Folklife.
Challenging rhythms, slippery chord changes and furiously accurate fiddle playing bring to life the music Layman herself went to Greece and Romania in 1985 to learn firsthand. Her thoroughly documented notes reflect the intensity of her study, with careful attention to Greek, Romanian, Yiddish and Turkish details.
Among the wonderful performers here is the respected Alexander Eppler, master of the cimbalom.
Whether your own roots are Ashkenazic, Sephardic or simply folksy, you'll find that this all-instrumental collection is a winner. See the Transcript calendar for the date and place of Layman's release party for this new CD.

Recorded in Budapest in August of 2001, this album includes voices, notably that of Jack "Yankl" Falk of Portland, the gutsy clarinet player, and Bob Cohen, the multi-talented player of violin, mandolin and assorted more exotic instruments. These two guys bring together a collection of experts in the music of northern Romania, "in particular the music of Maramures and the Bukovina," as they explain in the detailed, eye-opening notes. Even before you've listened to a downbeat, you can read here about where the Chassidic Jews first settled, what that had to do with the Hapsburg Empire of the 17th and 18th centuries and what happened to these Jews and their neighbors both before and after the shattering of Jewish life in the mid 20th century. Did you even know of a place called Maramures? Here's the music of the Jews from there, and of the folks from whom they learned it, and with whom they traded it. A whole world, not quite lost, comes alive again thanks to the thorough research and lovingly energetic interpretations of Di Naye Kapelye. Connoisseurs of ethnic music from that part of Europe will be impressed by the presence here of two members of Muzsikas, whose recording, not Jewish at all, of well-documented music from their native lands made a stir half a dozen years ago. Should be a fun CD release party. Check the Transcript calendar.