New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Tipish (2024)

For nearly three decades, the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars’ wildly original sound – with its Crescent City-steeped aesthetic and endless dry wit – has remained a cornerstone of one of the most unique and culturally significant live music scenes in the world. It’s also spent much of that time evolving – as evidenced by Tipish, the band's first studio album in nearly a decade. Out April 23, this diverse collection of eight original compositions and two reimagined traditionals finds the Klezmers at a new echelon of musical development, clarity and cohesion.

Recorded at New Orleans’ Happyland Theater in November 2023, without isolation booths or overdubs, Tipish features a stunningly wide range of music, all of it as evocative and passionate as it is irreverent and playful. From the woozy, blues-laced title track to the grunge-metal rocker that plays out like a symphonic suite (“Conference of the Jews”) to the circle dance-inspired tunes that flip the script on Romanian horas in search of hard-swinging post-bop, this gorgeously wrought program documents the top of this ensemble’s 30-year game. And whether they’re taking on a Holocaust-era lullabye (the haunting “Dos Einte Kind/ The Lonely Child”) or paying tribute to Fela Kuti (“King Fela’s Chicken Soup”), that game is filtered through the unique New Orleans aesthetic these musicians live and breathe.

Tipish is also first studio album to feature the Klezmers’ longtime horn section, with Ben Ellman (Galactic), Aurora Nealand (Royal Roses, The Monocle) and Dan Oestreicher (Trombone Shorty) on saxophones and Nick Ellman (Naughty Professor) on clarinet.

Bassist Joe Cabral and drummer Doug Garrison (The Iguanas) round out the band, along with its co-founders, accordionist Glenn Hartman (Alex MacMurray Band, Lulu and the Broadsides) and guitarist/composer Jonathan Freilich (Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, Naked Orchestra, James Singleton’s Malabar).

Tracklist:
1.01 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Tipish (2:18)
1.02 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - King Fela's Chicken Soup (9:26)
1.03 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Amirim (4:17)
1.04 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Conference of the Jews (4:34)
1.05 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - The Detox Hora (4:14)
1.06 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Another Hora for Hartman (5:21)
1.07 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - The Lonely Child (2:46)
1.08 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - The Let's Get a Divorce Dance (4:16)
1.09 - New Orleans Klezmer All Stars - Reb Levik's Niggun (2:59)