Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 7:30 PM – 9 PM
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way,
Palo Alto, California
Daniel Kahn is compared to Leonard Cohen or Brecht, his
music played by an impeccable band bringing Jewish punk cabaret into the
current year.
With their new record The Butcher's Share, The Painted
Bird returns to the road as the original radical Yiddish borderland bandits.
The Berlin-based Detroit-born poet/translator/singer/multi-instrumentalist
(accordion, piano, guitars) Daniel Kahn has reformed the band with new and old
comrades: Berlin's clarinet/sax/brass master Christian Dawid, American old-time
fiddle virtuoso Craig Judelman, experimental contrabassist composer Michael
Tuttle, and neo-klezmerist drummer Hampus Melin.
The live show features projections of images by legendary
New York underground artist Eric Drooker, whose work is woven into the album's
design, as well as material from the band's new videos.
The album may be the band's most complex and powerful
yet. It was produced by Berlin punk and avant-garde legend Thomas Stern
(Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Crime and the City
Solution, Can, The Brothers Nazaroff). The album is supported and presented by
Berlin's acclaimed Maxim Gorki Theater, where Kahn is music curator and house
poet.
Special Guest: "Conspiracy of Beards"
San Francisco's Conspiracy of Beards is a 30-member male
choir that performs dynamic, original, a cappella arrangements of the poetic songs
of Leonard Cohen.
Well dressed in suits, ties and the occasional fedora,
the choir brings an energized live choral music experience out of churches and
tabernacles and into the taverns, art houses and theaters of the Bay Area and
beyond. Transforming Cohen's lyrics and simple melodies into complex 4- and
5-part harmonies, and with a wide variety of small ensemble and full choir
pieces, Conspiracy of Beards achieves a sound that is both robust and tender.
Drawing on influences ranging from jazz and gospel to barbershop and doo-wop,
the unique arrangements that choir members create capture all of the emotion
and humor of Leonard Cohen's original music and inspire audiences to ponder
common human experiences like romance, heartbreak, politics, sex, longing and
spirituality.
Formed in 2003 through the inspiration of the late San
Francisco performance artist Peter Kadyk, his brother Patrick Kadyk, along with
friend and composer Daryl Henline, gathered a small group of friends to learn
and sing a couple of Cohen songs as a tribute. Since then the choir, still
directed by Daryl Henline, has grown to over 30 members.
Conspiracy of Beards has become an integral part of the
San Francisco music scene with performances at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Festival, The Jewish Music Festival, Cafe Du Nord, Great American Music Hall,
San Francisco City Hall and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as
dozens of bars, bookstores, galleries, hospices and various other community
centers. The choir has also been featured on several radio programs including
NPR's West Coast Live, the California Report, Weekend Edition, KQED, KFOG,
KPFA, WFMU and on PBS television.
Cost: $25 General Public / $20 Members and J-Pass Holders
