Isle of Klezbos

Bio:

Fantastic female-fueled sextet touring from Vienna to Vancouver, performing klezmer assortment pack of Yiddish-inspired dance, trance, swing, tango, and originals together since 1998. Savoring and subverting tradition, as heard on The L Word, PBS, and CNN Worldbeat ... Based right in New York City. "These women will make you shake your tushies!" - Village Voice

Our debut disc, "Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" (Rhythm Media Records 004, distributed by Stern's Music worldwide) is available at iTunes, and at CDBaby & many other sites, as well as in stores worldwide. An Outmusic Award nominee, Outstanding Producer:

.. CDBaby link, ISLE OF KLEZBOS: Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos -->

You can hear us on the new Metropolitan Klezmer live in-concert CD "Traveling Show"! Not only are most Klezbians featured in MK's octet, there's the 'Klezbonus' studio track too: COMES LOVE (Yiddish/Latin groove style)

.. CDBaby link, Traveling Show -->

Isle of Klezbos also makes cameo appearances on Metropolitan Klezmer's 2001 release "Mosaic Persuasion":

.. CDBaby link: Mosaic Persuasion -->

.. KlezBiGay Pride 2010 video promo, with retro footage from 12 years of Klezbos archives! ISLE of KLEZBOS plays wedding dance tune at Drom NYC, frolicke! KLEZBOS: guest vox Mira Stroika, gorgeous horn solos: Pam & Debra!
Isle of Klezbos with Mira Stroika: Vocals & Vamp from Eve Sicular on Vimeo. ISLE OF KLEZBOS shows yet another of our many moods in Debra Kreisberg's own composition, "ABRAH" -- performed live by our quintet at Drom:
Isle of Klezbos: "Abrah" live at Drom NYC from Eve Sicular on Vimeo. Thanks as always to our accomplished videomaker Rich Brotman at Magnetic Post, NYC! And here's a snippet of trumpeter Pam Fleming soloing on her new kudu (antelope) shofar horn with most of the Klezbos bandmates at a Metropolitan Klezmer gig. She'll be playing this at some of our upcoming shows too. Kudu kudos to Pam:

Member Since:

July 11, 2006

Members:

Pam Fleming - trumpet & flugelhorn

Debra Kreisberg - clarinet & alto saxophone

Eve Sicular - drums

... accordion & piano:

Shoko Nagai; Patrick Farrell , guest klezbian! Emeriti Carmen Staaf; Terri Conti; Rachelle Garniez ("Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" CD); Art Bailey (Abi Gezunt swing '05 live)

... vocals:

emerita Deborah Karpel ("Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" CD), Melissa Fogarty, guest vox: Judith Berkson, Mira Stroika

... bass:

Saskia Lane; Emeriti: ...Anna Milat-Meyer ("Comes Love"); Catherine Popper ("Greetings from the Isle of Klezbos" CD); George Rush (Abi Gezunt swing '05 live)

... guest trombonist - Jacob Garchik! (Szol a Kakas Mar live)

Influences:

Where to begin? The klezmer ancestors (Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, and our dear departed Howie Leess), Yiddish forebears (Menashe Oppenheim, Solomon Mikhoels, Isa Kremer, Lev Pulver, Henokh Kon, Molly Picon, Grandpa Phillip Karpel), and then... so many other people and bands too: Nina Simone, Lionel [Begleiter] Bart, Lionel Belasco, Joni Mitchell, Harold Arlen, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chopin, Gershwin, Beethoven, Kodaly, Bartok, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, Mavis Staples, Jule Styne, The Roches, The McGarrigles, The Beatles, Regina Spektor, Bjork, Radiohead, Burning Spear, Charlie Parker, Vinicius Cantuaria, Los Mas Valientes, Leonard Bernstein, The Klezmatics, Aretha Franklin, Miriam Makeba, Erik Satie, Stravinsky, Alfred Schnittke, Rachelle Garniez, Alison Bechdel, The Five Lesbian Brothers, Gregg Bordowitz, Vito Russo ~ and: Metropolitan Klezmer (check that page for more of our influences)!

Sounds Like:

“Isle of Klezbos tests the elasticity of the genre” - The New Yorker

"One of the finest young klezmer bands ever to appear on the block" - Phat Planet (UK)

“Talent as strong as its name is provocative... The all-female group is to Eastern European Jewish music what Cherish The Ladies is to Celtic” - Courier News

“Great ears and great hearts” - Der Pakn Treger, National Yiddish Book Center

"A supergroup... with an offbeat sense of humor and a relaxed sense of swing" - George Robinson, Jewish Week

"Internationally acclaimed and much-loved... We'd make a joke, but they beat us to it." - Time Out New York

"The absolute top of the klezmer genre" - RootsTown, Belgium

"Excellent, haunting all-female klezmer band... featuring the human crescendo Pam Fleming on trumpet, a slinky frontwoman, and the astonishingly inventive Eve Sicular on drums... mischievously virtuosic" - Lucid Culture

"Powerhouse, soulful all-female klezmer sextet... These women will make you shake your tushies!" - Village Voice Choices Pick

"For a musical holiday, procure a ticket to the the Isle of Klezbos... an upbeat getaway... a refreshing fluidity...'irreverent respect.'" - Ginger Mason, X-tra West, Vancouver BC

"an often pyrotechnic display of extemporaneous virtuosity... [Debra] Kreisberg, a purist clarinetist with impeccable taste and a love for dark, plaintive melody showed off a surprisingly playful wit when she played alto sax... New vocalist Melissa Fogarty was at the absolute top of her game, cutting loose with a wail that was as sultry as it was clear and pure." - Lucid Culture

Record Label:

Rhythm Media Records