Channukah: Festival of Lights

Ot Azoj Klezmerband | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 7, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Oreade Music
• ASIN: B00000JLN7
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,256 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #76 in Music > Miscellaneous > Holiday > Hanukkah

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go beyond the Dreidle Song for some GREAT Channukah music!, September 12, 2000

By 

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Channukah: Festival of Lights (Audio CD)

I received this CD as a Wish List gift (Thank you, Oh loyal reader of my reviews!) and I absolutely love it. There are traditional Chanukkah songs here that I've never heard anywhere else, plus some original compositions. If you thought that "Maoz Tzur" and the "Dreidel Song" were all there is to Chanukkah music, then you simply must hear this album!

In the days of the European stetl (Jewish village), bands of klezmer musicians would go from house to house, playing music while the Chanukkah candles burned brightly into the long winter nights. This album captures that old-time spirit perfectly. There are lively dances, peppy songs, and slow, contemplative vocal pieces called "Doinas," which might strike some Western listeners as sad because they're sung in a minor key. Not so. "Festival music in a minor key" is how Ot Azoi describes their music. The Doinas are contemplative, inward-looking vocal improvisations, using meaningless syllables to express that which cannot be said in words. Think of the human voice as a jazz trumpet and you are on your way to grokking this type of Jewish music.

The words, of course, are in Yiddish and Hebrew. One weakness of this album is that the insert doesn't include all the words to all the songs (although it does translate some of them.) But even if you don't know these languages, you'll catch the spirit. And you'll probably recognize the words to "Shalom Aleichem" (Peace be upon you), a song usually associated with the Sabbath, but also appropriate here in a soul-filled rendition that starts out slowly, then bursts into a joyous dance acceompanied by drums and other percussion. I especially like band #15, "a Lid fun Chanukkah" (Song for Chanukkah) which says, "Lomir tantzen, lomir zingen -- let us dance, let us sing!" Need I say more?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A festival it is, September 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Channukah: Festival of Lights (Audio CD)

Ot Azoj keeps growing! When will they play in america? A good band like this shoudn't be kept for the europeans only!
This cd is a nice mixture between old and new, happy and sad.
It's the best chanukah cd I ever heard!
I'm very curious about their next cd. I saw it on their website... It's called Klezmer fon Kishinev. Should be interesting. I hope Amazon will have it soon!
Ot Azoj keep up the good work!

Ben Levi

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent listening, October 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Channukah: Festival of Lights (Audio CD)

What a great idea for a CD collection!! The opening song, Haneiros, is beautifully sung. The artist, Elan Barenholz, has a tremendous voice that leaves the listeners wanting more! And that is just the first song on the CD!!!!!!!!!!