Israeli jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman’s new album, Hearts Wide Open (Le Chant du Monde), is earning rave reviews from prominent critics. For example, writing in the New York Times last week, Ben Ratlif said that Hekselman “ has become important over the last five years — if not yet to jazz listeners in general, at least [...]

The new album from the Afro-Semitic Experience, Further Definitions of the Days of Awe (Reckless DC Music), recasts liturgical music for Selichot and the High Holidays. Afro-Semitic core members, David Chevan, bass, and Warren Byrd, electronic keyboards, blend hazzanut (cantorial singing) — featuring Cantor Jack Mendelson — with the spirit of gospel and soul music [...]

The St. Paul JCC will feature two exhibits by artist Susan Weinberg, A Hole in Time and The Silence Speaks Loudly, that will be displayed Aug. 31 through Oct. 16. A Hole in Time is a collaborative project with local Holocaust survivor and educator Dora Zaidenweber; the pair share an ancestral connection to Radom, Poland, [...]

Joel Rubin listened to and learned from aging klezmorim Sid Beckerman and Max Epstein, on his road to clarinet virtuosity. The results of Rubin’s voyage into klezmer clarinet are on glorious display in his first album on the Tzadik label, Azoy Tsu Tsveyt. He is joined by pianist Uri Caine, a trailblazing jazz musician who [...]

Jazz veteran Dave Liebman composed all of the tunes on his new album, As Always (MAMA Records), and is the featured soloist on soprano saxophone and wooden flute. Gunnar Mossblad directs the 19-piece big band and plays sax, flute and clarinet. This accomplished recording comes in a year when Liebman, who has played with Miles [...]

New York-based artist Dina Kantor, a Minneapolis native, explores the personal significance of what it means to have both Finnish and Jewish roots in the new exhibit titled Finnish and Jewish: Photographs by Dina Kantor, which will open July 14 in the Tychman Shapiro Gallery at the Sabes JCC in St. Louis Park. In January [...]

Dan Israel, the singer-songwriter and state employee from St. Louis Park, submits his latest bid for rock stardom with the new CD titled Crosstown Traveler (Dan Israel Music). The 10 well-crafted tunes, a mix of ballads and rockers, make for a half-hour or so of enjoyable listening. “I’ll Get Along” is a plaintive, world-weary Randy [...]

Director Tony Gatlif (Latcho Drom) tells the story of a Roma (Gypsy) family trying to maintain their nomadic lifestyle in occupied France during World War II in Korkoro (Lorber Films), a fictional narrative film based on actual events. Korkoro will be available on DVD June 14 for home viewing. Although a thin plot hardly captures [...]

You can tune in on the dispiriting spectacle of the Twins’ demise, or you can watch the greatly enjoyable and informative documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (Docurama Films, $29.95), which is now out on DVD. The screening of Jews and Baseball, narrated by Dustin Hoffman, was one of the highlights of the [...]

It seems that there is an unending supply of stellar Israeli musicians migrating to the United States. Further evidence of the trend is Nadav Remez, an Israeli jazz guitarist who has settled in Brooklyn, N.Y. An alumni of Berklee and the New England Conservatory, Remez is out with his debut album, So Far (Brooklyn Jazz [...]