5.11.08
What I'm Reading
Martin Amis, Bob Dylan books, Richard Price
5.11.08
How I'm Feeling
Need a replacement for lower back
5.8.08
Weekend Highlights May 9-11
THE ROGOVOY REPORT
5.6.08
[PRESS RELEASE] Pinchas Zukerman daughter Natalia to headline at Club Helsinki
Coming to Great Barrington, Mass., nightclub on May 18
5.2.08
Singer/composer Jenny Scheinman at MASS MoCA is weekend's top pick
Preview by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.25.08
[FILM REVIEW] Shine a Light (The Rolling Stones)
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.17.08
[FILM REVIEW] The Counterfeiters
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
4.11.08
Klezmatics do Woody Guthrie's Jewish songs
Weekend highlights, April 11-13
3.17.08
GOLEM returns to Club Helsinki for PURIM this Friday night
Press Release from Club Helsinki
7.1.07
[PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW] Aurelia Thierree at Jacob's Pillow
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING
2.25.08
Richard Thompson, America, and Madeline Peyroux added to Mahaiwe lineup this spring
Mahaiwe press release
2.25.08
Dennis Prager to make the case for Judaism at Berkshire South
Simulcast of lecture at NY's 92nd St. Y
2.24.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Urban vs. Pastoral Music at the Mahaiwe courtesy of Close Encounters with Music
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[THEATER REVIEW] TRUMBO at Barrington Stage
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
2.18.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
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[MUSIC REVIEW] Sarah Aroeste's neo-Ladino at Club Helsinki
2.18.08
SARAH AROESTE
Club Helsinki
February 17, 2008
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
(Great Barrington, Mass., February 18, 2008) -- Last night at Club Helsinki, Sarah Aroeste demonstrated why Yiddish music's overlooked cousin, Ladino music, is getting short shrift and is worthy of as much attention as its Ashkenazic relative.
Stemming herself from a Sephardic family with roots in Greece (to where many Jews fled from the Spanish Inquisition), Aroeste and her acoustic trio took listeners on a journey through the Sephardic diaspora on a program of traditional folk songs and several original compositions.
Accompanied by the masterful Dan Nadel (flamenco guitar & oud) and Liron Peled (percussion), Aroeste boasted a lovely and alluring stage presence -- literally drawing listeners in with her subtly inviting gestures of her hands and swanlike arms.
But it was Aroeste's voice that kept the full-house crowd enraptured, as she utilized her classically trained instrument and her fluency in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and Spanish to cross linguistic barriers and paint a portrait of life in the Sephardic diaspora. She's like a funkier, hipper Joan Baez of the Ladino world.
Aroeste is still a relatively young, green performer, but she has all the tools -- in terms of performance and originality -- to revive interest in this wonderful tradition and to take it to the next step, much as groups like the Klezmatics have done with Yiddish music.
Seth Rogovoy is the author of THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER: A MUSIC LOVER'S GUIDE TO JEWISH ROOTS AND SOUL MUSIC.
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