Boston, USA - The Klezmatics have a new studio album, Rise Up! Shteyt Oyf!  By rooting their music in the ancient modes and melodies of Jewish music and then expanding in contemporary directions, The Klezmatics produce art that is resonant with tradition and yet unbound by it. Rise Up, their first non-collaborative release in five years, continues the sonic journey begun on classic albums like Jews With Horns and The Well.

Samples from a 1948 Jewish archive combine with avant horn riffs. A homoerotic love song sits beside traditional Hasidic songs. And the CD title comes from a powerful gospel-tinged revision of Holly Near’s “I Ain’t Afraid” in both Yiddish and English. Not the repertoire of your grandmother, and yet it may be the very bridge connecting us to the past. The Klezmatics began performing “I Ain’t Afraid” for their post 9/11 concerts. “We see it as part of our purpose to be a link in the chain of all the activists who work for a better world,” explains trumpeter Frank London. “This song is one way of expressing this.” Produced by Ben Wisch.