Fidl Afire

Violinist Alicia Svigals was one of the founding members of The Klezmatics and played with them for 17 years. She’s a leading klezmer violinist. And this is an excellent album of traditional and original material played with verve and fire. It begins with a solo violin fantasy followed by ten mostly upbeat tracks with trumpet, trombone, bass and drums. Hankus Netsky of the Klezmer Conservatory Band plays piano on some tracks and produces. There’s one vocal number ‘Mayn Mame Ver Ikh / I’m Becoming My Mother’, in both Yiddish and English, about getting older: your tired old face is now mine! But the highlights are instrumental, for instance the speedy ‘Levitt Bulgar’, ‘Alicia’s Patsh Tants’, which is original although sounds like it could be traditional, and the closing ‘South Fallsburg Bulgar’. There’s nothing particularly innovative, it’s just classy klezmer music, expertly played.