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Aaron Alexander

Drummer and Composer Aaron Alexander is a New York City based klezmer and jazz drummer, composer, bandleader and educator. His original klezmer/jazz/world music band "Midrash Mish Mosh" has been acclaimed by critics, musicians and fans, and has appeared in respected venues in New York City, (Makor, Knitting Factory, Satalla, Live on WNYC's New Sounds with John Schaefer, and others) as well as Krakow, Poland; Vienna, Austria; and Toronto, Ontario. Over the past two decades, Alexander's performances and recordings with Hasidic New Wave, BABKAS(with Brad Shepik & Briggan Krauss), The Klezmatics, Greg Wall, Alicia Svigals, Satoko Fujii Orchestra, Ray Musiker, Tronzo Trio, Jay Clayton, Margot Leverett, Timebone, Alex Kontorovich, Freeplay, German Goldenshteyn, Boban Markovic' Orkestar, and Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars have brought his music to the ears of listeners all over the world.

Alexander has toured extensively in North and South America and Europe with many different groups. He has appeared on Prairie Home Companion with the Klezmatics, BET Live with Hasidic New Wave, performed music for theatre at Joseph Papp Public Theater, Seattle Rep Theater, Arena Stage in Wash. DC and LaMama Etc. Alexander has composed and performed music for Dance and conceived and produced Hasidic New Wave's acclaimed collaboration with Senegalese Sabar ensemble Yakar Rhythms. He has received composition grants from the Seattle Arts Commission and Meet The Composer Foundation. His collective band Timebone, in 1990 won an Earshot Jazz award for "Best Acoustic Jazz Group."

Aaron has appeared at many of the top Jazz and World Music Festivals and Venues, including Krakow Festival of Jewish Culture, Lincoln Center, Chicago World Music Festival, Pitchfork Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Bumbershoot, North Sea Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Royal Festival Hall in London, Berlin Jazz Festival, Ring Ring Festival (Belgrade), Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto, Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), New Morning in Paris, Lincoln Center, Pepsi Sziget Festival (Budapest), San Francisco Jazz Festival, Earshot Jazz Festival, Moods in Zurich, Porgy and Bess in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and festivals in Argentina, Brazil, England, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, France, Belgium, and Springfield, IL. Alexander is on the teaching faculty at Klez Kamp, Klez Kanada and had taught at Yiddish Summer Weimar and other venues. Alexander grew up in Seattle and moved to NYC in 1993.

Alexander has accompanied many of the biggest names in Jewish music on various events run by Workmen's Circle, Circle Lodge, Klez Kamp, Klez Kanada and other organizations. He has performed with such luminaries as Claire Barry (of the Barry Sisters), Pete Sokolow, Cantors Alberto Mizrahi and Benzion Miller, Theodore Bikel, Joanne Borts, Adrienne Cooper, Zalmen Mlotek, Tovah Feldshuh, Mina Bern, Avi Hoffman, Bob Abelson, Fyvush Finkel, Eleanor Reissa, Bruce Adler, and many others.

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301
Album Review

Aaron Alexander: Midrash Mish Mosh

Read "Midrash Mish Mosh" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The klezmer base is there, unmistakeable, on drummer Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh, but a bunch of other influences wail into the sound, too. For example, guitarist Brad Shepik lends a punk rock feeling to the opener, “Kleyzmish Moshpit." The title alone gives a big hint of what to expect. A mosh pit with Jewish leanings? I can't say, never having experienced a mosh pit in any form; but to these ears it sounds like Jimi Hendrix in a yarmulke, ...

247
Album Review

Aaron Alexander: Midrash Mish Mosh

Read "Midrash Mish Mosh" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


"Midrash" comes from the Hebrew word “darash," which means “to inquire." “Mis mosh mish" means “mixed-up" or “combination." That was easy; Aaron Alexander explains the terms in the liner notes. Definitions having been provided, this music, part of Tzadik's Radical Jewish Culture series, is indeed an exhilarating combination. To call it mixed-up would be denying it the power and the glory, the joy and the intensity that it creates.

One could well expect klezmer music to be at ...

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105

Recording

Julian Priester and Aaron Alexander Put It Together on Duo Disk "Conversational Music"

Julian Priester and Aaron Alexander Put It Together on Duo Disk "Conversational Music"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

First things first. If you do not know who Julian Priester is (and I of course assume that most readers are very familiar with him) you have missed a very important part of what makes the trombone a central instrument in jazz today. From Max Roach's and Sun Ra's bands in the fifties, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi in the early '70s, and through to today, he has been a major stylist. The good news is that he sounds great today, especially ...

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Performance / Tour

Vessels Of Song: Matt Darriau And Pardox Trio (Fri) Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh (Sat) This Weekend at The Cornelia Street Cafe

Vessels Of Song: Matt Darriau And Pardox Trio (Fri) Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh (Sat) This Weekend at The Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

This Weekend at The Cornelia Street Cafe Fri Aug 18 VESSELS OF SONG: MATT DARRIAU AND PARDOX TRIO (Matt Darriau, reeds;Brad Shepik, guitar;Rufus Cappadocia, cello, compositions;Seido Salifoski, percussion) Balkan Gypsy inflected jazz and groove music. (just made that up) New York based PARADOX TRIO creates original music inspired by Eastern European, Balkan, Gypsy and downtown traditions. In the last seven years the quartet has toured and played major festivals throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada. The group's dynamic performances and ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Conversational Music

Point of Departure, WMPG-FM
2012

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Midrash Mish Mosh

Faithful Productions
2004

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