Mazel Tov Cocktail Party ​by David Krakauer with producer Kathleen Tagg
Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Table Pounding Records | Style: World Fusion/Klezmer/Folk/Fun Post-Genre
The album Mazel Tov Cocktail Party from the touring project Square Peg Throwdown! was conceived and created by Krakauer and producer Kathleen Tagg as a “good vibes explosion” in response to the current climate of incredible polarization and negativity that pervades our daily lives.
Along with Krakauer and Tagg, the album showcases an incredibly high-octane group of world class musicians in a cathartic expression of joy and affirmation. www.squarepegthrowdown.com

Personnel: David Krakauer, Clarinet and Vocals; Kathleen Tagg, Keyboards, Cello, Accordion, Electronics/Samples; Sarah MK, MC, Vocals and Rap Vox; Martin Shamoonpour, Daf (Frame drum), jaw harp and mouth percussion; Yoshie Fruchter, Electric Guitar, Oud and Mandolin; Jerome Harris, Bass & Vocals; BergsonistElectronics/Samples; Socalled, Electronics/Samples; Jeremy Flower aka Keepalive, Electronics/Samples

"Mazel Tov Cocktail Party is a breath of fresh air, an incentive to dance to klezmer music, (Krakauer's favorite playground); but also to polka, Romanian hora, calypso, Quebec square dance... "In the face of the overwhelming negativity and alarming rise of hatred and intolerance in today's world," let's breathe and dance together, Krakauer & Tagg proclaim in chorus. More than a suggestion, an injunction. Patrick Labesse: LE MONDE

Do you want an amazing and nice mix? Like putting a Mentos in Coke... You take a rapper, some specialists in sampling and electro, a mad clarinet and you entrust everything to DAVID KRAKAUER and KATHLEEN TAGG. Listening to this music is a real outlet, spiritual and festive. A Calypso and a Polka come to visit us as curious little animals. Or the Mississippi Blues is crossed with a Middle Eastern Oud. ...Traditional tunes are passed through the mill of rock, rap and jazz creating a music of cartoons under strobe effects... Can make you addicted... Pascal David: JUKE BOX DETOX

An informal cocktail party typically lasts a few hours, and this one ends all too soon. Clap your hands, do-si-do and allemande right to the urban beat, Krakky’s clarinet and the band’s fascinating rhythms. And when everyone shouts “Mazel Tov!”, as the title cut cues up, “Toda” (meaning "Thank You") would be our appropriate response.
Joe Ross: ROOTS MUSIC REVIEW: 5/5 Stars

Going from the electro beats and funky scratches of "Jammin' With Socalled", to the title track (where you would swear to hear Funkadelic and the Pointer Sisters jamming with Jimi Hendrix and Rabbi Jacob), through the cover of the Appalachian bluegrass classic "I'm A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (.....transposed here in Ottoman mode), this album embraces multiple and crossed cultural heritages. Coming from an ecumenicisme, which is as much salutary as is crucial in our troubled times; this festive record actually does good where it hurts.
Patrick Dallongeville PARIS-MOVE

The latest in a production as varied as it is multiple, this festive album once again brings together New York clarinetist David Krakauer and South African pianist, arranger and composer Kathleen Tagg. After a magnificent 1st album in duo released at the end of summer 2020, D. Krakauer and K.Tagg create the Mazel Tov Cocktail Party Orchestra. This project, positive and bright, ..... is intended, in contrast to the deadly explosiveness of a Molotov cocktail, to illuminate the world with hope and joy. It is.....a very beautiful invigorating opus open to the world and life that David Krakauer and his accomplices give us there to whom we can only say: Mazel Tov! François Saddi: 5PLANÊTES

FEATURED ON:

NPR Morning Edition Feature (Jon Kalish): May 2022
RFI/Radio France Internationale: Musique de Monde Feature & Live Studio Performance (Laurence Aloir): May 2022
Le Monde Review: March 2022

Produced by Kathleen Tagg

BREATH & HAMMER (2020)

TABLE POUNDING RECORDS: 2020. With DAVID KRAKAUER

"...You almost have to take their word for it when they tell you it is nothing but clarinet and piano…”
- JOHN SCHAEFER (HOST OF WNYC NEW SOUNDS)

"Breath & Hammer is a masterful and joyous journey that rewards and delights the listener every moment of the way. I was beaming through the entire album, reinvigorated by the energy and imagination of each track and so happy to know that David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg have made a musical adventure that pulls us out of the static isolated silence of our fraught time. They have found a way to give music a huge refreshing burst of energy only true explorers are able to give. They bound to ecstatic heights of fantasy and show us a new bright path forward."
- DAVID HARRINGTON (KRONOS QUARTET)

"The most compelling thing about this project from clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg is the way three different sources culminate in one convergence. The influences of klezmer, modern jazz, and classical find any number of meeting points."
- DAVE SUMNER, BANDCAMP DAILY (THE BEST JAZZ ON BANDCAMP: MAY 2020)

MezzoTV: September, 2020
Top Jazz Album of September 2020

Paris-Move: David Krakauer & Kathleen Tagg - Breath & Hammer June 18, 2020 by Thierry Docman
‘Indispensable’ rating.
“A musical alchemy is the key word of this superb album…” (translated, orig. French)

Télérama: Quadruple forte (ffff) rating (top rating possible), September 2020 by Anne Berthod

Le Monde: Albums September 11, 2020 by Patrick Labesse
”Joyeux, malin, truffé de clins d’œil et de fantaisie, ce pas de deux clarinette-piano pétille de légèreté, même dans ses moments plus introspectifs. De la musique klezmer? Oui, sans doute mais bien plus encore. Pendant que le clarinettiste David Krakauer régale de ses notes suraiguës ou tendres, Kathleen Tagg, pianiste new-yorkaise née en Afrique du Sud, joue la brisure, la cassure impromptue, martèle ou effleure ... Excellent.”

B! Ritmos: CD Recommendation September 3, 2020 by Candido Querol
”You come back relaxed after the summer period and the first thing you find in your musical novelties is this time bomb… When listening to the album, the first thing that surprises you is the large number of different sounds even though they only use two instruments, clarinet and piano… don't ask me how Tagg gets those percussions because I don't understand it either … An album that is already making people talk and a live show (as you can see in the video) that with the effects of the sound artist Jesse Gilbert should be quite an experience. Unfortunately, once again, the promoters of this country have escaped.” (translated, orig. Spanish)

JazzAround September 18, 2020 by Diane Cammaert
“Jazz, classical music and klezmer collide to offer music that transcends all stylistic and cultural boundaries.
This album will give you only one desire: to continue your wandering in search of their music as well as that of their companions. In short, a real electro-acoustic performance that will make you travel far beyond the confines of your living room. We are far from confinement …” (Translated, orig. French)

Amina Magazine Nov/Dec 2020 by Luigi Elongui
“The harmonies of jazz and the creative impulse of the experimental join with classical tunes and the indescribable aromas of central European nostalgia: an original, unique repertoire that is the charm of this duo, clarinetist David Krakauer and classical pianist South African Kathleen Tagg … intense colors, with unfathomable evocations and furtive escapades. All in the astonishing synergy of the two performers who share the same quest: a borderless journey in search of new sounds, illuminated by the heritage of two enormous musical movements.” (translated, orig. French)

Citizen Jazz: Chronique, 28 June 2020 by Gilles Guajarengues, June 28, 2020
“it's the feverishness, and a kind of frenetic effervescence, that characterizes the album…” (translated, orig. French)

Keyboard Recording Home Studio Magazine Sept. / Oct. 2020 issue by Abel Durand
“David Krakauer, on clarinet, and Kathleen Tagg, on piano and “piano orchestra”, offer us an album where the musical alchemy is evident. These two outstanding musicians juggle between klezmer, jazz, and classical music.

Telerama Sortir: Review November 2020
“Sur la scène de ce concert berlinois, le clarinettiste américain et la pianiste sud-africaine jouent derrière des cloisons transparentes: un détail amusant quand on connaît les pratiques décloisonnées de ces deux concertistes. L’un a débridé son jeu aux avant-postes du swing yiddish, l’autre á la pointe de la musique contemporaine. Or, les projections vidéo de leurs avatars quasi holographiques amplifient justement l’effet de leurs audacieuses déconstructions: des thèmes brillamment réarrangés façon jeu de Kapla, dans un superposition complexe, remuante, mais non moins lyrique de sons trafiqués à la vue du public jusque dans la ventre du piano. Entre danzón cubain et lamento moldave, le charme puissant des mélodies demeure.”

FEATURED ON:

New Sounds on WNYC with John Schaefer
NPR Music: Best New Songs You've Missed During Quarantine
The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: May 2020
Mezzo TV: Top Jazz albums: September
Mundofunías: Mundofonías’ favorite albums for July and August 2020

Produced by Kathleen Tagg

Where Worlds Collide by Kathleen Tagg and Andre Petersen
​​Year Released: 2017 | Record Label: Table Pounding Records | Style: Jazz/Classical/World Music
In this unique two-piano album featuring two of South Africa's leading pianists, original compositions live alongside music by some of the giants of South African jazz. This project is Pan-African in influence, though very much rooted in a South Africa.  For this recording, every one of those influences comes into play- classical training and structure, jazz improvisation, polyrhythmic influences, extended techniques, goema and the sound of selected sub-Saharan African instruments. 

This is a project that is Pan-African in vision, but chamber music in scale. The pianos are used in traditional and non-traditional ways to achieve a wealth of sounds from the inside the piano by using organic extended techniques such as plucking, stopping the strings and bowed piano. ​http://www.taggpetersenduo.com

CHECKPOINT (2016)

"This is one way that Jewish music should sound in 2016: a melding of Jewish, American, and other musical styles reflecting the passions of David Krakauer, reflecting the world in which we all live. This is a vital recording, standing out in a year when there is an accumulation of a wealth of new Jewish music."
-Ari Davidow, Klezmer Shack
​
​​"The checkpoint of the title is a reference to the city of Berlin, where East used to meet West. It still does in David Krakauer’s clarinet playing, which has deep klezmer roots and arresting avant-garde blossoms."
-Mac Randall, JazzTimes

"Checkpoint, as with many of Krakauer's albums, uses incongruity to its advantage. Ancestral Groove takes seemingly disparate ideas and manages to use them as stabilizing forces that balance each other out. Hebraic strains are set off against samples and beats, zany thoughts meet with relatively fixed elements, and joy and sadness allay one another in fascinating ways....Checkpoint, on the whole, proves to be an audacious and addictive blend of past and present. When it comes to feeding new art with genealogy and experience, David Krakauer is really in a class by himself."
-Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz

"It’s music driven by the reckless abandon of David Krakauer, who turns the clarinet and traditional Eastern European music into a party for the avant-inclined. Experimental or not, Checkpoint is just good, weird fun."
-S. Victor Aaron, Something Else Reviews

"The band's new CD, Checkpoint (on the presumably self-started Table Pounding Records label, distributed by United for Opportunity), is kick-ass, maybe his best—certainly Krakauer's most dancing-in-your-head-and-on-the-floor-at-the-same-time exciting—album of this sort."
-Fred Kaplan, Stereophile

All About Jazz Album Review
New York Times Review
NYC-ARTS
JazzTimes
DownBeat Magazine Editors’ Pick
Tablet Podcast Interview
The Jewish Week
Time Out New York Critics’ Pick
Village Voice Best Jazz Shows in NYC
Jewish Daily Forward
WNYC
Jewish Voice

The Big Picture by David Krakauer & the 35mm Orchestra
Year Released: 2014 | Record Label: Table Pounding Records | Style: Modern Jazz
​The Big Picture explores the inseparable relationship between music and movies while reminding the audience of their incomparable contribution as co-stars. Clarinetist extraordinaire David Krakauer s otherworldly interpretations of the music found in a myriad of moviegoer favorites including Sophie s Choice, Life is Beautiful, The Pianist, Radio Days, and more, will transport the audience to the shores of their memory banks while expanding their appreciation of one of life s great couples music and  movies.  http://davidkrakauer.com/

Personnel:
David Krakauer: clarinet and bass clarinet; Jenny Scheinman: violin; Adam Rogers: guitars (1, 2, 4-12); Rob Burger: piano, celeste, pump organ, Hammond organ, accordion and vibes; Greg Cohen: double bass (1, 2, 4-12); Nicki Parrott: double bass (3); Sheryl Bailey: guitar (3); Keepalive: loops (3); Jim Black: drums and percussion.

THE BIG PICTURE (2014)

‘Dashes of New York City downtown-like risk-taking episodes, Jewish folk, jazz, rock andAmericana, amid Krakauer’s animated shuddering expressionism... Rousing, celebratory gala… Krakauer’s brainchild is colorful, dense and largely festive along with his astute adherence to compositional detail…’’
-All About Jazz
‘‘Krakauer will lovingly render, or unapologetically mess with, music from such films as Cabaret, Lenny, Avalon, Love and Death, The Producers and Funny Girl. The moods range from pure balladic elegance to ballsy rocking out… The eerily voice-like klezmer clarinet: it couldn't be a better fit for the movie themes that David Krakauer interprets.’’
-The Village Voice
‘‘Although Krakauer can gracefully unspool toe-tapping joviality, he is also a master of nuance who knows how to maximize the impact of a ballad. Segments of “La Vita E Bella” and “The Family” are memorable for the intoxicating quality of their gorgeous melodies. Krakauer’s arrangement of “Moving To The Ghetto” generates the same intensity of drama that a great film can.’’
-Downbeat Magazine

‘‘Brilliant concept, first-rate execution... Krakauer’s star shines brighter than ever on The Big Picture.’’
-The Absolute Sound

‘‘Ebullient clarinet wizard."
-TimeOut New York

‘‘David Krakauer is to klezmer what Eddie Palmieri is to salsa:  a virtuoso grounded in — and deeply committed to — a musical genre that is an expression of his own cultural background, and an innovator who takes the genre places it has never been. Krakauer and the band do wonderful and often surprising things with every one, re-inventing the material with soul, pathos, humor, and no lack of funkiness. With his new release, The Big Picture, he’s crafted his most successful and boundary-smashing work to date.’’
-Pop Matters

‘‘Mr. Krakauer’s clarinet girded each with a piercing wail… Communicating anguish, outrage and catharsis. And connection… As with the klezmer tune in the encore, Mr. Krakauer gave it his all.’’
-The New York Times

‘‘David Krakauer is one of the most exhilarating clarinetists in town. He’s also New York to the core… The Big Picture celebrates New York-centric film music from across the ages, a mix of well-known and obscure treasures, recorded with a killer band… How do you do Body and Soul and make it fresh? Turn it into a slinky noir clarinet feature and swing it from a hint of a waltz to a Lynchian sway… Everything here serves more or less as a launching pad for Krakauer’s swirling, crescendoing, sometimes achingly intense, sometimes subtly witty clarinet solos.’’
​- New York Music Daily

Tweet tweet (2010)

“This endlessly surprising yet highly successful hybrid of klezmer, funk and hip-hop had the enthusiastic crowd—young and old, Jews and gentiles, whites and blacks—dancing ecstatically in the aisles like it was a Jewish wedding. Wesley brought the funk while virtuoso clarinetist David Krakauer delivered the passionate intensity and deep Jewish soul that ties him to the lineage of klezmer clarinet kings like Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras. Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist and visionary beat architect Josh Dolgin, aka Socalled, provided a bridge between the klezmer and hip-hop worlds with his audacious Hebraic rapping while the Bronx-bred emcee C-Rayz Walz brought street cred to this unlikeliest of collaborations with his remarkable freestyling facility and stark urban imagery.”
-Bill Milkowski, Jazz Times

"Wesley’s fat trombone licks, Krakauer’s Klezmer-tinged improvisations, the rhythm section’s funk structure—they found a balance that was powerfully danceable...I predicted the standing ovation before and after the encore. I wasn’t even shocked by the curtain call a few minutes later. But when I snuck out the door a good five minutes after the band’s last appearance on stage, the crowd was still on its feet, determined to beat their hands until they were black and blue."
-Ben Conniff, Playboy Magazine

“Time and time again, artists from different backgrounds have found ways to connect and transcend cultural differences through music. This is clearly the case in the unique collaboration of Abraham Inc's Tweet Tweet , the first release from a touring band that blends Klezmer music, funk, hip hop and jazz into an infectious and eclectic stew…The pocket is deep and Thick, provided by tight rhythms, be they straight hip hop beats in the title track or fervent Yiddish dance grooves… It's easy to understand why Abraham Inc is thrilling audiences from Europe's Transmusicales de Rennes to Harlem's Historic Apollo Theater.”
- Mark F. Turner, All About Jazz

“It is easy to call this the funkiest Jewish release, ever… Until the band gets together and puts out another release, this is as good as it gets. Hell, this is just wonderful. If James Brown had gotten klezmer, even with Fred Wesley, he would have been happy to sound this good. Get your copy, and maybe a few spares, at the Abraham Inc store.”
- Ari Davidow, Klezmer Shack

"[James] Brown’s famed trombonist Fred Wesley, klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and Canadian beatmaster Socalled make up the group Abraham Inc., which mixes Jewish music with traditionally African-American music...The one-night-only performance brought the three together along with a stellar back-up crew mashing together klezmer, hip-hop and funk making a sound new to music lovers."
-Cyril Josh Barker, Amersterdam News Staff

"One of the most important parts of the Apollo’s history over time has been the continual exploration and presentation of new types of music. The debut performance of Abraham Inc. is part of the Apollo’s legacy of legends and new artists coming together."
-Laura Greer, The Apollo’s Vice President of Programming