PRESS & WORDS:
TABLE POUNDING RECORDS

For MAZEL TOV COCKTAIL PARTY! (2022):

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

Rhythmically it goes around the world: Square Dance-Polka-Calypso-Hora and back. Iranian drums and electronic beats, harmonica and sampler, jew's harp and bass, guitar and oud – the mixture can hardly be more colorful and yet nothing slips into complacent arbitrariness here. The focus is clearly on the slogan "Party!". Because: "It's been a really hard two years, and we need to move together. We wanted to make new tunes that got people up and dancing. It's a party, and you're all invited!" So let's go! Mazeltov!
Karsten Zimalla: WESTZEIT

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

New York clarinetist David Krakauer has always been a wily fox who's never missed a trick. On the new joint work with his partner Kathleen Tagg, he ignites the next stage of his multicultural Yiddish party music. Each piece is smashed with a fervor and conviction, as if one had found the ultimate brew. In terms of amusement, the album can hardly be surpassed. However, the compilation of the songs and genres alone also reveals a cosmopolitanism that can be understood as a gift to the whole of humanity.
Wolf Kampmann, Jazz thing 143

For DAVID KRAKAUER & KATHLEEN TAGG'S BREATH & HAMMER (2020):

New Sounds on WQXR Radio April 30, 2020 by John Schaefer
“This record is kind of remarkable, you almost have to take their word for it when they tell you it’s nothing but clarinet and piano….A duo record- although it never sounds like just two players…”

MezzoTV: September, 2020
Top Jazz Album of September 2020

From David Harrington, Kronos Quartet, May 2020
”‘Breath and 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.”

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

Bandcamp: Best Jazz of May 2020 on Bandcamp Jun 19, 2020 by Dave Sumner
“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…The compositional influence of a wide array of different musicians, as focused through the singular lens of Krakauer and Tagg, leads to new visions of older perspectives.”

Transglobal World Music Chart:
Album #28 out of top 40, September 2020; Album #30 out of top 40, October 2020; Album #40 out of top 40, November 2020

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)

NPR Classical May 21, 2020
“The genre-fluid clarinet genius David Krakauer joins pianist Kathleen Tagg for “The Geyser,” an appropriately titled outburst that kicks off their new album 'Breath and Hammer.'”

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
Mundofunías: Mundofonías’ favorite albums for July and August 2020

For DAVID KRAKAUER & KATHLEEN TAGG'S MINYAN FILM SCORE (2020):
“Has late ’80s Brighton Beach ever been rendered so truthfully onscreen? New York’s Russian immigrant enclave by the sea is ripe with texture in “Minyan,” the narrative debut of documentarian Eric Steele. There are a lot of moving parts in “Minyan,” glued together by a hauntingly frenetic klezmer score, but it ensures the film never courts cliche. The questions at hand are too great for a single answer, and — as any Jewish scholar will tell you — are always up for interpretation.”
—Jude Dry, IndieWire

"Documentary maker Eric Steel interweaves multiple threads with admirable skill and balance in his engrossing narrative feature debut, Minyan...He also benefits from strong collaborations with composers David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg, whose score brings rich cultural specificity, and with accomplished cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland (Judy), who shoots the film in wintry tones that in retrospect feel almost like black and white."
–David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

"One knows from McCann’s restless turn and the competing clarinets in David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg’s wonderfully docile score that David has yet to reconcile who he is internally, making his unease in any number of worlds that he’s naturally been assigned a place in particularly pronounced, and while “Minyan” never strays from his perspective, the film is quite moving in presenting the dilemma facing all of the characters..."
–Stephen Saito, Movable Fest

“Gentle rhythms and motifs are woven into the narrative: the covert draining and refilling of the ‘best’ vodka; the inspiring literature class; the score, klezmer infused jazz which anchors David’s story to the traditions of his family.”
–Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

”Minyan is a leisurely film, running almost two hours, but it’s never boring thanks to the strength of the performances, the cinematography by Ole Bratt Birkeland, and especially the klezmer-inflected score by David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg.”
- Sarah Boslaugh, The Arts STL

MORE:
IndieWire Review
​Hollywood Reporter Review

FOR ABRAHAM INC.'S TOGETHER WE STAND (2019):
"The opening title track and "Lullaby for Charlottesville" resonate with meaning in the light of 2020's global activism, and the clarinetist's unaccompanied closing to his "Lullaby" burns like a genuine wail from his soul. Wesley and Krakauer simultaneously rip into solos to create a gloriously disorderly and unkempt, thematically perfect sound in "The Hippies Were Right"... The set-ending "Abe Inc.'s House Party," a song written about a party that sounds like a party, is the perfect marriage of form and content. The rhythm section couldn't nail this down any harder or funkier, building up a shimmering, shimmying framework for every soloist in turn to rock the house." -Chris M. Slawecki, All About Jazz

“If you like jazz that flirts with funk and other musical styles that move, Abraham Inc's album, “Together We Stand”, is for you… The energy that emanates from this collective is truly incredible...”
-Thierry Docmac, Paris-Move (orig. French, translated to English)

"Trombone icon Fred Wesley, the humble but brilliant arranger with the JBs and Bootsy Collins, gets a kick out of experimentation. Celebrated clarinet veteran David Krakauer wanted to mix klezmer with jazz, funk, blues and hip hop... They let themselves be permeated with the soundscapes and noises of Socalled, Canadian rapper-samplist-producer... The overwhelming result of this very fruitful collaboration of this triumvirate drips from all sides, with clarinetist David Krakauer in particular providing many unexpected highlights in melody, rhythm, effectiveness, enthusiasm and pizzazz."
–Pieter Franssen, Jazzism (orig. Dutch, translated to English)

"Basically, one might be entitled to wonder what this mess is. David Krakauer, former clarinetist almost single-handedly embodying the klezmer revival that joins forces with Fred Wesley, symbolic trombonist of the New Orleans renaissance, all orchestrated by the furious samples of SoCalled, long-working Canadian DJ with Krakauer. Bubbemeises, David’s grandmother would have said. And yet. From “Together We Stand”, which gives the name to the album, we can see where the trio and their myriad of guests are going, starting with the very funkish drummer Michael Sarin. Together, we stick together. Together, we take better the blows of a stale America; if we can also do it festively ... That’s the subject of this record, and it’s little to say that we’re having fun.  “The Hippies Were Right” is the perfect example. Wesley shouts, a veritable metronome of a rowdy ensemble, where guitarist Sherryl Bailey is the perfect fuel. Eddie Allen on the trumpet adds power and spirits, but all these little people have fun and dance with a jubilation that celebrates freedom. The same goes for the beautiful “Blue Pepper” which plays on a New York-style Ellington theme. SoCalled plays the keyboard to enhance the bass while Krakauer kneads the theme to make it his own, with rare fluidity... So what is this mess? Something very encouraging."
–Franpi Barriaux, Citizen Jazz (orig. French, translated to English)

MORE:
ALL ABOUT JAZZ REVIEW
​PARIS-MOVE REVIEW
​CITIZEN JAZZ REVIEW
​JAZZISM REVIEW

For KATHLEEN TAGG AND ANDRE PETERSEN'S WHERE WORLDS COLLIDE (2017):
" An open-minded mix of traditions, and the bravura technique they also share. The results are reflective and exuberant, by turns, and enormously enjoyable throughout." 
- Jon Turney, London Jazz Times​

​“Petersen and Tagg impress with their commanding opening flourishes where Petersen develops dramatic Intensity...offset against Tagg's sonic additions that invoke the sounds and smells of Africa." -Cue Magazine

Where Worlds Collide was featured on New Sounds (WQXR) with John Schaefer. Four tracks from the album are featured alongside tracks by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Kronos Quartet, Derek Gripper & Guy Buttery. 

For DAVID KRAKAUER'S CHECKPOINT:
"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

​MORE:
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

 For 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

For ABRAHAM INC.'s 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