Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer is both a history of this popular form of traditional Jewish music and an instructional book for professional and amateur musicians. Since the revival of klezmer music in the United States in the mid-1970s, Yiddish songs and klezmer dance melodies have served as the soundtrack for a resurgence of interest in Ashkenazic Jewish culture across the globe. Klezmer has taken root not only in America s major urban centers New York City, Chicago, San Francisco but also in emerging Jewish music hotspots like St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Krakow, and Tokyo. Its high energy, emotionally driven sound, and evocative Yiddish lyrics have found audiences everywhere. Shpil offers an expansive history of klezmer, from its medieval origins to the present era, and its contributors encompass a cast of world-renowned musicians who have recorded, performed, and studied klezmer for years. Individual chapters concentrate on the most common instruments found in a klezmer ensemble violin, clarinet, accordion, bass, percussion, and voice and conclude with a selection of three songs that illustrate and exemplify the history and techniques of that instrument. Shpil includes a glossary and a discography of both classic and new klezmer and Yiddish recordings, all designed to guide readers in an appreciation of this remarkable musical genre and the art of playing and singing klezmer tunes. Shpil: The Art of Playing Klezmer is ideal for amateur enthusiasts, musical scholars, beginning artists, and professional musicians, both solo and ensemble indeed, anyone who wants to experience the joy of listening to and playing this thousand-year-old folk music.

I am a demon of hell. The things I've done... The things I still do... Most would call me evil, and they would be right. It's in my bloodline. Son of the devil, prince of hell. I'm destined to be a monster, and 364 days a year, I fulfill that destiny. But for one night, I am more. The son of the devil is not supposed to know compassion or care. But I broke the rules; I fell in love. She's never seen me. She doesn't know a demon watches over her like a guardian angel. She is a dream, and demons are meant to have nightmares. ...But things are about to change. "The time will come. And the world will stop, ...and you will be mine."

Gillian is marked for hell. She has spent her lifetime fighting the devil's temptation, but his power is getting stronger. She fears it will only be a matter of time until she falls to her inevitable destiny, ...but an angel wants to save her soul. Sebastian once gave up his place in heaven to save mankind. Desperate to avoid damnation, he spent centuries buried away in a cabin, terrified of the day temptation would arrive on his doorstep. Now it has come in the form of a girl marked for hell but meant for him. Saving her may be Sebastian's final fall to condemnation, but giving her up would leave his heart to suffer eternally. Can he defeat the devil for Gillian's soul, or will angels fall?

Channing is a vampire who has spent his immortal existence on a mission. He's never had time for the pleasures of living or to mourn his lost mortality until one fated night when he crosses the path of an innocent mortal girl and falls hopelessly in love. Rose has lived her life sheltered from the rest of the world. With no one but her beloved sisters as allies, she spends her days half lost in fairytales, creating stories of the world she has yet to know and believing in a true love she is destined to feel. When Rose becomes the object of Channing's heart and obsession, dreams of fairytales become nightmares of monsters. In a love story as dark as it is destined, Channing seeks to prove to Rose that love defines the heart of a monster and can transform any beast into a man.

A Wandering Feast is a delightful book that welcomes the reader to a wonderful journey through the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe. Page after page, you will visit the still-vibrant Jewish world and discover Yiddish folkways, toe-tapping klezmer music, and heart-warming traditional food. Yale Strom and Elizabeth Schwartz have documented an amazing journey-organized around visits to authentic cities and villages in Eastern Europe-with a fascinating travelogue that includes inspiring stories, photographs, music, and recipes. A Wandering Feast reveals that a culture long feared to be gone forever is still very much alive.

"A Wandering Feast is rambunctious, festive, enlightening and . . . yes, tasty."
-Ilan Stavans, author, On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language

"Captures, preserves, contectualizes, and celebrates life."
-Annette Insdorf, author, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust

"A vehicle for an evocation and examination of his personal odyssey, and ultimately of Jewish history and identity."
-Eva Fogelman, author, Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust

"Strom proves himself a master storyteller and archivist of the lost Jewish worlds of post-Holocaust Europe."
-Thane Rosenbaum, the author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke, and Elijah Visible