A LATIN KLEZMER LOVER
Cuban-born percussionist Roberto Rodriguez takes center stage at the JCC in Manhattan, teaming up with renowned clarinetist David Krakauer and his Roberto Rodriguez Septet to perform music from his album “El Danzon De Moises,” released on John Zorn’s Tzadik record label.
The record, Rodriguez’s first as the primary composer, brings together Cuban clave rhythms and Bulgar klezmer music.
Rodriguez, who has performed with Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan’s Miami Sound Machine, was exposed to Jewish culture while growing up and working as a musician in South Florida, where he played Jewish weddings, bar mitzvahs and even in the Yiddish theater.
“I could go between one and the other,” he said of Latin and Jewish music. “The music has a unity that moves you, makes you want to dance, makes you want to cry, makes you want to laugh. It tells a story. That’s what I feel strongly about — telling a story, a story where you can close your eyes and forget all your troubles and escape reality.
The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave.; Dec. 18, 8 p.m.; $20. (646-505-5708 or www.jccmanhattan.org)
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
