Jordan’s full-length studio album of original contemporary Yiddish music for kids and families: “Pantakozak & other new Yiddish songs for kids,” is available now from Borscht Beat via Bandcamp, together with an 11” x 11” kids book with original art by Nina Wright and lyrics in Yiddish, English, and transliterated Yiddish.
A song for the Jewish “New Year of the Trees.”
I wrote these bilingual verses to a Romanian melody for preschoolers to play out the motions of planting trees a few years ago and was happy to get the chance to record it with Marin Bunea and his amazing lautari ensemble in Chișinău, Moldova (קישינעװ) on "Pantakozak and Other New Yiddish Songs for Kids".
The lyrics lead the children through motions of digging, planting, sprinkling, soil, watering, and dancing--first in English and then in Yiddish. The kids at Temple Beth Shalom Preschool generally got so excited about the motions that they kept following along when the language switched to Yiddish, which is a great way to develop context-rich language experience.
From "Pantakozak and Other New Yiddish Songs for Kids," available from Borscht Beat here: https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/pantakozak-and-other-new-yiddish-songs-for-kids
Performed by Jordan Wax with Marin Bunea si Taraf de Chisinau in Chisinau, Moldova. Translation into Russian by Fima Chorny.
From "Pantakozak and Other New Yiddish Songs for Kids" by Jordan Wax Available now at: https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/pantakozak-and-other-new-yiddish-songs-for-kids
With Jake Shulman-Ment, violin
From "Pantakozak and Other New Yiddish Songs for Kids" by Jordan Wax Available now at https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/ accompanied by a 17-page lyric kidsbook with art by Nina Wright
“Chag Dag / The Festival of the Fish” live in Santa Fe, January 2025.
With Jeremy Bleich (bass), Clara Byom (clarinet), Gregory Gutin (percussion) and Adam Horowitz (accordion)
A bilingual adaptation and update of Mordkhe Rivesman's one-verse song, "Khanike," as published in "Heym un Mishpokhe Yomim Toyvim" (Buenos Aires 1947). Melody and first verse by M. Rivesman. Jordan Wax- electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ Rachel Leader- violin Jeremy Barnes- percussion Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jeremy Barnes in Albuquerque, NM, December 2024.
A poignant Yiddish new year's song written from a child's perspective, consoling and begging their mother to believe in the possibility that the wars will end and we will see peace this year. This is a bilingual adaptation of the first stanza of the Yiddish song "Gloyb Mamenyu Nor גלױב מאַמעניו נאָר", which I found last week in Naye Lider / נײַע לידער published in 1955 in Bucharest, Romania. Naye Lider was one of a box of books I borrowed from Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM, a collection donated by Maimon Miller when he moved to Mexico. Thanks to Meg York for making the connection and Maimon for sharing Yiddish materials he collected in Romania! The melody is credited to Harry Reininger and the original Yiddish text to Simale Schneider. Performed with Jeremy Bleich (electric bass) and Gregory Gutin (percussion) and recorded by Jeremy Bleich in Chupadero, NM, in October 2024. Hear about the song in Yiddish here: https://youtube.com/shorts/6MuSVT0FMUc?feature=share