Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird is a Germany-based

klezmer Klezmer ( yi, קלעזמער or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for l ...

band founded by Jewish-American singer-songwriter and actor Daniel Kahn, originally from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The band was formed in 2005 and is based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. They have released five albums through German world music label . The name of the band comes from the title of the novel ''

The Painted Bird ''The Painted Bird ''is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central and Eastern Europe. T ...

'' by

Jerzy Kosiński Jerzy Kosiński (born Józef Lewinkopf; ; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II and, as a ...

History

Daniel Kahn was born on September 11, 1978, in Detroit, Michigan. He attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he studied Theater, Playwriting, Poetry and Politics. After graduating, Daniel moved to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

where he was first introduced to modern Jewish music. He then went on to live and perform in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Musical style

Daniel Kahn coined the word "", meaning "alienation klezmer music", to describe their music, in reference to

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's theory of . The group describes their music as "a mixture of Klezmer, radical Yiddish song, political

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

and

folk punk Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by the Pogues in England, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in ...

", and it has been compared to the music of

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

and

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspired ...

. Some of the songs are written by Kahn, but many are adaptations of poems and songs by Jewish authors such as

Mordechaj Gebirtig Mordechai Gebirtig ( yi, מרדכי געבירטיג), born Mordecai Bertig (4 May 1877 – 4 June 1942), was an influential Polish poet and songwriter of the interwar period. He was shot by Germans in the Kraków Ghetto, occupied Poland, during t ...

, frequently with socio-political themes. The Painted Birds have had songs about varied political topics, such as

Nakam Nakam ( he, נקם, 'Revenge') was a paramilitary organization of about fifty Holocaust survivors who, after 1945, sought genocidal revenge for the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust. Led by Abba Kovner, the group sought to kill si ...

, a group of

Holocaust Survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

who conspired to kill

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

in revenge for the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, and the government response to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, set to the tune of , a 1912 Yiddish song originally about the sinking of the

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

. Kahn also sings songs by

Franz Josef Degenhardt Franz Josef Degenhardt (3 December 193114 November 2011) was a German poet, satirist, novelist, and – first and foremost – a folksinger/songwriter ( Liedermacher) with decidedly left-wing politics. He was also a lawyer, bearing the academic d ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

, Bertolt Brecht, and , and

Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky was on ...

as well as a Yiddish version of the classic

Lili Marleen "Lili Marleen" (also spelled "Lili Marlen'", "Lilli Marlene", "Lily Marlene", "Lili Marlène" among others; ) is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troop ...

. In 2016 he translated Leonard Cohen's "

Hallelujah ''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...

" into Yiddish, which he has occasionally sung at concerts since then. He sings in English, German and Yiddish, often mixing several languages in one song. Translating lyrics has been an interest and source of inspiration. The Painted Birds have previously collaborated with Russian singing

Vanya Zhuk Ваня (''Vanya''), a male diminutive of the Russian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian and other Slavic given names Ivan (name), Ivan. It is the Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian and other Slavic form of John (given name), John itself derived from a Hebrew ...

as well as

Michael Winograd Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

Paul Brody Paul Brody (born in 1961 in Seattle) is a US-American sound installation artist, composer, trumpeter, and writer based in Berlin. His work explores the relationship between spoken word and melody through radio art, Sound installation, composition, ...

and

Dan Blacksberg Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...

Discography

* ''The Broken Tongue'' (Chasma Records, 2006; re-released Oriente Musik, 2009) * ''Partisans & Parasites'' (Oriente Musik, 2009) * ''Lost Causes'' (Oriente Musik, 2010) * ''Bad Old Songs'' (Oriente Musik, 2012) * ''The Butcher's Share'' (Oriente Musik, 2017) * ''Bulat Blues'' (Oriente Musik, 2019) * ''The Third Unternational'' (Oriente Musik, 2020) * ''The Fourth Unternational'' (Oriente Musik, 2020) *''Word Beggar'' (Oriente Musik, 2021)

Citations and References

External links

*
Video: Interview with Daniel Kahn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daniel Kahn and The Painted Bird Klezmer groups 2005 establishments in the United States Musical groups established in 2005 Jewish American musicians University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni Musicians from Detroit Musical groups from Berlin 1978 births Living people Yiddish-language music Yiddish-language singers Folk punk groups American expatriates in Germany