is the rare band playing traditional Jewish songs that isn’t afraid to move beyond its borders: Sure, they cover traditional Sephardic music, but they arrange and perform the music in such a distinctive way that it sounds like their own material. Their new album, Casata (available this week), features the fun, bottle-breaking rhythm of “Et Dodim,” the Middle Eastern strings of “More than Wine,” and hummable indie-rock ballads such as “High Is the Moon.”
DeLeon’s songs are a fusion of cultures, embracing their Jewish side, but also infusing elements of secular Latin music. They tour with non-Jewish acts such as Brazilian psychedelic-rock pioneers Os Mutantes and Los Angeles jam-band Ozomatli–all the while singing in Ladino and Hebrew as if they were cantors in a wild rock & roll synagogue.
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