Welcome to the 2008 Jewish Music Festival

Stuart Brotman

Stuart Brotman appears in...

Stuart Brotman, bass, has the instincts of a gifted accompanist. His sensitivity to nuance and musical style, and experience reaching back almost half a century, have given him the ability to speak a remarkable number of musical languages like a native. While still a young bass student, Stu learned to accompany his grandfather, a cantor, and his father, a jazz and folk guitarist. At UCLA, Greek ethnomusicologist Sotirios Chianis introduced him to the rich complexity of Eastern European musical cultures.

Stu has worked with musicians as diverse as Canned Heat, Kaleidoscope, Morning, Geoff and Maria Muldaur, John Bilezikjian, Hrach Yacoubian, John Stamatis, and Mischa Sheynkman. A founding member of Los Angeles’ Ellis Island Band, he has been a moving force in the Klezmer revival since its beginning. He produced The Klezmorim’s Grammy nominated album, “Metropolis,” and toured with the Yiddisher Caravan, a federally funded Yiddish folklife show. He has performed with The Klezmorim, Kapelye, Andy Statman, Khevrisa, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Davka, The San Francisco Klezmer Experience, Khevrisa, Itzhak Perlman, Brave Old World, and Veretski Pass, has enjoyed long runs at Armenian, Greek, Russian, Romanian, Irish, and Israeli nightclubs, and played cimbalom with Ry Cooder at Carnegie Hall.

His musical roles in movies include playing Greek cimbalom in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Russian contrabass balalaika in Love Affair.