Mazel Tov Cocktail Party is a breath of fresh air, an incentive to dance to klezmer music, (Krakauer's favorite playground); but also to polka, Romanian hora, calypso, Quebec square dance... "In the face of the overwhelming negativity and alarming rise of hatred and intolerance in today's world," let's breathe and dance together, Krakauer & Tagg proclaim in chorus. More than a suggestion, an injunction. Patrick Labesse: LE MONDE

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IN THE PRESS

Do you want an amazing and nice mix? Like putting a Mentos in Coke... You take a rapper, some specialists in sampling and electro, a mad clarinet and you entrust everything to DAVID KRAKAUER and KATHLEEN TAGG. Listening to this music is a real outlet, spiritual and festive. A Calypso and a Polka come to visit us as curious little animals. Or the Mississippi Blues is crossed with a Middle Eastern Oud. ...Traditional tunes are passed through the mill of rock, rap and jazz creating a music of cartoons under strobe effects... Can make you addicted...  Pascal David: JUKE BOX DETOX

An informal cocktail party typically lasts a few hours, and this one ends all too soon. Clap your hands, do-si-do and allemande right to the urban beat, Krakky’s clarinet and the band’s fascinating rhythms. And when everyone shouts “Mazel Tov!”, as the title cut cues up, “Toda” (meaning "Thank You") would be our appropriate response. Joe Ross: ROOTS MUSIC REVIEW: 5/5 Stars

Rhythmically it goes around the world: Square Dance-Polka-Calypso-Hora and back. Iranian drums and electronic beats, harmonica and sampler, jew's harp and bass, guitar and oud – the mixture can hardly be more colorful and yet nothing slips into complacent arbitrariness here. The focus is clearly on the slogan "Party!". Because: "It's been a really hard two years, and we need to move together. We wanted to make new tunes that got people up and dancing. It's a party, and you're all invited!" So let's go! Mazeltov! Karsten Zimalla: WESTZEIT

Going from the electro beats and funky scratches of "Jammin' With Socalled", to the title track (where you would swear to hear Funkadelic and the Pointer Sisters jamming with Jimi Hendrix and Rabbi Jacob), through the cover of the Appalachian bluegrass classic "I'm A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (.....transposed here in Ottoman mode), this album embraces multiple and crossed cultural heritages. Coming from an ecumenicisme, which is as much salutary as is crucial in our troubled times; this festive record actually does good where it hurts. 
Patrick Dallongeville PARIS-MOVE

The latest in a production as varied as it is multiple, this festive album once again brings together New York clarinetist David Krakauer and South African pianist, arranger and composer Kathleen Tagg. After a magnificent 1st album in duo released at the end of summer 2020, D. Krakauer and K.Tagg create the Mazel Tov Cocktail Party Orchestra. This project, positive and bright, ..... is intended, in contrast to the deadly explosiveness of a Molotov cocktail, to illuminate the world with hope and joy. It is.....a very beautiful invigorating opus open to the world and life that David Krakauer and his accomplices give us there to whom we can only say: Mazel Tov! François Saddi: 5PLANÊTES

New York clarinetist David Krakauer has always been a wily fox who's never missed a trick. On the new joint work with his partner Kathleen Tagg, he ignites the next stage of his multicultural Yiddish party music. Each piece is smashed with a fervor and conviction, as if one had found the ultimate brew. In terms of amusement, the album can hardly be surpassed. However, the compilation of the songs and genres alone also reveals a cosmopolitanism that can be understood as a gift to the whole of humanity. Wolf Kampmann, Jazz thing 143