The Brothers Nazaroff-The Happy Prince

The Brothers Nazaroff is a tribute band to an obscure Russian immigrant in New York known as Nathan “Prince” Nazaroff. The man is known mostly by hardcore Yiddish music lovers. He is called an outsider, though he did record an album for Moe Asch’s Folkways label in 1954 and Nazaroff promoted himself as an established entertainer. None of The Brothers Nazaroff are actually brothers or Nazaroffs. Danik Nazaroff, Pasha Nazaroff, Meyshke Nazaroff, Zaelic Nazaroff and Yankl Nazaroff are in fact Daniel Kahn of Painted Bird fame, genuine Russian Psoy Korolenko, Michael Alpert of Brave Old World, Bob Cohen of the Budapest-based Di Naye Kapelye and Jake Shulman-Ment, widely regard as one of the best working klezmer fiddlers on the planet.

Thanks to Cohen’s connections in the Hungarian arts scene, a well-funded documentary on the Nazaroff project was begun. Various Nazaroffs were flown to New York for the film, which will also shoot in Paris and Berlin, where 35 year-old Daniel Kahn is based.

“Nazaroff had this sort of rough, workaday exuberance. He had an insistent, almost shrill, enthusiastic joy in what he sang,” Kahn, the project’s ringleader, told the Forward during a late lunch at a Russian cafe in Brighton Beach during a break in the shooting. “We can all be Nazaroffs. All we need to do is get infected by his groove.”







1. - Vander Ich Mir Lustig (While I'm Happily Walking) [5:15]
2. - Tumbala Laika [4:02]
3. - Ihr Fregt Mich Vos Ich Troier (You Ask Me Why I'm Mournful) [4:37]
4. - Arum Dem Feier (Around the Fire) [3:24]
5. - Freilachs (Medley of Freilachs) [3:12]
6. - Maidlach Vie Blumen (Girls Are Like Flowers) [3:59]
7. - Der Koptzen (The Poor Man) [1:23]
8. - Fishalach (Little Fish) [3:11]
9. - Ich a Mazeldicker Yid (Oh! Am I a [3:49]
10. - Maidlid (Maiden Song) [3:05]
11. - Ich Flee (I Fly) [2:21]
12. - Yiddel Mit Zein Fidel (Little Jew with His Fiddle) [4:43]
13. - Krasnoarmeyskaya Pesn' (Red Army Song) [3:40]
14. - Now Sing Along with the [0:22]