Daniel Kahn

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Kahn was born in Detroit in 1978 and studied theater and writing at the University of Michigan. After graduating he moved to New Orleans, where he worked as a bar pianist and first came into contact with modern Jewish music. He then settled in Berlin, and in 2005 founded Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird, named after Jerzy Kosiński's novel. He coined the term 'Verfremdungsklezmer', or alienation klezmer, after Bertolt Brecht's alienation effect, to describe the band's mix of klezmer, radical Yiddish song, political cabaret and folk punk, which has been compared to Tom Waits and Woody Guthrie. Many of the songs are his own; others adapt Yiddish poets such as Mordechai Gebirtig, often with sharp political subjects, from the Nakam avengers after the Holocaust to the government response to Hurricane Katrina, set to an old Yiddish ballad. The band has released five albums on the German label Oriente Musik.

Highlights

1. Founded Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird in Berlin, 2005
2. Coined the term 'Verfremdungsklezmer' (alienation klezmer)
3. Five albums on the Oriente Musik label
4. Studied theater and writing at the University of Michigan