NIKI JACOBS
“Quite simply Niki Jacobs has one of the nicest voices for singing
Yiddish I’ve heard in a long time.”
– Klezmershack
Niki Jacobs, singer, recording artist and founder of Nikitov, has been at the cutting edge of Yiddish music for over fifteen years. She has released 4 full-length albums and an EP. Nikitov has played shows all over Europe, including at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and at the Jewish Festivals in Munich, Vienna and Budapest. In June 2015 she performed at New York’s first international festival of Yiddish arts and culture, KulturfestNYC.
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Inspired by her family history, she developed a deep love and passion for Yiddish culture and Yiddish song. Over a period of ten years she released three albums: Amulet (2004), Vanderlust (2007) and Anno 1999 (2011). The first two records are composed of traditional Yiddish songs. Their arrangements, orchestration and instrumentation are all new, however, they are inflected with the sound of early Gypsy Jazz. In 2009 Niki began composing new Yiddish music, and shifted away from the influence of Gypsy Jazz. Nikitov’s third album, released in 2011 reflects this change in direction.
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Niki Jacobs & Band will be performing their new and stunning program all over the Netherlands, Europe and the US. Together with many a great story that come with the songs this is a memorable performance of pure, beautiful, swinging, rocking and poetic music covered in the Mameloshn.
The Ballad of Mauthausen
The Ballad of Mauthausen, worldwide seen as one of the most gorgeous musical pieces ever to be written about the second world war. It is a collaboration between the Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis who was a survivor of Camp Mauthausen and Mikis Theodorakis the famous Greek composer, banned for his activism against social injustice. Since it’s been over 75 years of liberation from the Nazi regime it felt like a perfect moment to re-address this musical piece, resulting in a new, haunting and extraordinary composition of The Ballad of Mauthausen. Niki Jacobs (Vocals), Ruud Breuls (Trumpet), Ro Krauss (Viola), Emile Visser (Cello), and Peter van Os (Accordion) have been honored and praised by composer Mikis Theodorakis himself for their version of his music and his label has taken them up and they are now part of his musical family.
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The Project
“We have made this project to connect two different worlds that we feel are still so important:
The pre- and post-war lives of all those effected by the second world war whether being
European or American. Our goal with this project is to raise attention for the events of the
past, address injustices for the future and connect and respect our differences in the
present. In this project we have chosen to use a beautiful Yiddish translation, instead of the
original Greek language used by poet Iakovos Kambabellis, to not only emphasize and give
voice to those who were perished in Europa and those who fled Eastern-Europe before,
during and after the second world war, but to also show that the Yiddish language is still and
has been a very important part of Jewish culture worldwide.” – Niki Jacobs