Andy Statman

A mandolinist out of the bluegrass scene who apprenticed with the last great klezmer clarinetist, Dave Tarras, in the 1970s, then became a practicing Breslov Hasid — and now plays klezmer, bluegrass and Chassidic melody as one continuous practice, weekly, in a Greenwich Village synagogue.

⭐⭐ THE ONE FIGURE IN THIS BATCH WHERE THE MUSIC IS THE DEVOTION RATHER THAN A DESCRIPTION OF IT. Statman grew up in a secular Jewish home and found his way back through the instrument first — the notes led to the practice rather than the other way round. Albums titled Between Heaven & Earth: Music of the Jewish Mystics and Songs of the Breslever Chassidim are not concept records; they are what he plays at his own synagogue on an ordinary week.