Charming Hostess is three women in a whirl of eerie harmony, hot rhythm and radical braininess. Our music is intensely physical, rooted in the body--voices and vocal percussion, handclaps and heartbeats. We live where Jewish and African diasporas collide, incorporating doo-wop, Pygmy counterpoint, Balkan harmony and Andalusian melody. Our last CD (Trilectic, Tzadik) explored the political/erotic nexus with humor and sensuality. The upcoming CD (Sarajevo Blues, Tzadik) sets Bosnian poetry as a form of love and resistance to the brutalization of war. Our genre might best be described as "nerdy-sexy-commie-girlie." Charming Hostess is Jewlia Eisenberg, Marika Hughes, and Cynthia Taylor

PRESS RELEASE

TRILECTIC, JEWLIA EISENBERG’S REVOLUTIONARY VOCAL SUITE,
COMES TO LONDON

“Her voice radiates female energy and her singing transforms the spirit.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Jewlia Eisenberg and the critically acclaimed band Charming Hostess charts exciting new territory with the a cappella tour de force TRILECTIC (Tzadik 7155). Revolutionary in form and content, Eisenberg’s work on TRILECTIC brims with energy, resulting in a compelling album that is sexy as it is cerebral.

The heart of TRILECTIC, which was commissioned by John Zorn for Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Culture series, is a song cycle for female voices exploring the tumultuous relationship between two radicals: Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), who was perhaps the most influential cultural critic of the 20th century, and his diffident Marxist muse, Asja Lacis (1891-1979). Drawing on Benjamin’s Moscow Diary and Lacis’s memoir Professional Revolutionary, Eisenberg playfully re-imagines their heated debates about material culture, institutionalized socialism, and sexual desire.

“Benjamin and Lacis were the Charlie Brown and Lucy of the Moscow art intelligentsia,” says Eisenberg, whose riveting voice soars throughout TRILECTIC. “He was hopelessly in love with her, and she bullied him for being a wishy-washy intellectual.”

TRILECTIC is a serious musical investigation of Benjamin’s ideas about porosity, authenticity, montage, and translation, yet Eisenberg’s songs are sensuous and playful. “I respect Lacis’ and Benjamin’s work, but take the liberty of poking fun at their earnestness and their personal lives,” the says. By plumbing the depths of one tormented affair, TRILECTIC becomes a universal examination of the frustrations of love and of the life of the mind.

On TRILECTIC, Eisenberg deftly combines sober texts by Benjamin and Lacis with her own witty lyrics, setting them to an ingenious musical hybrid incorporating Andalusian liturgical music, African-American work songs, Bulgarian village music, and composers from Stravinsky to Prince. In addition to the rigorous dissonance of “Meister of Kultur” and the freewheeling funk of “Eskimo Suit,” TRILECTIC includes innovative settings of several traditional Jewish songs.

Jewlia Eisenberg founded Charming Hostess in 1994 to create ambitious vocal music while rocking out at the same time. The New York Times described Charming Hostess as “a phenomenon unto itself” that “lets listeners discover whether they can think and dance at the same time”

On TRILECTIC, Eisenberg orchestrates the sounds of the human body in a unique festival that is sure to get your mind and your pelvis spinning.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: jewlia@earthlink.net


PRESS


Jewlia Eisenberg’s work is irreverent and ambitious. Charming Hostess radiates female energy and their singing transforms the spirit.

---The San Francisco Chronicle


Jewlia Eisenberg unleashes music brilliantly conceived and performed…The sound of these powerful voices coming together is truly uplifting and even implicitly political.

---San Francisco Bay Guardian


The songs on Jewlia Eisenberg’s album, “Trilectic,” are blithe and frisky. She sets lyrics about politics, jealousy and pizza to a world of styles, from klezmer to pygmy-style counterpoint, humanizing a great thinker while having plenty of fun.

---New York Times


Jewlia Eisenberg’s new record, “Trilectic,” kicks brainiac ass.

---Village Voice

Eisenberg’s songs are hilarious and touching, and they run the gamut from hard-edged and powerful to sweet and soulful.

---New Yorker

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