Coming soon:
Jordan’s full-length studio album of original contemporary Yiddish music for kids and families: “Pantakozak & other new Yiddish songs for kids,” will be released in 2025. Stay tuned for news.
Jordan’s full-length studio album of original contemporary Yiddish music for kids and families: “Pantakozak & other new Yiddish songs for kids,” will be released in 2025. Stay tuned for news.
“Chag Dag / The Festival of the Fish” live in Santa Fe, January 2025.
With Jeremy Bleich (bass), Clara Byom (clarinet), Gregory Gutin (percussion) and Adam Horowitz (accordion)
A bilingual adaptation and update of Mordkhe Rivesman's one-verse song, "Khanike," as published in "Heym un Mishpokhe Yomim Toyvim" (Buenos Aires 1947). Melody and first verse by M. Rivesman. Jordan Wax- electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ Rachel Leader- violin Jeremy Barnes- percussion Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Jeremy Barnes in Albuquerque, NM, December 2024.
A poignant Yiddish new year's song written from a child's perspective, consoling and begging their mother to believe in the possibility that the wars will end and we will see peace this year. This is a bilingual adaptation of the first stanza of the Yiddish song "Gloyb Mamenyu Nor גלױב מאַמעניו נאָר", which I found last week in Naye Lider / נײַע לידער published in 1955 in Bucharest, Romania. Naye Lider was one of a box of books I borrowed from Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM, a collection donated by Maimon Miller when he moved to Mexico. Thanks to Meg York for making the connection and Maimon for sharing Yiddish materials he collected in Romania! The melody is credited to Harry Reininger and the original Yiddish text to Simale Schneider. Performed with Jeremy Bleich (electric bass) and Gregory Gutin (percussion) and recorded by Jeremy Bleich in Chupadero, NM, in October 2024. Hear about the song in Yiddish here: https://youtube.com/shorts/6MuSVT0FMUc?feature=share
A bilingual adaptation of Khanike iz Freylekh, a traditional Yiddish Hannukah song Jordan learned from Moishe Katsov ז”ל, an elder Yiddish singer from Kyiv, Ukraine in the early 2000’s after Reb Moishe immigrated to Overland Park, Kansas. Recorded at home in 2020 with remote tracking by Margot Leverett (clarinet). Sing along with the lyrics here.
An excerpt from an original Spanish-English bilingual song that leads young audiences through the activity of finding and pointing out objects of different colors.
A Río Grande-style chotís composed by Pedro Ayala with original words by Jordan Wax—performed in July 2020 by Jordan Wax (bajo sexto, accordion) and Tanya Nuñez (tololoche) for the Santa Fe Public Library’s “Bilingual Books + Babies / Canto y Cuento”.
A bilingual interpretation of Roberto Mondragón’s “Mi Tía” in the style of a Northern New Mexico ranchera, recorded for a remote program for the Santa Fe Public Library early in the pandemic.
A welcome song in the style of a valona, a poetry and song form primarily from Michoacán, Mexico, to welcome the children to an online version of Bilingual Books & Babies / Canto y Cuento when the public library was closed due to the COVID pandemic. Home multitrack recording with violin, bajo sexto, and mandolin.
A kids’ song commissioned early in the pandemic for a bilingual preschool in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to help kids talk about germs in a non-threatening but educational way. Winner of the New Mexico Music Award 2021 “Best Children’s Song.” With Tanya Nuñez (upright bass).
Original hand-washing couplets set to a Northern New Mexican chotís and arranged in the style of Western Swimg, commissioned for a bilingual preschool in Los Alamos, New Mexico in the early pandemic. With Tanya Nuñez, upright bass.