The award winning Mama Doni Band brings its special brand of "funky music with a Jewish twist" to an all-new family show featuring a sneak peak into the upcoming release of Mama Doni's CD Shabbat Shaboom! at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 24 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, NYC. This Shabbat Shaboom! concert is made possible through a generous gift from the Margaret Neubart Foundation Trust.
Doni Zasloff Thomas, a.k.a. Mama Doni, is the lead singer/songwriter of The Mama Doni Band, winner of the Simcha Award for "Inspiring Joy Through Music" in competition with more than 100 bands from 15 different countries at the 2008 International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam. The band celebrates Jewish culture with irrepressible zest in its high-energy, interactive family rock concerts filled with catchy pop songs that break the mold of traditional Jewish music. Quirky, offbeat, and unpredictable, The Mama Doni Band offers up a contagious and unexpected blend of reggae, rock, disco, Latin, klezmer and "Jewgrass" - all woven together with a hip Jewish sensibility and a zany sense of humor.
In a spirit of fun and ruach, Mama Doni's Shabbat Shaboom! concert will be filled to the brim with dancing, sing-alongs, and giveaways for everyone. Paying tribute to Shabbat, there'll be reggae dancing to "Mazel Tov," disco dancing to "Sabbath Queen," rocking out to a Latin dance beat in "Challah-Day!," and some crazy "Jewgrass" dancing to a song all about family, "Mishpocha." The show will overflow with wild and wacky numbers, including such Mama Doni favorites as "Jewish Cowgirl," and "Shofar-Blowin' Band." Hip young kids and their even hipper parents and grandparents should be ready to get up and dance at this spirited Jewish rock concert!
According to Carrie Stetler in The Star-Ledger, Doni Zasloff Thomas "is proud to have a schtick. And that schtick, she says, is to ‘Jewify' all forms of music - from country to reggae to holiday songs." Kids' media authority Amy Kraft, of Media Macaroni, enthused, "We were all laughing out loud ... Listen as Mama Doni spreads around some challah-day spirit in her inimitable cross between Sheryl Crow and Tone Loc."
Mama Doni, a resident of Montclair, New Jersey, hopes that her music will add some Jewish flavor to the lives of people everywhere. She speaks with great passion about preserving the priceless Yiddish and Jewish spirit by imbuing it with a contemporary vibe that connects to life in our times.
WHAT: SHABBAT SHABOOM! WITH MAMA DONI & THE MAMA DONI BAND
WHERE: Museum of Jewish Heritage, Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place, NYC.
WHEN: Sunday, October 24, 2:30 p.m. From 1:30-4:30 p.m. families are invited to enjoy hands-on craft activities, free with concert ticket.
TICKETS: $10. $7 children 10 and under. (Museum members, $7. $5 children 10 and under.)
INFO: 646.437.4202. www.mjhnyc.org
