Chanukah Fever CD by Mama Doni
November 2009
Cautions: None

Kiwi Magazine Review:
Mama Doni has done it again with a playful collection of Chanukah songs that will have the kids playing air menorah. Mama Doni, whom I like to refer to as “D Jew Jazzy Mensch” (if I have to explain the reference to DJ Jazzy Jeff, you may be too young!) raps, rhymes, rocks and riffs with original lyrics about the applesauce v. sour cream dilemma (oy! the humanity!), the dilemma of a dusty, disregarded dreidel and a rapper’s redux called Funky Gold Menorah.

I have to say that I think Mama Doni is the reason that, when my daughter went to a friend’s Easter egg hunt and found a colorful spinning top, she yelled out, “Mom!!! I got a dreidel!”

CD Notes:
You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love It …

MAMA DONI’S BACK AND CHANUKAH WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!
GET WILD & CRAZY THIS CHANUKAH with
CHANUKAH FEVER

“Mama Doni … is part ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (for the hilarious and surprisingly insightful lyrics), part Sarah Silverman (but much cleaner and only the parts of Sarah’s show where she innocently sings her little heart out), and that adorable mom down the street who manages to wear bright red lipstick and cute track suit to put out the recycling at 6 a.m.”
- KIWI magazine

MONTCLAIR, NJ (September 1) - In a spirit of outrageous fun, MAMA DONI, brings her special brand of “funky music with a Jewish twist” to the holiday season, with the November 24 release of her new CD, Chanukah Fever (Mama Doni Productions, $15, run time 36 minutes, all ages). The album, resplendent with MAMA DONI’s signature wild and wacky style, features 10 new MAMA DONI originals, plus 4 favorites from last year’s EP, I Love Chanukah!,

Chanukah lasts only eight days, and Doni Zasloff Thomas, aka MAMA DONI, says, “Enjoy!” The popular singer/songwriter expands the horizons of traditional Jewish music, with a contagious and unexpected blend of reggae, rock, disco, Latin, klezmer and “Jewgrass” - all woven together with a hip Jewish sensibility. In Chanukah Fever, MAMA DONI spices these eclectic, colorful elements with a razor-sharp, sophisticated humor that makes latkes, dreidels and Yiddish expressions cooler than ever.

If Spike Jones and his City Slickers were Jewish, they might have created Chanukah Fever. Quirky, zany, off-beat, and unpredictable, the album’s highlights include such songs as the title track, a dyno-mite ditty about disco dreidels, a million latkes, and dancin’ for eight whole days and nights (with as much variety as could possibly be put into one song); “Honey, This Ain’t Money!,” in which Johnny Cash meets Bubbie meets “Hot Rod Lincoln”; a completely nutty “Jewgrass” sing-along in “Bubbie’s Mi Yamelel”; “Latke Man,” a retro-swing pop song about a potato-lovin’ fella; “The Funky Gold Menorah,” a kid-friendly hip-hop dance tune about a “Super Fly” Judaica sensation; “La Vida Dreidel,” a Jewish twist on Latin style; and “I Say Chanukah (You Say Hanukah!),” a quirky steel drum, island-style number.

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