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Home , The Klezmatics

BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Best Albums f Rhythm + Jews BEGINNER’S GUIDE (Piranha, 1991) Jews With Horns (Piranha, 1994) Possessed (Piranha, 1997) The three albums on Lemez Lovas doffs his hat to the group who, over a quarter of a century, the German Piranha have changed the face of music label that defined what klezmer “...we found a way to hard-edged grooving versions of old-time Both Jews with Horns and 1997’s Possessed could sound like – Clockwise provocative, funky, from top, the Yiddish music, then that would have been good showed that the Klezmatics had truly got Klezmatics (in circumnavigate the enough. But what marked them out head and something that other bands didn’t. Klezmer may experimental and 2006): Matt Darriau, Paul unbreakable connection shoulders above their contemporaries was a be instrumental music, but Jewish culture values above all, great Morrissett, Lorin social and political consciousness that led them text more than anything. It was this depth of dance music. Sklamberg, between Yiddish music David Licht, to produce music that was not just kick-ass, but understanding – visible in settings of Yiddish The Well and Lisa Gutkin and kitsch or shtick” engaged, activist and ballsy: casting them firmly poets, collaborations with playwrights like Tony as agitators in the tradition of Sophie Tucker, Kushner and acerbic Yiddishist Michael Wex – (Xenophile, 1996) Lenny Bruce and the Yiddish political poets of that made the Klezmatics stand head and A collaboration with in suburban attics, and even the wedding and the early 20th century. shoulders above the competition. Other bands Israeli folk singer bar mitzvah – those crucibles of Jewish Their 1988 debut album for the hipster studied the same old recordings, and practised cultural life – had long been taken over by the Piranha label in , Shvaygn = Toyt (Silence the same licks, but no one else really got the that pointed the way towards a more two King Michaels, Bolton and Jackson. It = Death), was, London recalls, “both an underbelly of tension and change that they did. thoughtful, poetic, introspective sound. wasn’t that klezmer, or Jewish music in homage to the slogan of ACT UP [an Fast forward 15 years, and the Klezmatics general wasn’t cool – it just wasn’t, full stop. organisation committed to ending the AIDS have established themselves not just as a great Wonder Wheel The Klezmatics changed all that. But when crisis], and an acknowledgement that if one is Jewish music band, but a great American (JMG Records, they burst onto the New York scene in the silent in the face of injustice then one is siding band. What has kept them fresh and still 2006) mid-80s, they weren’t the first to dig into the with the oppressor. It was also a literal relevant is their continuing desire to explore: Their Grammy- crates at second-hand record stores and realise statement about the Yiddish language: if no records with gospel singers, an Israeli folk winning album that there was a substantial musical heritage one speaks or sings in it, it will be dead.” But it legend and even , whose songs of songs by Woody Guthrie, the great there that deserved another listen. That honour wasn’t until their next two albums, 1991’s provided the raw material that finally won troubadour and voice of American social went to Berkeley’s The Klezmorim, clarinettist Rhythm + Jews and 1994’s Jews with Horns that them a Grammy with Wonder Wheel. consciousness. Reviewed in #65. Andy Statman and Brave Old World’s their trademark sound – experimentation with Klezmer music has changed unrecognisably inspirational singer and fiddler Michael Alpert. jazz, Arabic, polyrhythms, rock drumming – since the Klezmatics started doing their thing, Best compilation But the Klezmatics were the first to do it on came into its own. Their songs in Yiddish, sung and while today young European bands might Live at Town Hall their own terms. They were irreverent, by Lorin Sklamberg, showed deep research look just as much to great storytellers like (Fréa Records adventurous and most importantly of all, and respect for tradition, but only as a starting Odessa-born Alec Kopyt of the Amsterdam 2011) eschewed rehashing those old recordings for a point for something else: ‘Honikzaft’ (Honey- Klezmer Band, alongside our own folk traditions, Excellent live album punkier approach, charged with the energy of juice), recasting King Solomon’s Song of Songs it was the Klezmatics who still remain as the featuring music the music they themselves had grown up with as a homoerotic love poem. number one reference point. They didn’t show from their whole career. A Top of the – jazz, funk, improv and black music. “From early on,” says Sklamberg, “even before us what to do, but they showed us we can do World review in #83. “We didn’t really set any goals at the outset,” we made a conscious effort to make the music whatever we want, lighting the flame for says trumpeter and arranger Frank London, “but our own, we decided that if we sang songs, they countless generations of future experimentation. Best Avoided we found a way to circumnavigate what had would be ones we believed in, which, since I’m And for that Jewish music is truly grateful. Brother Moses been a seemingly unbreakable connection the singer, meant that we would be forgoing Smote The Water between Yiddish music and kitsch or shtick. We chestnuts of the Yiddish theatre repertoire. Not dates The Klezmatics play at the Union (Piranha, 2004) were part of a community and generation that that that material isn’t great, but, for one thing, Chapel in London on October 21, with special Klezmer meets o ce aci put Yiddish music culture back in the other people do it better, and for another, a lot guest gospel, a great idea, contemporary cultural discourse.” If the of it plays on the nostalgia for days gone by of Podcast Hear a track from Rhythm + Jews on but for once, a collaboration that didn’t l M M ic h ae l Klezmatics had just played the most swinging, the audiences it was by and large written for.” this issue’s podcast really come off.

he history of Jewish music from the exaggeration, cast your musical minds back to If You Like the Bible to the 21st century basically 1986, the year that the Klezmatics got klezmatics, goes like this: first King David together. Popular Jewish music was... well, Then Try... plucked his lyre; Saadia Gaon Jerry Bock’s kitsch soundtrack to Fiddler on she’koyokh added some theory; then Mahler the Roof and some old-timers in the Catskill andT theatre maestro Avram Goldfaden came Mountains scraping out a living at the few Busker’s Ballroom up with some tunes; Irving Berlin and kosher hotels that remained from their (ARC Music, 2011) Flanagan and Allen wrote some songs; Willy mid-century ‘Borscht Belt’ boom years. The The UK’s finest Bergman, Serge Gainsbourg and Zohar Argov glory years of Yiddish music, when Benzion klezmer band. added some grooves and finally one band put Witler, Sophie Tucker and Max Bacon spat Although more rootsy it all together – the Klezmatics. out hymns of grandeur and self-abasement to than the ‘matics, they blow up a storm on If you think this is just a colourful thousands, had long been left to gather dust stage. A Top of the World review in #75.

46 Songlines October 2012 www.songlines.co.uk Songlines 47