Recently, I was introduced to klezmer music via Lori Lippitz's generous submission. Unknown at Old Roots New World receipt, Maxwell Street Klezmer Band is perched in the forefront of the Neo-Klezmer Movement. Yiddish Swing, jazz and early 20th Century pop are funneled through Gypsy big band arrangements -- consider music inspired by The Fiddler on the Roof performed with Squirrel Nut Zippers' grandiose yet loose technique.
Nearly every track is predominately instrumental. When vocals fade in, they are theatrically cabaret (and foreign). Those combined elements usually tend to create intolerable casual auditory experiences. However, Maxwell Street Klezmer Band's playfulness, grit, eclecticism and mojo blend into a snappy experience. Old Roots New World is extraordinary in its omneity rather than as individual tracks. However, worth crediting, is the amazing 17 and a half-minute closer, “Klezmer Rhapsody for Violin” -- the opus builds from almost a baroque introduction to what I swear was a trampy appropriation of “Hava Nagila” (or at least used as an inspiration) at the 12 minute plus point.
For the past couple of days, repeated spins of Old Roots New World are habit forming. Even though the music is Yiddish, it is also historically American; the cd feels like a recorded glimpse of a superb Brooklyn festival performance featuring immigrants celebrating the anticipated opportunities that awaited them in this ‘fabled’ land. With that, imagine what sensory maneuvers Maxwell Street Klezmer Band could relate live!
(a video that I edited for the band)
It's great to see Klez Rhap getting some press--thanks for that! If you want to hear it played by our violinist Alex's protege, 17-year-old cellist Ben Fried, log onto www.wfmtintroductions.com (classical radio station WFMT)anytime after July 10. They will have a podcast of the piece. I wish we could get more opportunitites to perform it, but the audience for classical-klezmer fusion is rather narrow (consider yourself one of the elite)!
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