FRIDAY 6 | In the shtetl (‘villages’ or ‘ghettoes’) of Eastern Europe, itinerant Jewish troubadours once roamed, expressing through klezmer music the full gamut of human emotions from joy to despair, from devotion to revolt, from meditation to drunkenness – all served up with a generous dose of Yiddish humour. Inspired by secular melodies, popular dances, and the wordless melodies used by orthodox Jews for approaching God in ecstatic communion, klezmer’s evolution was spurred by contact with Slavic, Greek, Ottoman, gypsy and, later, jazz musicians. Using typical scales, tempo and rhythm changes, slight dissonance and a touch of improvisation, today’s klezmorim include Sam Day, a young mandolin player from the US who, before returning home recently, was instrumental in founding the Klezbodians. The band includes members of Grass Snake Union and the Phnom Penh Hippie Orchestra, featuring Bun Hong on clarinet, Giacomo Butte on accordion, Jose Encinas on guitar and Ali Benderdouche on dumbek. When not peddling Yiddish tunes to Cambodian audiences, Sam is to be found recording with the US-based and magnificently named Shtetlblasters. “There’s something danceable about klezmer music,” he says. “There’s a very clear rhythm; it’s driving, propulsive music. And the scales used are sort of major and minor at the same time, so there’s something melancholy about it. It’s very vocal, too; the melodies are played on the clarinet or violin in ways that attempt to emulate the human voice, the sound of a cantor – in a synagogue, the person who’s singing the Jewish prayers…” [Erupts in song] And what can we expect of the Klezbodians? “Mostly fast-paced klezmer instrumental music – similar to gypsy music – along with some Yiddish vocal tunes. It will be feisty!”
WHO: Klezbodians
WHAT: Itinerant Jewish troubadours
WHERE: Slur Bar, Street 172
WHEN: 9:30pm July 6
WHY: “It will be feisty!” – Sam Day Harmet