You want soulful, they’ve got soulful. You want lively, they’ve got that, too.
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The London Klezmer Quartet brings the music of Jewish Eastern Europe to the Northern Tablelands next week (to Glen Innes on Thursday, March 1, and Tenterfield on Friday, March 2. They play Tamworth this Thursday.)
The Quartet, consisting of double bass, violin, accordion and clarinet, is one of the best ensembles playing this kind of music in the world.
The music (often used in weddings) is very distinctive. It has rhythm because it’s dance music. It was often the music of weddings in pre-holocaust eastern Europe. It can be fast as a whirlwind or slow and mournful.
It stands on its own as good to listen to but you can’t divorce it from its history, either. Klezmer musicians were killed in the holocaust but the music survived mainly in Jewish New York – you can hear hints of it in the music of George Gershwin and the jazz of Benny Goodman. Klezmer was the street and wedding music of Jewish New York, playing in the background, immersing everyone in its style and tunes.
The fiddler in this ensemble, Ilana Cravitz, said the quartet loved playing to Australian audiences because she thought they seemed very open to new things. “They have very open ears”, she said.
So much do they like Australian audiences that it’s their sixth tour in seven years.
But they haven’t been to New England so where excited about it
Ilana got into the music when she was in Leeds in the North of England and she heard a street band. From there, she was hooked and sought out workshops in Britain and America.
She said the Glen Innes concert at the Chapel Theatre coincided with the Feast of Purim when people drank too much and dressed up, She was open to that in Glen Innes.
They play at the Capitol Theatre in Tamworth at 7.30 pm on Thursday, February 22, at the Chapel Theatre, Glen Innes on March 1 (tickets on sale at Carelles) and at the Tenterfield Theatre, (Sir Henry Parkes Memorial School of Art) on March 2.
The tour is organised by Arts North West ON TOUR.