FEATURE ARTICLE
The Klezmatics: Outing Klezmer
by Seth Rogovoy(NEW YORK, N.Y. -- May 5, 1997) -- The official CD release party for the Klezmatics' "Possessed" (Xenophile) took place a few weeks ago not in a synagogue social hall but at the Knitting Factory, the veritable temple of New York's downtown avant-garde. And instead of a Hadassah lady, the emcee was a bearded lady accompanied by some fire-swallowing, cross-dressing acrobats from the Lower East Side's radical Circus Amok.
So "nu", what gives?
The answer can be found in large part on "Possessed," the Klezmatics' fourth and most accomplished, provocative album. The disk's 18 tracks include traditional and original compositions drawing upon klezmer tradition while expanding upon it in ways the old-world "klezmorim" might never have dreamed of but probably would have appreciated.
"We gave ourselves a job years ago, and it is to always walk the line of never getting too far away from the Jewish klezmer tradition, but never just slavishly copying and reproducing either," said trumpeter/composer Frank London, speaking by phone from his New York apartment the morning after a Slivovitz-soaked Passover seder. "The way we define ourselves is that we are traditional because we are in the tradition, but we are always being ourselves."
Being themselves, says London, means being "out" -- most obviously acknowledging the Jewishness of what they do (although not all the musicians are Jewish). Explains London, "For years many of the klezmer bands hid behind the word `klezmer' as a way of avoiding the `Jewish' word." The group is also "out" as a gay group -- two of its members openly identify themselves that way. "Even less of the band is gay than is Jewish, but that doesn't make a difference," said London, who is married and has a son. "The point is that is who the individuals in the band are, and therefore it's a part of what we as a band are."
The group's "outness," said London, was a factor in its recent creative alliance with playwright Tony Kushner of "Angels in America" fame. "Possessed" includes a 20-minute song cycle written for Kushner's "A `Dybbuk:' Between Two Worlds" (a "dybbuk" is a Jewish ghost), as well as Kushner-penned liner notes. "I think what interested Tony besides our music is the pride and joy," said London. "We come from this ecstatic standpoint on Jewishness.... We're very out, yet in a totally joyous, non-dogmatic way, which is beautiful because it's very reflective of the music itself."
What is most "out" about the Klezmatics ultimately is the music. While heavily steeped in the instrumental tradition of Eastern European Jewry and Yiddish folk, the Klezmatics aren't trapped inside a musical "shtetl." On "Possessed," "freylekhs" and "bulgars" (traditional dances) rub up against the cartoonish, Raymond Scott-meets-Frank Zappa polyphonic hijinks of London's "Beggars' Dance." Members of Canadian pop group Moxy Fruvous lend their vocals to "Shprayz Ikh Mir," a traditional drinking song. John Medeski, of Medeski, Martin and Wood, contributes Hammond organ to several cuts, including "Reefer Song," a spacey, swirling ballad with a Yiddish chorus ("Reykher a splif -- kanabis") needing no translation.
If all rock music were klezmer, then Phish would probably be the Klezmatics. Or vice versa. (In either case, Phish would no longer suck.) At the Knitting Factory concert, the Klezmatics stretched out even further than on "Possessed", investigating the rich improvisational potential of the melodies with the agility and finesse of a jazz ensemble. The audience responded with the enthusiasm and cultural pride of Irish-Americans at a Pogues concert on St. Patrick's Day. For a few hours at least, everyone was gay, everyone was Jewish, and it was very hip to be both.
(The Klezmatics perform at Johnny D's in Somerville on Friday, May 16.)
[This article originally appeared in the Boston Phoenix on May 16, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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