Klezmer
New Orleans...a good time town with all-night parties, African-European hybrid food, and dance music of numberless varieties: street parades, jazz, gospel, R&B, and...Klezmer?
Klezmer (klez'mer) : Jewish folk music that contains elements of Gypsy, Central European, urkish, Greek, and other folk musics. Stereotyped "bar mitzvah music," it fell out of fashion from the 1940's to the 1970's when a revival of Yiddish music featured recreations of the music heard on scratchy 78's. The style soon expanded to include fusions and other styles- different rock and jazz sounds, bluegrass, even surf music and avant interpretations.
The New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars( NOKAS) have carried on with their own interpretation of the klezmer tradition since 1991. New Orleans, where arcane cultural borrowing is normal, seems to be a natural home for a music that has always blended diverse styles. Yet, "when we first started playing this music, people had no idea what it was," explains Arthur Kastler, the band's orginal bass player, "They would stand there with their jaws open, but right away, they danced."
