Bangkok Post – Fusing different musical worlds

Klezmer is the music of Ashkenazi Jews, who created the music in Central and Eastern Europe in the 16th century. Although mainly instrumental, the music is usually sung in Yiddish. It was hugely popular before the destruction of Yiddish communities in Central Europe during the Holocaust. Professional Klezmer musicians who escaped to the US founded large klezmer orchestras in the first two decades of the 20th century, who competed with jazz ensembles and Irish big bands in New York.

The genre, which has Hasidic and Jewish musical roots, has assimilated sounds from other music, initially by incorporating Bohemian and Polish folk music but in more recent times adding Latin, dub and even electronica. The music features dances, instrumental tunes, Hanukah songs and Hasidic melodies and is often performed at weddings.

A Klezmer revival began in the 1970s when a new…