“The Klezmatics aren’t just the best band in the klezmer vanguard; on a good night, they can rank among the greatest bands on the planet.”
“In the years before World War II, thousands came from all over the world, elbowing their way into the bumptious and beautiful babel of Brooklyn. In 1942, an unlikely chronicler came from an unlikely place, falling in love with a woman, a family and a community.
Woody Guthrie, known for writing “This Land is Your Land” and songs of the American West, also lived in Brooklyn in the 1940s. Now unrecorded lyrics he wrote during his years there have been put to music by The Klezmatics.”
**Gold Circle tickets include Priority Seating & 6:30 pm “Meet the Klezmatics” onstage.
For Hanukkah, the foremost and best loved klezmer band offers an evening of their Grammy-winning collaboration with Woody Guthrie’s recently discovered lyrics. The Klezmatics bring their hip, East Village sensibility to this favorite time of year, when candles and family warmth light up the dark nights.
Here Klezmer meets American Folk — focusing on Guthrie’s newly discovered Hanukkah songs, lyrics in English with Eastern European musical flourishes.
Folk icon Woody Guthrie - itinerant champion of workers, rider of the rails who wrote “This Land is Your Land” - wrote Hanukkah songs? Indeed he did, and in a pairing as richly diverse as Guthrie’s life itself — from the plains of tiny Okemah, Oklahoma to the cultural stew of post-war Brooklyn — his evocative lyrics are the perfect match for the music of the Klezmatics. This concert has already become an enduring addition to the holiday canon, with tracks penned by the songwriting legend and music from the premiere ambassadors of Yiddish culture.
Guthrie’s Jewish lyrics (previously unknown) can be traced to the unusual collaborative relationship he had with his mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt, a prominent Yiddish poet and confidant of Guthrie during his tenure in Coney Island. Guthrie’s Jewish lyrics came as a surprise to Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter (and the album’s Executive Producer), who learned of Woody’s Judaism connection in a chance encounter with the Klezmatics and Itzhak Perlman after a concert. Guthrie was introduced to Perlman as “Aliza’s granddaughter.” She recalls, “All my life, I’ve been introduced as Woody’s daughter…but this was the first time I’d ever been introduced as ‘Aliza Greenblatt’s granddaughter!”
The deft wordcraft, endearing playfulness, and fiery progressive worldview of Guthrie’s lyrics are in good hands with the adventurious and virtuosic playing of the Klezmatics. Trumpeter Frank London says, “The words are all his, but the diversity of musical styles is quintessentially Klezmatic.” London says that some songs lent themselves to overtly Jewish klezmer music, others to more American forms, like classic dust-bowl country tunes. The band’s influences in setting the lyrics to music ranged from sacred (Hasidic nigunim –wordless tunes often used in prayer – and Gospel) to secular (freylekhs – traditional dance music – and hoedowns).”
In an “A” review of the Grammy-winning CD that inspired this concert, the Chicago Sun Times says the music “skips merrily our of the speakers and becomes the life of the party.” Now, it makes its 8th Step-Proctors debut on December 2nd!
“…a complete joy…Guthrie’s lyrics are transformed from dust-gathers to living, breathing, vital pieces of music…Woody’s Jewish in-laws would certainly have been proud” ALL MUSIC GUIDE