Live at Town Hall

For my money The Klezmatics have been the most important band on the klezmer scene over the past 25 years. Although they didn't release their first album until 1989, the six founding musicians came together in 1986. What marked them out was a radical but informed and respectful approach to Jewish klezmer music, combined with a liberal political agenda: klezmer with New York attitude. As trumpeter Frank London says: “we have shown a way for people to embrace Yiddish culture on their own terms as a living, breathing part of our world and its political and aesthetic landscape.”

This concert at New York's Town Hall theatre (celebrating their 20th birthday, back in 2006) features music from throughout their career, beginning, with the lighting-speed, tongue-twisting ‘Man in a Hat’ from their 1994 album, Jews with Horns, sung by their consistently brilliant vocalist Lorin Sklamberg, the best Yiddish singer around. It also involves music from some of the special projects like the theatre music to Tony Kushner's production of the Yiddish drama The Dybbuk and the Grammy-winning Woody Guthrie project Wonder Wheel. The Klezmatics’ instrumental playing has always been spectacular and Frank London on trumpet, Lisa Gutkin on violin and Matt Darriau on clarinet get their opportunities to shine. And the brilliant David Krakauer, whose solo career was launched by The Klezmatics, rejoins them for this concert. There's also a formidable array of guest musicians, bringing a klezmer big-band sound. But there are also quiet moments of repose, like Sklamberg singing the Hassidic tune ‘Eyliyohu Hanovi’.

Even if you have all The Klezmatics albums, all the pieces here have moved on from the original recordings and it always has the sound of a live show. The concert ends with a fiery version of one of their signature pieces, ‘NY Psycho Freylekhs’, followed by some of their singalong anthems – Shnirele, Perele’, ‘Ale Brider’ – as encores. A joyous celebration of a remarkable band.