0:00:16 > 0:00:18And now, ladies and gentlemen,
0:00:18 > 0:00:19klezmer tune!
0:00:19 > 0:00:21What's klezmer?
0:00:21 > 0:00:22I haven't the faintest idea.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24What is klezmer?
0:00:24 > 0:00:29It's a music that manages to mean many things to many people.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33I always think of it as Jewish jazz, in terms of expression
0:00:33 > 0:00:35and what it evokes.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40I would define it as joy with tears.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43HE PLAYS A DESCENDING SCALE
0:00:48 > 0:00:51It's the music that accompanied every ceremony,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55every big moment in the life of the Jewish community.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58HUMS "Hava Nagila"
0:01:00 > 0:01:03First impressions are that klezmer is a simple music
0:01:03 > 0:01:05for simple pleasures,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07but it's built on something much more profound.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15A need for a people to express the things
0:01:15 > 0:01:18that were beyond religion.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23A bit like a Sufi Islam idea too,
0:01:23 > 0:01:26that the music that your body produces
0:01:26 > 0:01:29is a direct contact with your soul.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31It's your soul expressing itself.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41So the term "klezmer", I think,
0:01:41 > 0:01:43refers to anything that has come from
0:01:43 > 0:01:47East European Jewish wedding music.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53As played by Yiddish-speaking people.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Mazel tov!
0:02:13 > 0:02:15"Klezmer" is an ancient word
0:02:15 > 0:02:19that traditionally meant "instrument" or "musician"
0:02:19 > 0:02:21but since the 1970s,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25it has been used to define a whole musical genre.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Klezmer has a distinctive sound.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33This tune is a freylakhs, a dance tune.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35"Freylakhs" is Yiddish for "joy"
0:02:35 > 0:02:40and it's the joyfulness of the music that is immediately attractive.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Draws a crowd, makes people want to dance.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45They don't know what it is, but they know it's fun.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48There's a reason, it's a satisfying harmony,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50it's beautiful music and the tunes just work.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56There is a spirit of klezmer
0:02:56 > 0:02:58that I suppose, if you were Jewish, you would think
0:02:58 > 0:03:01is your heritage coming through, but you can feel that
0:03:01 > 0:03:03without having Jewish heritage, it seems.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17BAND PLAYS: "On Een Goppe"
0:03:18 > 0:03:21# Spelen op een goppe man dat leek altijd te kloppen
0:03:21 > 0:03:24# Of het nou bij Jidden was of niet 't was altijd raak
0:03:24 > 0:03:27# Hadden geen bureau'tje maar het was ook nooit een zooitje
0:03:27 > 0:03:29# Waren wij op straat, bliezen we ons uit de naad... #
0:03:29 > 0:03:31From its origins -
0:03:31 > 0:03:34as East European Jewish wedding music,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36as played by Yiddish-speaking people -
0:03:36 > 0:03:38klezmer has gone global.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42# ..Wijn, bier en stuf is voor na de gig... #
0:03:44 > 0:03:48Now played from Amsterdam to Australia, by Jews and non-Jews,
0:03:48 > 0:03:53it's a language and a style that's become accessible to everyone.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55# ..Hey! Joppie, wat is er jongen?
0:03:55 > 0:03:56- # Feestje!- Zijn net begonnen
0:03:56 > 0:03:59- #- Blazen!- Dat is ons leven... #
0:03:59 > 0:04:01What today we call klezmer
0:04:01 > 0:04:05began as a collection of tunes and dances for special events.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09And, like life itself, there was a lot more to it than just joy.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16MOURNFUL SINGING
0:04:21 > 0:04:23To begin to understand klezmer,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27and particularly what lies at the heart of its unique sound,
0:04:27 > 0:04:30it helps to know a bit of history.
0:04:30 > 0:04:332,000 years ago, the Jewish people lived in the Middle East,
0:04:33 > 0:04:35under imperial Roman rule.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37When the Jews rose up in revolt,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40the Roman army destroyed the Temple of Solomon,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43killing many of the Jewish population
0:04:43 > 0:04:45and driving the rest out of the country.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49The Jews became a people without a homeland.
0:04:53 > 0:04:54It was a cry.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56A lot of crying.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58And actually, it was reflected
0:04:58 > 0:05:00in the prayers also.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Everyday prayers about Jerusalem,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06about impossibility to come back to their homeland,
0:05:06 > 0:05:12and every day, Jews were praying and crying
0:05:12 > 0:05:16so this cry was reflected in the prayers, in the singing.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20HE SINGS IN HEBREW
0:05:27 > 0:05:30In many synagogues, prayers are sung rather than spoken
0:05:30 > 0:05:33in order to give them emotional impact.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37The person who sings them is called a cantor.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47The musical scales the cantor uses came out of the Middle East
0:05:47 > 0:05:51and klezmer borrows from these same scales, or modes.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01What a mode is - it's, if you like, a collection of mini tunes
0:06:01 > 0:06:03or it could be...
0:06:03 > 0:06:05a succession of notes,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09for example, "da, da-da-da-da-da-da-da."
0:06:09 > 0:06:11You would not really find that in Western music
0:06:11 > 0:06:14because it's neither major nor a minor scale,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16but it is a Jewish scale, if you like,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19and whether it's a cantor or a klezmer player,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21they will be playing or singing in these modes
0:06:21 > 0:06:25and that's what gives the music its Eastern flavour, if you like.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27If you think of the normal major scale,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30which we have in Western music.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38That's a normal major, and that...
0:06:38 > 0:06:43It's become so bland that we don't even really notice it as a scale,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45but the klezmer major scale...
0:06:51 > 0:06:55..immediately sounds really different, exciting and unusual.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58So that's called the Ahava Raba.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01And there's also a minor scale.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03The Western minor scale is...
0:07:08 > 0:07:10Which again, sounds like nothing very much.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14But the klezmer minor scale, called the Mi Shebeirach, is...
0:07:20 > 0:07:22And it's these intervals...
0:07:24 > 0:07:26..which are wider than the normal intervals
0:07:26 > 0:07:28you would get in a Western scale,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30are what makes it really exciting.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49The sound of klezmer has changed over hundreds of years,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52as different instruments have come along.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Two sounds now predominate - the clarinet and the violin,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58both of which emulate the human voice.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03And early musicians used these instruments
0:08:03 > 0:08:07to create another key part of the klezmer sound -
0:08:07 > 0:08:08the krekhts.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16# Ya-da-da-da da-da doich-dam... #
0:08:21 > 0:08:24It has all those flavours, all that...
0:08:24 > 0:08:27That particular ornament is called a krekhts.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31"Krekhts" means to gasp, or moan, or sob, or sigh,
0:08:31 > 0:08:35and Yiddish cantorial music and Yiddish folk song
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and klezmer music is full of that "Oy, oy oy oy" style.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42And it's like a sob in the back of the throat.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59So that's one. There's another one, which is sometimes called a kvetch,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02which I believe means whining or complaining.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10It's a very special kind of...
0:09:12 > 0:09:15..intonation that, for me, is like, "Oy, oy!" You know,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18it's like you're making your violin speak in Yiddish.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30So our destiny, you know, everything is fine, but oy vey!
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Oy vey!
0:09:32 > 0:09:34To play klezmer, you have to understand this.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26During the early 19th century,
0:10:26 > 0:10:30there were over five million Jews living in Eastern Europe,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32many in ghetto communities in cities
0:10:32 > 0:10:35and others in villages known as shtetls.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Life for the majority was basic and difficult.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Jews could only live in permitted areas
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and were restricted to particular professions.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49The occasions they could forget their troubles
0:10:49 > 0:10:52were during religious and secular celebrations,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55in which klezmer music played a central part,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57as did the people who performed it -
0:10:57 > 0:11:01the musicians known as klezmorim.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11The klezmorim were freelance professional musicians
0:11:11 > 0:11:14available for weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18They had more freedom than was usual for Jews at the time,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22which gave them a certain reputation.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25They were kind of the bad boys of the Jewish old world,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29in that they didn't respect what they were told
0:11:29 > 0:11:30by the people in the Synagogue.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34They were in the community,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37but also not in the committee.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42They weren't like a proper Jew, who has to follow all the traditions.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46When you've a gypsy life, you are a little bit different.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48You do not follow all the rules.
0:11:48 > 0:11:49When you play, you have to be creative.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52When you're creative, you break the rules.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59We don't know a lot about the klezmorim.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Secular music was not considered important enough to document.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06By all accounts, they were low down in the pecking order
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and it was by no means a lucrative profession.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12You wouldn't want your daughter to marry one,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15but no wedding was complete without them.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Weddings, weddings were the most...
0:12:17 > 0:12:20were the main place
0:12:20 > 0:12:23where klezmer musicians could play and earn some money.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Weddings brought whole communities together for a good time
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and for this, a band was fundamental.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43In fact, there is an old Yiddish saying,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46"A pish un a fortz iz vi a khasene un a klezmer!"
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Literally - "A piss without a fart is like a wedding without a band."
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Klezmer accompanied every part of the ceremony.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03There were melodies to escort the families between homes,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05melodies to greet the guests,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07and melodies for seating the bride.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12The band would process through the streets, gathering the guests.
0:13:12 > 0:13:13That would be the first thing.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17They would play a type of tune that's in...
0:13:17 > 0:13:18We now play it in three
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and it goes something like this.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32They had to string together a whole load of tunes in that time signature,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35then they would stop at each house and people would come out
0:13:35 > 0:13:36and then they would move on
0:13:36 > 0:13:39until they got to the moment where they're going to play for the bride.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58What's interesting about a Jewish wedding
0:13:58 > 0:14:00is that often, the piece one would play for the bride
0:14:00 > 0:14:03can be quite a tearjerker, not an upbeat
0:14:03 > 0:14:04sort of happy tune, necessarily,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08you know, it's actually often about making everybody cry
0:14:08 > 0:14:09and feel kind of moved.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17The bridegroom would sing, "Oh, my beloved bride.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20"Now has come the time in your life when you must leave your home.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23"You thought life was hard before, now it's going to be even harder.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25"You'll have to raise children,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28"the pain of which is too terrible for words.
0:14:28 > 0:14:29"You'll be on your own.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32"Your husband will go out and pray all day and go to work,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34"and you'll be sat home with the children..."
0:14:34 > 0:14:37All this kind of terrible message about adulthood
0:14:37 > 0:14:39and, "You're leaving your mother who's looked after you
0:14:39 > 0:14:42"and now you're responsible for doing this yourself..."
0:14:42 > 0:14:43And she'd cry.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Weddings were usually outdoors, under a canopy, or khupe,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07symbolising the home the bride and groom were about to enter together.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Sometimes, the groom would also be tested on his resolve.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15They would explain to him that this was the day of no going back,
0:15:15 > 0:15:17this was the day of reckoning with God.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Now you must... All your knowledge of Hebrew
0:15:20 > 0:15:22and your knowledge of the Bible must come together
0:15:22 > 0:15:24and you must be a proper man, now that you're being married.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28You have responsibilities. It was quite austere and quite serious.
0:15:28 > 0:15:29And he would cry too.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37With everyone thoroughly miserable,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39the ceremony would build to its climax.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43The bride and groom would sip from a cup of wine...
0:15:43 > 0:15:45the ring would be placed...
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and then the moment everyone had been waiting for.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57When the groom says, "I will remember the Jerusalem,"
0:15:57 > 0:15:59and he breaks the glass. Dsh!
0:16:01 > 0:16:05UPBEAT MUSIC AND CLAPPING IN TIME
0:16:09 > 0:16:12This was the cue for the band to launch into a freylekhs -
0:16:12 > 0:16:13a joyful tune.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17The majority of klezmer tunes are upbeat,
0:16:17 > 0:16:21and at weddings, guests have a duty to entertain the bride and groom
0:16:21 > 0:16:22by dancing.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26'They have to dance, they have no choice.'
0:16:26 > 0:16:31You have to stand up and dance, otherwise you are not a Jew!
0:16:31 > 0:16:33HE LAUGHS
0:16:33 > 0:16:35You have to be happy - it's mitzvah!
0:16:35 > 0:16:39It's a good thing to say, mitzvah, to do.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43It's mitzvah to dance and mitzvah to be happy at the wedding.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56'Its rhythm's extraordinary.'
0:16:56 > 0:16:59It's not there to make everybody go, "Yeah, that's groovy,"
0:16:59 > 0:17:01it's there to make everybody get out of their seat
0:17:01 > 0:17:03and throw themselves around and eat matzos.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11These infectious dance numbers were designed to release the emotions
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and keep people up on their feet for hours.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16It's about feeling the beat on the one.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19You know, like, feeling very grounded into the earth,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21and that's why, you know, klezmer's a real true dance genre
0:17:21 > 0:17:24because you feel like you want to just bounce off the, sort of,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28the first beat in the bar and, kind of, move with it.
0:17:34 > 0:17:35For the Jews of Eastern Europe,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38klezmer acted as a kind of sonic glue.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42One of the things that bound them together as a people.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44There are songs that everybody knows,
0:17:44 > 0:17:45at every wedding you've ever been to,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49and that, somehow, adds to the meaning of the occasion
0:17:49 > 0:17:51because you remember the last time it was played.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55You remember all the times in your life that it was played and you danced.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58You remember the steps and maybe you were holding hands with different people,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02but there's something about that repetition that is very powerful
0:18:02 > 0:18:06and that has that link back through the generations.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14'Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all very much!
0:18:14 > 0:18:17'There'll be a lot more dancing later on in the evening.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19'For now, we invite you back to your tables. Thank you.'
0:18:28 > 0:18:32The East European Klezmorim didn't just play for Jews,
0:18:32 > 0:18:34they performed for non-Jews too,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37which required a completely different playlist.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45What we have to remember is that Klezmorim didn't just play,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49kind of, klezmer tunes. You know, it was a very fluid repertoire
0:18:49 > 0:18:51and there was a lot of borrowing that went on
0:18:51 > 0:18:54from other indigenous peoples who lived round and about.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58So whether that was the Turkish community, or the Poles, you know,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00plenty of polkas in the Jewish repertoire.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Plenty of Romanian tunes.
0:19:02 > 0:19:08In Poland, for example, in Poland, there is polka, in Russia kazachok.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13That the klezmer players were from an outcast culture
0:19:13 > 0:19:16only made them more interesting.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19And sometimes, they were asked to play something Jewish.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22"Can you play for us something Jewish?" To laugh!
0:19:22 > 0:19:28"Ha-ha-ha, it sounds so interesting, so funny! It's not ours!" You know?
0:19:28 > 0:19:32They were asked to play, and when they are asked to play, they have to pay!
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Even nowadays, when you come to a Russian restaurant
0:19:47 > 0:19:52and if you request a song, you have to give some money.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55I play in Russian restaurants and this tradition...
0:19:57 > 0:19:59..they don't understand.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01British people, when they come to a Russian restaurant,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05they just request, request, request, but we are the musicians! HE LAUGHS
0:20:05 > 0:20:10We say, "No! No, no, no, you have to put some money."
0:20:10 > 0:20:14And this is, this tradition actually develops the musician.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Encourages the musician to know more, more songs.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28The klezmorim often played with another outcast group, the gypsies.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32In fact, under Russian law, Jews and Gypsies
0:20:32 > 0:20:36were the only two groups permitted to be professional musicians
0:20:36 > 0:20:38outside an orchestra.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41And both sets of musicians were catalysts for change.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47Both Jewish musicians and Gypsy musicians in Eastern Europe
0:20:47 > 0:20:49took, kind of, popular music
0:20:49 > 0:20:53and did something else with it so that things that were,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58kind of, ballroom or even court, you know, as in Royal Court,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02waltzes and polkas, and things like that, became something else,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05and developed into, you know, the bulgars, and the freylekhs,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08and the horas that you associate with klezmer music.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17So klezmer was a magpie music, made up of many different elements.
0:21:17 > 0:21:18And there was yet one more influence
0:21:18 > 0:21:21that would add a spiritual note to the mix,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24and that came from the Hasidim.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31HE CHANTS RAPIDLY IN HEBREW
0:21:37 > 0:21:41The Hasids are mystic sects within the Jewish faith.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45They gave klezmer some of its most beautiful tunes,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49that grew out of wordless songs that they sang to connect with God.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53'They're the mystical Jews. They're like the Rastas.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56'In fact, I think there's a good reason why
0:21:56 > 0:21:58'there's a similarity of appearance.'
0:21:58 > 0:22:03They have spiritual concerns more at the front of their consciousness
0:22:03 > 0:22:05and they no doubt pour that into the music.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07WORDLESS SINGING
0:22:08 > 0:22:12What sounds like football chanting is in fact a nigun,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16a style of song particular to the Hasids.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19WORDLESS SINGING
0:22:28 > 0:22:30'Hasidic tradition is all around nigunim.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34'So the singing of wordless melodies. And very much'
0:22:34 > 0:22:38about - I'm glad I've got a table here - but very much about, like, table pounding.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42So banging on the table, drinking some slivovitz, or whatever.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Kind of, singing for hours, reaching a real state of ecstasy,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and transportation through the singing of these wordless songs.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53WORDLESS SINGING
0:23:07 > 0:23:09'They are ecstatic.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13'They will sing a tune for half an hour'
0:23:13 > 0:23:16and dance to it, and sing this one tune over and over again,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20until they achieve an almost trance-like state,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23which they call deveikus - union with God.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25WORDLESS SINGING
0:23:29 > 0:23:32These nigunim are symbolic of the rebel spirit
0:23:32 > 0:23:36in which Hasidism was born in the 18th century,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40as a grassroots reaction against the religious establishment.
0:23:40 > 0:23:46The establishment was very much about learning Torah for its own sake
0:23:46 > 0:23:51and emphasising less, perhaps, the more spiritual, mystical aspects of Judaism,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55and I think the common people couldn't really identify with that so much.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57And the Hasidim said, "Even if you are not able to learn
0:23:57 > 0:24:01"at the same level as some of the great rabbis, but everybody can sing,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03"dance, they can drink alcohol!
0:24:03 > 0:24:06"They can get to God in a spiritual way
0:24:06 > 0:24:09"and in a way that approaches God from the heart."
0:24:09 > 0:24:11WORDLESS SINGING
0:24:15 > 0:24:19'I once had a night in Poland singing these songs'
0:24:19 > 0:24:20and we were banging the table
0:24:20 > 0:24:22for hours, and drinking slivovitz,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24and singing these songs, and by
0:24:24 > 0:24:26the end, it felt as if the table was,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29like, coming up to meet our hands.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31It was so, like, immensely powerful.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34WORDLESS SINGING
0:24:39 > 0:24:43'What's important to realise is that 150 years ago, in Eastern Europe,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46'if you were a non-Hasidic Jew,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49'you would have Hasidim living right next to you.'
0:24:49 > 0:24:53So, their system of prayer, and their system of song,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and their system of melody writing would have influenced everybody,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00and some of the greatest tunes of the klezmer repertoire
0:25:00 > 0:25:02have come from the Hasidim.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29The most famous klezmer tune in the world
0:25:29 > 0:25:31came from a Hasidic nigun.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33CRACKLING RECORDING
0:25:33 > 0:25:36# Hava nagila
0:25:36 > 0:25:40# Hava nagila
0:25:40 > 0:25:47# Hava nagila, ve-nis'meha... #
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Hava Nagila, originally a wordless melody from the Ukraine.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55It was set to words in the early 1900s.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03Throughout the 20th century,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Hava Nagila was to increase in tempo and popularity,
0:26:07 > 0:26:11while traditional klezmer was to find itself in eclipse.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27In the late 19th century, there was little demand for joyful music,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30as the Jews of Eastern Europe faced terrifying times.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Millions fled from a sustained campaign of persecution
0:26:34 > 0:26:36and anti-Semitism.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42By the 1920s, around two million had left for America,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45about 150,000 came to the UK.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50The largest of the Jewish communities here lived in London's East End.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Some hung on to the culture they came from.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Many, however, wanted nothing more to do with it.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00I think my grandparents turned their back
0:27:00 > 0:27:05on the lives that they left behind,
0:27:05 > 0:27:07because it was unhappy memories, probably,
0:27:07 > 0:27:09and because they wanted to fit in.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Unlike today, where a lot of people come from abroad and come here,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19they still don't want to be part of Great Britain...
0:27:21 > 0:27:25..the Jewish immigrants did want to become part of Britain,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28so they became as English as they possibly could.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32MUSIC: "Painting The Clouds With Sunshine" by Jack Hylton
0:27:33 > 0:27:35This meant doing things the English way.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Like going to Bournemouth on holiday...
0:27:41 > 0:27:43..tea with milk, and playing tombola...
0:27:44 > 0:27:47..and learning how to cook with margarine.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50Klezmer had no part in this world.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53And, anyway, Britain was buzzing to its own music.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57They danced to the big bands -
0:27:57 > 0:27:59Jack Payne, Jack Hylton,
0:27:59 > 0:28:04Billy Cotton, Victor Silvester - those were the bands of the day.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07But it wasn't Jewish dancing.
0:28:07 > 0:28:08Never.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11# When I pretend I'm gay
0:28:11 > 0:28:13# I never feel that way
0:28:13 > 0:28:18# I'm only painting the clouds with sunshine... #
0:28:19 > 0:28:22So, although my grandmother would sing My Yiddishe Momme -
0:28:22 > 0:28:24I mean, she would sing it in Yiddish, as well -
0:28:24 > 0:28:26she also had Doris Day, you know.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29And she also liked other forms of music.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39You see, I don't think the Jews in Britain really ever formed
0:28:39 > 0:28:43a society which would need folk music in that way.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46I'm trying to think of anywhere that anybody would have actually
0:28:46 > 0:28:49performed klezmer music as a folk music for dancing and parties.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Jewish weddings became more British, too, and it seemed that
0:28:56 > 0:29:00the entire wedding repertoire had boiled down to just one tune.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02HE HUMS "HAVA NAGILA"
0:29:02 > 0:29:05And my sister and I would look at them and think they were mad,
0:29:05 > 0:29:10because Joyce and I loved jitterbugging and jiving, and that...
0:29:11 > 0:29:13We knew nothing about that.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19I thought, as a little boy, that Jewish weddings were really boring.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22There would be none of the kind of wonderful madness that is klezmer.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26They probably would sing Hava Nagila,
0:29:26 > 0:29:28and so you'd all get into this huge circle,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31but if you were little, you'd just get trampled on.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36So I'd emerge from the wedding completely bruised and bored,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40and my parents would wonder why I wouldn't go to the social functions
0:29:40 > 0:29:43of the family after that, but there we are.
0:29:46 > 0:29:51The urgent liveliness that was klezmer seemed to have become culturally redundant.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55But there was still a spark.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57How do we know?
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Because someone made a record of Derek Reid's Bar Mitzvah.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06BAND PLAYS "HAVA NAGILA"
0:30:10 > 0:30:13The band playing is The Musicants,
0:30:13 > 0:30:19house band and klezmorim to a restaurant called Silverstein's
0:30:19 > 0:30:20in the East End of London.
0:30:22 > 0:30:29This particular occasion is my Bar Mitzvah on 16th May in 1959.
0:30:29 > 0:30:30- RECORDING:- From Yorkshire?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Yes, I travelled all the way back
0:30:32 > 0:30:36from Harrogate in Yorkshire to come to Derek's Bar Mitzvah.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Well, that's at least something worthwhile recording!
0:30:38 > 0:30:40LAUGHTER
0:30:40 > 0:30:43At this particular thing, I watched most of the adults
0:30:43 > 0:30:44thoroughly enjoying themselves,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48because I couldn't do the antics some of them were doing.
0:30:48 > 0:30:49But they seemed to enjoy it,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and as you hear it, you'll also hear one of my mother's uncles
0:30:53 > 0:30:55actually going straight past the microphone...
0:30:55 > 0:30:58GLEEFUL YELP
0:31:00 > 0:31:04Derek grew up in an East End family of traditional musicians
0:31:04 > 0:31:07and storytellers who'd kept their traditions going
0:31:07 > 0:31:09and loved the old tunes.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17This particular piece is based on the Cossack dance,
0:31:17 > 0:31:20if you know what the Cossack dance is.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24It's to go down, bend the knees, kick them out, and jump up.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27In Yiddish expression, it's called a kazatske,
0:31:27 > 0:31:32and it normally is a piece that is played at...
0:31:34 > 0:31:35..weddings and...
0:31:35 > 0:31:39Or should I say, it used to be - it's not very often heard today.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Klezmer was hanging on, but only just.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47There was no foreseeable future for it in the UK.
0:31:49 > 0:31:56I know, having spoken to one of the younger members of The Musicants,
0:31:56 > 0:32:01that most of the boys of the younger generation were actually advised
0:32:01 > 0:32:04by their fathers, who were the musicians of the band -
0:32:04 > 0:32:0970-plus, when I was a kid they actually were advised
0:32:09 > 0:32:13to go into serious, classical music.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Vladimir Ashkenazy's father was a klezmer,
0:32:17 > 0:32:21and he was told, "You can't make a living at this,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23"go into serious music."
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Klezmer's loss was Western music's gain,
0:32:36 > 0:32:40not just in classical music, but across the board.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44The Jewish influence on English popular music,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48on a Richter scale of one to 16, is 17.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52They were able to assimilate, and then develop.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57I worked in the music industry myself, as you know, and...
0:32:58 > 0:33:00..always Jewish people there.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03I mean, they were always running it, it was a business.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05It's a good business, you know?
0:33:05 > 0:33:07It was show business.
0:33:07 > 0:33:13One of the most successful post-war composers was Lionel Begleiter,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15better known as Lionel Bart.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18Born into an East End Jewish family,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22he would have grown up around Yiddish culture and klezmer music.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27In his most famous musical, Oliver, Bart reached back into that
0:33:27 > 0:33:32heritage to give the Jewish thief, Fagin, a klezmer-esque swansong.
0:33:35 > 0:33:37# A man's got a heart
0:33:38 > 0:33:39# Hasn't he?
0:33:42 > 0:33:44# Joking apart
0:33:45 > 0:33:47# Hasn't he?
0:33:50 > 0:33:54# And though I'd be the first one to say that I wasn't a saint
0:33:57 > 0:34:01# I'm finding it hard to be really as black as they paint
0:34:06 > 0:34:11# I'm... re...viewing
0:34:11 > 0:34:14# The situation
0:34:14 > 0:34:18# Can a fella be a villain all his life?
0:34:18 > 0:34:22# All the trials and tribulations
0:34:22 > 0:34:24# Better settle down
0:34:24 > 0:34:25# And get myself a wife
0:34:25 > 0:34:27# And the wife will cook and sew for me
0:34:27 > 0:34:29# And come for me and go for me
0:34:29 > 0:34:30# And go for me and nag at me
0:34:30 > 0:34:31# The finger she would wag at me
0:34:31 > 0:34:33# The money she would take off me!
0:34:33 > 0:34:37# The misery she'd make of me!
0:34:37 > 0:34:40# I think I'd better think it out again. #
0:34:51 > 0:34:53ARCHIVE: Today is a gay day in Israel -
0:34:53 > 0:34:55the festival of the fruit harvest.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58One country that might have been expected to embrace klezmer
0:34:58 > 0:35:02with open arms was the State of Israel,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06which created, for the first time in 2,000 years, a homeland for Jews.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Their great grandfathers dreamed of such a thing,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11for Israel is the meeting place of age-long dreams.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15Some one million people gathered from around the world
0:35:15 > 0:35:19and set about building a culture that would connect them as a nation.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24These are the dances of biblical times, enjoying a new revival
0:35:24 > 0:35:28by youngsters claiming their heritage for the first time,
0:35:28 > 0:35:31casting back to their own beginnings for truths
0:35:31 > 0:35:32and beauty that belong to them.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39Surely, klezmer, the music that had meant so much to so many,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41would prove a natural fit?
0:35:41 > 0:35:46Imagine you're one of the first settlers in the land of Israel.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48You're speaking Hebrew,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52you're creating a brand-new culture in a brand-new land.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57So anything that reminds you of the old world, the diaspora,
0:35:57 > 0:35:59such as klezmer, the Yiddish language,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03anything from that world is going to remind you of a time
0:36:03 > 0:36:07where the Jews were not at home, were not in Israel.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11And it's not going to be encouraged,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14and you're probably going to not be that interested in it.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16It's old.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20When you're setting up a country from scratch
0:36:20 > 0:36:24and you're trying to make a living selling pomegranates and navel oranges and avocado pears,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27there isn't really the time to create the background of a society
0:36:27 > 0:36:31which would then learn and cherish and nurture
0:36:31 > 0:36:34an old custom like klezmer music.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Because, I think, klezmer music had gone from the planet, anyway, pretty well.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41So they might as well play traditional jazz or sing Frank Sinatra.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45MUSIC: "New York, New York"
0:36:50 > 0:36:54If neither Britain nor Israel saw value in klezmer,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57there was one country that would.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01The 1970s saw America celebrate an important birthday
0:37:01 > 0:37:04it was 200 years old as an independent nation,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06and the bicentennial celebrations
0:37:06 > 0:37:09sparked a new interest in the country's roots.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16People from all ethnic groups began exploring their own ancestry.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19It was one film in particular that fuelled nostalgia
0:37:19 > 0:37:23for the descendants of Eastern European Jews.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31# Tradition, tradition!
0:37:33 > 0:37:34# Tradition!
0:37:34 > 0:37:37# Tradition, tradition!
0:37:38 > 0:37:40# Tradition! #
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Fiddler on the Roof was an emotional touchstone
0:37:43 > 0:37:46for reconnecting with a lost heritage.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Traditions, traditions.
0:37:49 > 0:37:55Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as...
0:37:55 > 0:37:56as...
0:37:56 > 0:37:59as a fiddler on the roof.
0:38:03 > 0:38:10The grandchildren of the immigrant generation had come face-to-face
0:38:10 > 0:38:13with their backgrounds and thought, Grandma and Grandpa,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Bubbe and Zeyde, were wonderful people,
0:38:17 > 0:38:20but they looked so old as youngsters.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23What was it that kept them? Why did they have to work so...?
0:38:23 > 0:38:26People started to look for roots.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30People started to look back at where they had come from, their histories,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34what their countries were, why the family had come West.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40One of the people seeking answers was a banjo player
0:38:40 > 0:38:42from Brooklyn called Henry Sapoznik.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51The story goes that he was playing, I think, bluegrass music,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54and people... You know, a Jewish gentleman -
0:38:54 > 0:38:59and people were asking him, "Why don't you play your own music?"
0:38:59 > 0:39:02And I think this made him stop and think,
0:39:02 > 0:39:04"Why DON'T I play my own music?"
0:39:04 > 0:39:09Sapoznik and others realised that their own music had all but gone.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Luckily, the mass immigration of Eastern European Jews in the early 1900s
0:39:14 > 0:39:18had coincided with the beginning of the recording industry.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22And among those immigrants had been klezmorim, who had made records.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24Sapoznik began to collect them.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28In the '70s, there was no internet.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30You know, you couldn't go on YouTube and find it,
0:39:30 > 0:39:32you really had to hunt around.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36You had to go through old people's...
0:39:37 > 0:39:40..treasures from their grandparents, probably.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44And, you know, there were trunks under beds and, I don't know,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47cellars full of bins of old stuff, and...
0:39:47 > 0:39:53Kind of...all the good stuff about hoarding produced great treasures.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00The result was a revelation to those searching for musical roots.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19So these recordings actually represent a wonderful kind of document
0:40:19 > 0:40:23of a tradition in transition that was happening at that time,
0:40:23 > 0:40:27and we get a very strong idea of the culture as it was coming over
0:40:27 > 0:40:30and its change in response to Americanisation.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35I like to think of them as sort of three-minute musical rosetta stones.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39That is, they unlock the secrets of this tradition.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50So this is Abe Schwartz.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53These records gave musicians a unique style guide
0:40:53 > 0:40:55to the music and how to play it.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57I might just speed it up a bit, actually.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03There you go, you can hear the really lovely cracks that kind of...
0:41:03 > 0:41:04Almost like a birdsong.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06SHE SINGS
0:41:06 > 0:41:07Like in the clarinet.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11There's sort of one guy who's like chirping over the top.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13SHE SINGS
0:41:13 > 0:41:15And then...
0:41:15 > 0:41:17They're really playing as a band.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19But they're also kind of, like,
0:41:19 > 0:41:21weaving their own little stories in there,
0:41:21 > 0:41:23which is really, really lovely.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25SHE HUMS
0:41:42 > 0:41:44If you want to play klezmer music seriously,
0:41:44 > 0:41:46you really have to go back to the old recordings.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49Well, to the wax cylinder recordings,
0:41:49 > 0:41:50and then, to the 78s.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53And, probably, or this is what I did,
0:41:53 > 0:41:57like, slow them down and listen to them, like, at half speed
0:41:57 > 0:42:00and really get deeply, deeply into
0:42:00 > 0:42:02what ornaments were being played
0:42:02 > 0:42:04and the absolute minutiae
0:42:04 > 0:42:07of kind of what was being done.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19The first musicians to rediscover klezmer
0:42:19 > 0:42:22remained as faithful as possible to the original.
0:42:27 > 0:42:34All musicians, they crave a voice which they feel fluent in,
0:42:34 > 0:42:40and they feel that they understand on an internal, emotional gut level.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45And for many klezmer musicians, especially in America,
0:42:45 > 0:42:48in this rebirth of klezmer,
0:42:48 > 0:42:52they, they discovered this music for themselves.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55One of the most typical ornaments in Yiddish music
0:42:55 > 0:42:57is the bend followed by the trill...
0:42:57 > 0:43:02In the 1980s, Sapoznik and others set up Klezcamp,
0:43:02 > 0:43:05a music school to pass on what they had learned.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07If you're not used to playing his music,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10you might tend to play the tune like this.
0:43:14 > 0:43:15Oh!
0:43:15 > 0:43:16THEY CHUCKLE
0:43:18 > 0:43:20With that dead space between the phrases, but...
0:43:20 > 0:43:25a really authentic Yiddish klezmer thing to do would be to do it like this...
0:43:31 > 0:43:33SHE SINGS
0:43:33 > 0:43:35And that bend, it's like, it's like a kvetch,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38it's an emotional thing, it's a cry.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Klezmer became more than just a rediscovered music,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50it provided a focus for people to re-immerse themselves
0:43:50 > 0:43:52in a whole culture.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55And klezmer, as a term, was now used for the first time
0:43:55 > 0:44:00to describe this revived music, and it stuck.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03And the klezmer term is beautiful,
0:44:03 > 0:44:07because it manages to find a category to put it in in the record store.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09You can't look through the record store
0:44:09 > 0:44:12and look for East European Jewish wedding music, it doesn't make sense.
0:44:12 > 0:44:13But klezmer music fulfils that function.
0:44:13 > 0:44:17It also, very conveniently, takes the J-word out of it.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22The klezmer renaissance coincided with an appetite for world music
0:44:22 > 0:44:26and opened it up to an international audience.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31The revival of interest in Yiddish culture and in klezmer music
0:44:31 > 0:44:33certainly started in the States,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37but that has, in a way, brought East European culture
0:44:37 > 0:44:40and Eastern and Jewish culture from over here,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42it's kind of brought it back
0:44:42 > 0:44:44and given us over here a chance to get back into it again.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47I mean, my great-grandparents came from Eastern Europe,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50but, without the American influence, I may never have found it again.
0:44:50 > 0:44:51ALL: Hey!
0:44:51 > 0:44:54And others found their way back to it too.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05When I had my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah, we got a klezmer band. I mean, it...
0:45:05 > 0:45:07And we did it, it was...
0:45:07 > 0:45:09I don't really think of it as a religious ceremony,
0:45:09 > 0:45:11it was, it was a cultural ceremony,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15it was a celebration of Jordy's life at that point, at 13.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20And it was completely different to mine. My Bar Mitzvah was in the '70s,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23and we had, you know, Kung Fu Fighting and...
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Mull of Kintyre.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29It was kind of a disco, you know.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31And we just decided to book a klezmer band,
0:45:31 > 0:45:35and it was... I got the feeling that probably most people in the room
0:45:35 > 0:45:39hadn't actually seen a live klezmer band.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49But it was... What you witnessed, what that music did to that room,
0:45:49 > 0:45:51it just exploded with this music.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54It was like... It's in our DNA, you just couldn't help yourself.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56You know, young and old, everyone,
0:45:56 > 0:45:58it just was riotous, it was amazing.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08And you couldn't have got... It just topped it all off,
0:46:08 > 0:46:12it just connected everything together so beautifully.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26And now, ladies and gentlemen, klezmer tune!
0:46:26 > 0:46:28Happy nigun! Come on!
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Once a month, Oleg Lapidus plays a mixture
0:46:37 > 0:46:39of klezmer and all-time favourites
0:46:39 > 0:46:43to the residents of a Jewish care home.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47In true klezmorim fashion, he has a good memory and a large repertoire.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56He would play music to everybody's requirement,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59because he is very versatile, he knows a lot of different...
0:46:59 > 0:47:02And, you know, in a home like that, you've got all different people,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04which is different culture, different food,
0:47:04 > 0:47:06everything is different.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08We cater for them, so I know what it is.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12So... And he caters for their wishes of music.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25You saw that lady who does that.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28She is just one of the examples, she just hears the music...
0:47:28 > 0:47:30She can't walk, she can hardly sit,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33and she can hardly talk now,
0:47:33 > 0:47:38but when that music goes, she goes... Her... Her shoulders move
0:47:38 > 0:47:40and she is, she's dancing, actually.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03I don't normally play sad tunes there.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08I think, for them, it's better to wake up, to give some good emotions.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14This is the music of their childhood, of their...
0:48:14 > 0:48:17of something in their blood.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28That lady who held his hand,
0:48:28 > 0:48:33her father was the cantor in the synagogue... I think it was Berlin.
0:48:33 > 0:48:35It was either Berlin or Hamburg.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Just before the war, he was the head cantor there.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42So she knows all the tunes,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46so, to her, the klezmer brings it all back to her and she is going...
0:48:46 > 0:48:50She's completely Alzheimer's, she doesn't remember what she had five minutes ago.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53She can ask you twice, "Why didn't you give me breakfast?"
0:48:53 > 0:48:56You know, when she just finished it, actually.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58But she remembers all the tune and she sings it.
0:48:58 > 0:48:59This, she remembers.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02That's why it was so important for her, this klezmer.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25Klezmer is a hand that reaches back into the past.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29This has always been a deeply emotional music.
0:49:29 > 0:49:31And it's this power to move
0:49:31 > 0:49:33that has carried it through to the 21st century...
0:49:37 > 0:49:40..where it now thrives in a whole new dimension.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49The music that was left by the roadside for so long
0:49:49 > 0:49:52has been picked up and embraced by the world's musicians.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54Like the Lemon Bucket Orkestra of Canada,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59who mix klezmer with Balkan beats and punk attitude.
0:50:11 > 0:50:17The wave that started in New York has swept back into Europe
0:50:17 > 0:50:19and everyone is rediscovering it.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29The Other Europeans is an occasional collective
0:50:29 > 0:50:32of 14 leading klezmer and gypsy musicians
0:50:32 > 0:50:35re-establishing the centuries-old cooperation
0:50:35 > 0:50:38that was torn apart by war and emigration.
0:50:58 > 0:51:04Yuval Havkin, at the piano, takes the traditional classical music of polite society
0:51:04 > 0:51:06and mixes it up with klezmer
0:51:06 > 0:51:08to produce something familiar to the Western ear,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12but based on klezmer rhythms, scales and melody.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26For a music that began with such a specific brief,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29klezmer is proving remarkably adaptable.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32It's really timeless. I mean, its qualities are timeless.
0:51:32 > 0:51:38It's something that is both emotional and exciting
0:51:38 > 0:51:42and spiritual.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46It appeals to Jews, it appeals to non-Jews. It's a... It's a leveller.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10APPLAUSE
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Ladies and gentlemen, The Carousel Ensemble,
0:52:13 > 0:52:15with a little klezmer music.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Klezmer gives this engine, this edge,
0:52:22 > 0:52:25this something which makes it life.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28You can mix klezmer music with everything
0:52:28 > 0:52:34and if you put a drop, even one drop of klezmer, it starts life.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37One of the world's most famous classical virtuosos
0:52:37 > 0:52:39has been inspired by klezmer.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Nigel Kennedy plays with the Polish klezmer band Kroke
0:52:43 > 0:52:45at concerts all over the world.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06The question arises among some people -
0:53:06 > 0:53:08it's never a question I've asked myself -
0:53:08 > 0:53:11do you need to be Jewish to play klezmer?
0:53:11 > 0:53:15Do you need to be black to play the blues?
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Do you need to be large and Italian to sing opera?
0:53:19 > 0:53:22I mean, all these things are just obviously not true,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25and what's interesting is when all kinds of people
0:53:25 > 0:53:27start playing each other's music,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29and it's good for everybody.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33It's kind of, everyone feels respect for each other's music,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36and that's actually the way music develops.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50The Amsterdam Klezmer Band is at the forefront
0:53:50 > 0:53:53of the new European klezmer wave.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Since their inception in the 1990s,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58they've not played straight klezmer,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00but borrowed from a variety of other traditions,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02including Balkan, gypsy and ska.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22Their mixing-up of genres has opened them up
0:54:22 > 0:54:24to criticism by klezmer purists,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27who say this style of klezmer isn't kosher.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30But others think this only adds to their appeal.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34You know, we have rocksteady and we have dancehall,
0:54:34 > 0:54:39and then, people take dancehall and they put klezmer legs on it too,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43and so klezmer is now part of that continuum
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and it's another style that you can dabble in,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50it's another, you know, colour on a musician's pal-ette.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52Now, on the one... Or "palette".
0:54:52 > 0:54:55But, on the one hand, that might make for World Music soup.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58On the other hand, it might make for something really very interesting.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25French klezmer clarinettist Yom is influenced by traditional klezmer,
0:55:25 > 0:55:28overlaid with jazz and heavy rock.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32It's still klezmer, but not as we knew it.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Now klezmer music has all kinds of instruments
0:55:49 > 0:55:52that wouldn't normally have been playing it back then.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54There are all sorts of different types of klezmer music,
0:55:54 > 0:55:56ranging from klezmer jazz,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00klezmer rock, klezmer thrash, traditional klezmer...
0:56:00 > 0:56:03It covers a very wide range of musical styles
0:56:03 > 0:56:08that all have an influence from East European Jewish wedding music.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11# One, two, three, four
0:56:11 > 0:56:13# Join the Marching Jobless Corps
0:56:13 > 0:56:15# No work in the factories
0:56:15 > 0:56:18# No more manufacturing
0:56:18 > 0:56:20# All the tools are broke and rusted
0:56:20 > 0:56:23# Every wheel and window busted
0:56:23 > 0:56:25# Through the city streets we go
0:56:25 > 0:56:27# Idle as a CEO
0:56:27 > 0:56:30# Idle as a CEO... #
0:56:31 > 0:56:35Daniel Kahn is an American klezmer performer based in Berlin.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39It's one of the more curious aspects of the klezmer story
0:56:39 > 0:56:42that this music is now huge in Germany.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46The most prestigious klezmer festival in the world is held in Weimar.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48# ..Get for pay?
0:56:48 > 0:56:50# Hungry, broke and thrown away
0:56:50 > 0:56:54# Hungry, broke and thrown away... #
0:56:54 > 0:56:58Kahn's klezmer with a contemporary message
0:56:58 > 0:57:04confirms that this once-forgotten music is most defiantly alive today.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06The fact that the music can live on in these new ways
0:57:06 > 0:57:09that feel relevant to new generations is very exciting,
0:57:09 > 0:57:12and very real, in a klezmer sense,
0:57:12 > 0:57:14because that's what klezmer musicians would have done.
0:57:14 > 0:57:15You know, they were living very much
0:57:15 > 0:57:18as products of the communities in which they lived,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20they borrowed from the Poles, they borrowed from the Turks.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22You know, as a true klezmer, it's about that.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Jewish music has always been about that.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34People will take it and make of it what they will.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37Because it's free to go now,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41it's been liberated from where it came from
0:57:41 > 0:57:45and from its status as a museum music.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47# ..Arbetsloz iz keyn shum hand
0:57:47 > 0:57:49# In dem nayem frayn land
0:57:49 > 0:57:54# In dem nayem frayn land
0:57:54 > 0:57:59# In dem nayem frayn land
0:57:59 > 0:58:03# In dem nayem frayn land. #
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd