The Klezmatics

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #119 (August/September 2005).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

The Klezmatics

An Interview With Founding Member Frank London

by Elliot Stephen Cohen

Many years ago, a popular ad campaign for a renowned brand of kosher rye bread featured people of various ethnic backgrounds, proudly stating, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's." The same could hold true for New York's long-running Klezmatics, who have over the past 20 years become the Beatles of the klezmer genre.

That universal appeal is shown to full effect on the group's eighth album, Brother Moses Smote the Water [Piranha]. Recorded live in Berlin, Germany, the program celebrates the liberation from historical oppression shared by Jews and African-Americans. Traditional Hebrew Passover songs, like "Eyliyohu Hanovi" and "Ki Loy Nue," delivered by the solemn cantor-like tenor of longtime vocalist Lorin Sklamberg, are combined by rousing performances by Joshua Nelson, a 29-year-old charismatic African-American Jewish Hebrew School teacher, who calls his music "kosher gospel." If Nelson's renditions of "Elijah Rock" and Sam Cooke's "Oh, Mary Don't You Weep" don't get you off your seat, check your pulse to see if you're still alive.

As for the origin of the idea for the unique collaboration, 47-year-old founding member Frank London explained, "About a year ago we decided to do a concert combining both the African-American tradition and Jewish tradition of freedom songs. When we were looking for different people to collaborate with, we were told about Joshua. When we heard his CDs, we were just blown away and decided to work with him. I don't know of any other Jewish gospel singer who sounds like Mahalia Jackson and sings with the spirit that Joshua does."

As to performing the concert in Germany, which harbors some of the Klezmatics' most ardent fans, London recalled an ironic moment. "Usually I'm more influenced by people than place," said London of his libertarian view of the world, "but one of the first times the Klezmatics performed in Germany, we were playing a Purim song. I was just kind of naïvely introducing the song to the audience, and I explained that this comes from the holiday that we celebrate because there was a time when people tried to kill all of the Jews, and we fought back and survived. Then all of a sudden, it hit me, 'Oh, that's what also happened here.' I didn't really want to talk about the Holocaust from the stage. but I was just trying to explain the holiday, because this story is so embedded in our culture."

[cover #119]