The London Klezmer Quartet - from left, Carol Isaacs on accordion, Ilana Cravitz on violin, double bassist Indra Buraczewska, and Susi Evans on clarinet - in Rossmoyne, Perth. Picture: Colin Murty Source: The Australian
FOR the London Klezmer Quartet, touring is about carrying on a cultural tradition that stretches back hundreds of years.
The all-female four-piece band, which began a tour of Australia in Fremantle last night, will be sharing its brand of folk with as many people as possible during the coming month, even teaching the curious how to play it.
Klezmer, originally a Hebrew word for musical instrument, is the traditional Jewish folk music of eastern Europe, a form of instrumental music most often heard at Jewish weddings but which is enjoying a renaissance worldwide outside its usual setting.
Ilana Cravitz, the group's leader and classically trained violinist, has been playing klezmer music for 20 years, teaches it in England and has published a book on how to play it. She also has played at hundreds of weddings.
"There is something about klezmer music at a wedding that lifts the whole occasion," she says. "Live music isn't always at weddings these days, but even a DJ said to me recently it was good to have us there because people get up and dance."
This is the quartet's second visit to Australia after its successful debut last year and once again its tour includes a handful of folk festivals, including the National Folk Festival in Canberra, where the group will conduct workshops on the intricacies of playing klezmer.
It's a musical style that has its roots in 19th-century eastern Europe, although the earliest mentions of klezmorim, as the musicians were called, can be traced back to the 15th century. Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copeland are among the composers who were influenced by the klezmer music they had heard in their youth.
The LKQ includes Cravitz on violin, Carol Isaacs on accordion, Susi Evans on clarinet and Melbourne double bassist Indra Buraczewska, who joined the band last year after passing an audition on Skype.
"I've been playing world music in various guises for a number of years so it's a natural follow-on for me," Buraczewska says. "At the moment I'm also playing with some people from the Balkans and that music community, so this music strikes a chord with me."
Klezmer music spread from Europe to the US in the early 20th century and enjoyed a sudden rise in popularity there in the 1970s. The London Klezmer Quartet is just one of many bands playing that form of music in Britain. Now the group is hoping to expand its popularity in Australia.
Cravitz describes it as the blues music of eastern Europe, often reflecting the hardships and culture of local communities, but which, through the years, picked up elements of other cultures because of the nomadic existence of the musicians.
"It's celebratory and soulful," she says. "It's something that gets the toe tapping but there's an underlying melancholy. The songs tell about history, politics, not just home life and hardship. But it's not just talking about having potatoes to eat every day."
Clariz discovered the musical form when she heard a klezmer band playing in the street in Leeds, where she was living, more than 20 years ago and decided on the spot she had to learn more about it. It is not a well-documented music, however.
There are surviving recordings made on 78rpm records in Europe and in the US in the first half of the 20th century, but much of the history of klezmer, such as documentation, field recordings and manuscripts, was lost in Europe during the Holocaust.
Cravitz is always on the lookout for more of these rarities.
"It's folk music so it wasn't always thought worthy of documentation," she says. "Now, of course, with its revival, everyone is curious about how they played it."
The four musicians bring different elements and influences to the quartet's sound. Isaacs is a classically trained pianist who has spent most of her career in the rock world, touring and recording with artists such as Peter Gabriel, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt. Evans is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and is much in demand as a session player in the theatre and on the classical stage. She also fronts her own band, She'Koyokh.
"But we don't stray too far from the original klezmer sound," Cravitz says.
She says the group was surprised by the response to its debut performances in Australia last year, and not just from those of the Jewish faith.
"We were completely bowled over last time." she says. "We didn't expect the warmth of reception that we got. People came because they'd heard about it and wanted to give it a go. Jewish people love it because it reminds them of their heritage or their home, but other people respond to it as well."
The chief attraction for her, however, is making sure audiences have a good time.
"I love the tunes," she says. "It's like going on a journey and you can always find more to enjoy. There's a whole lot of music there to explore. It's infectious, the response you get from the audience. Playing something that gets people up and dancing . . . there is no better feeling than that."
The London Klezmer Quartet Australian tour continues tonight in Bunbury, Western Australia, and ends at the National Folk Festival in Canberra on April 1.
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