Klezrner

id

Fusion

Hundreds Oher for music under blue skies.

RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER

aryn Zeitlin, 3, toddled into the park. She
held an ice cream cone in one hand, her
grandmother's hand in the other.
Caryn and her bubbie, Rebecca Rubin,
were enjoying Sunday's sun and cool
breeze at Southfield's Inglenook Park,
where Neil Alexander and his Klezmer
Fusion Band entertained a crowd of 500.
The outdoor concert — cosponsored by
Neighborhood Project, the City of South-
field and The Jewish/News — aimed to
foster community spirit and pride through

Miriam Imerman introduces daughter Susan to Klezmer.

Shira and Shmuel Levine
attend with cousin Jonathan.

Little Moshe took his
mom, Barbara
Haddad, to the
concert.

music.
"It's a beautiful project, a beautiful function," said
Vicki Goldbaum, Southfield City Council president
pro-tempore.
`This is a melting-pot community and we can learn
from our diversity to help make it stronger."
The event attracted children and adults who sat
on a colorful combination of lawn chairs and blan-
kets. Some people danced. Some played cards. All lis-
tened to the strains of Klezmer and Fusion.
'We're playing everything from Yiddish to folk. Everything's Jew-
ish in content or language," said Dr. Alexander, who, in addition to
leading the band, serves on the faculty of University of Michigan's
medical school. "We want to integrate Old World and New World.
We try to play original tunes traditionally, and then we take off."
The band performed songs in Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish. At
one point it fused elements of an old Chasidic melody with the African
beat of congo drums. The rhythms of jazz and rock mixed with fa-
miliar sounds of Jewish culture.
Leah Same of Oak Park attended the concert with her children,
Sarah Adina, Yermi and Elisheva.
"I love the music and I thought my children would really enjoy it
too," she said. "It's a good way to introduce them to it."
The Hearshens — Sue and her daughters, Ilana and Laura —
came to Inglenook to round out a day of Judaism.
"First, we went to Temple Beth El's family picnic," Ms. Hearshen
said. "And now we're here for our musical dessert." El