Swinging Klezmer
An Ann Arbor group combines old and new into a rollicking Jewish party.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
here must be more —
being Jewish must be
funna — Than mak-
ing a pledge and show-
ing up on Rosh
Hashanah.
Expressing his up-
beat belief by writing and singing
those lyrics, Neil Alexander,
along with his Klezmer Fusion
Band, last year set a rousing tone
that caught up more than 500
fast steppers in a Purim celebra-
tion.
During that Klezmer Dance
Party sponsored by the Jewish
Community Center of Washte-
naw County, a spirited, join-the-
fun mood led to this year's encore
event planned for 7:30 p.m. Sat-
urday, Feb. 18, at Washtenaw
Community College.
Already rehearsing the tradi-
tional Yiddish and Hebrew tunes
they modernize with English
lyrics and rock 'n' roll beats, the
six- member combo is planning
some new fare for the holiday fes-
tivities.
Also featured will be folk
dances as taught by Ellen Moss,
kosher gourmet food and a
chance to make symbolic masks.
Costumes are optional.
"We will go from heavy
Mediterranean music to Israeli
to Chasidic to swing to tango to
waltz to rock 'n' roll and back
again," said Dr. Alexander, 39,
an Ann Arbor research physician
who formed the band in 1993 and
now accepts as many as six en-
gagements a month.
"The lyrics I write are mostly
about Jewish pride. The majority
of the songs are corny, but they're
fun. Last year, we did a rap num-
ber, and this year we're going to
add Jewish lyrics to some popular
rock 'n' roll and R & B tunes.
"We've been asked to do line
dance music and contemporary
dance music. Each time we do a
Yiddish theater tune, you can bet
we'll follow up by doing some
swing, tangos, waltzes and
polkas."
The six musicians in the band
come from a rotating pool of about
10 to accommodate varying
schedules and performance des-
tinations around the state. Dif-
ferent locales can mean different
audience reactions.
lowship brought him to this area
in 1987, and he joined klezmer
groups in Lansing and Ann Ar-
bor. Because the other musicians
followed a style that they thought
represented the past, he was con-
fined strictly to revivalist
klezmer.
"The problem for me was the
way it had been done always
seemed to change," Dr. Alexan-
der said. "It depended where the
musicians were. The music may
have grown up in Eastern Eu-
rope, but when they brought it to
the United States, they added to
it.
"I figured the next step for me
was to form my own band. I like
playing traditionally, but I also
like it with a little beat — rock,
Latin, swing or jazz."
When the singer/guitarist
started to assemble musicians to
fuse old and new sounds, he
looked for professional jazz artists
who also could understand how
to play ethnic music. He wound
up with a compatible group of in-
strumentalists who individually
could play a keyboard, drums,
bass, mandolin or clarinet.
Core performers include Ralph
Katz, Nan Nelson, Don Prior,
David Sterns and Stephanie
Ozer. Others are Mark Kieswet-
ter, Pete Kahn and Dan Meslan-
ka.
The group sometimes brings
its repertoire to non-Jews and has
a large spring concert planned at
the Masonic Temple in Detroit,
where the show will be for the
KLEZMER page 88
FEBRUARY
Dr. Neil Alexander, second from right,
and his Klezmer Fusion Band.
"When we go to East Lansing,
the kids go crazy," Dr. Alexander
said. "I've never seen anything
like it. They go into circles and
dance, and they'll do chorus lines.
They'll come up behind me as I'm
singing and sing with me.
"Guys have tipped me by
putting quarters on my music
stand. I think it's just great be-
cause they're trying to form a rap-
port with me, and they see me
and the music as approachable.
They bond with it. I engage them
and interact with them.
"One time people were going
around in a circle, and I went into
a flamenco rhythm. A woman got
up all of a sudden, put a rose be-
tween her teeth and started danc-
ing."
Dr. Alexander has been devot-
ed to religious music since he be-
gan singing in Minnesota youth
groups. He went on to become a
chazzan, traveling to small towns
throughout the Midwest, and he
also sang and played the guitar
on the wedding and anniversary
circuit while attending medical
school at the University of Min-
nesota.
"I did my internal medicine
residency in New Mexico, where
one of the foremost Balkan clar-
inet players lived," Dr. Alexan-
der said. "I walked up to him,
introduced myself and asked if
he needed a singer. That was my
first foray into klezmer music.
"We made one recording that
has had national distribution
through Yiddish music cata-
logues."
A University of Michigan fel-
Last year's Klezmer Dance Party.