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JULIE YOLLES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

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The six members of the Klezmatics
I, have meticulously studied Eastern
I European Jewish music and
developed their own totally radical
klezmer style.

Called "the world's
greatest party band,"
the Klezmatics
integrate rock, jazz,
minimalist, Latin and
hip hop into a unique
counter-klez style that
appeals to audiences
of all ages.

Below: The CD cover
of The Klezmatics:
Jews With Hams

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82

Yithiler on the spoof. No?
No.
More like a progressive twist on classic
iddish music, so affirms Alicia Svigals, vi-
olinist and vocalist of the politically correct and mu-
sically adept New York-based Klezmatics.
"We try to play and create radical authentic Jew-
ish music," says Svigals in a phone interview from
her Upper West Side apartment. "We want to play
music that's really rooted in the tradition but is re-
ally antithetical. It's authentic in that we're being
true to ourselves. But we want to make this our own
music in a really organic way — not recreating what
our grandpas used to do, but making our own iden-
tity as young Jews," she adds about the six band
members ranging in age from 34 to early 40s.
In between frequent call-waiting interruptions —
Svigals' phone number accidentally happens to be
a 1-800 number for a Brazilian travel agency — she
talked about all the new things in her life.
New tour dates — to Congregation Shaarey Zedek
at 3:30 p.m. Sunday for the free annual Laker con-
cert.
New CD release —Live in the Fiddler's House with
Itzhak Perlman, with six tracks performed by the
Klezmatics and Svigals' violin hero."
And perhaps her most complex and fulfilling: New
motherhood.
On Dec. 8, when Svi-
gals and the Klezmatics
perform at Shaarey
Zedek, her son Benjamin
turns 1. Benjamin was
carried by Svigals' partner
more information, contact • Jews with Horns
of 6 1/2 years, Ellen
Living Traditions at (212) (Xenophile/Green Linnet,
Marakowitz.
691-1272.
1995)
'When Ben was 4
months old, we schlepped
Klezmatics Discography • In the Fiddler's House
him around Italy for
(Angel Records, 1995)
three weeks while [the
• Shvagyn=Toyt (Yiddish
Klezmatics were on
for Silence=-Death, Piranha
• Live in the Fiddler's
tour]," Svigals remem-
Records, 1989).
House (Angel Records,
bers
wearily. "It was def-
Silence=Death is the slo-
11/12/96) — six songs per-
initely a naive thing for
gan of gay activists. "It's an formed by the Klezmatics
first-time parents to do.
apt metaphor that applies
We traveled separately
• .Klezmer Music: A Mar-
to language, music and hu-
man rights. And it's fun to
riage ofHeaven & Earth — from the band — we
didn't want to torment
say in Yiddish," says Klez-
Two songs performed by
matics violinist Alicia Svi-
the Klezmatics, including a them."
These days, the band
gals.
violin solo by Alicia Svigals
members are slowing
("Gasn nigh").
• Rhythm and Jews (Fly-
down their tour schedule,
which regularly takes
ing kIsh/Roluider, 1992)

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With The Klezmatics

Klezmatics members Alicia
Svigals, David Licht, Frank
London and Lorin Sklam-
berg are preparing for
KlezKamp: The 12th Annu-
al Yiddish Folk Arts Pro-
gram to be held Dec. 22-27
at the Parmount Hotel in
Parks-ville, N.Y. (the
Catskills region).
From infants to adults,
KlezKampers can explore
the gamut in Yiddish folk
culture, from klezmer music,
dance, song, theater, film,
folklore and history to lan-
guage, calligraphy and pa-
per-cutting. There are still
some spaces available. For