Arts & Entertainment
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June 15 • 2006
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"
Jewish 'Gipsy Kings'
Paris-based
group makes Ann
Arbor debut.
T
chorba (Soup), the latest record-
ing of the French klezmer-gypsy
band Les Yeux Noirs (the Black
Eyes), will be at the center of the group's
appearance at the Ann Arbor Summer
Festival. Eric and Olivier Slabiak, violin-
playing brothers who founded the group,
will perform 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 27, at
the Power Center in Ann Arbor.
"Besides introducing our newest CD
(with a Turkish title), we take our old
tunes and give them new arrangements,"
says Eric Slabiak, 39, who makes musical
soup by combining world rhythms with
traditional sounds and calling upon differ-
ent languages. "Over the past five years,
I've noticed a new interest in both gypsy
and klezmer music."
Les Yeux Noirs, which took its name
from the title of a Russian gypsy tune
made famous by jazz guitarist Django
Reinhardt in the 1930s, had its Michigan
debut in 2002 at the Detroit Festival of
the Arts.
The group tends to start out slowly in
concert, with some songs in Yiddish and
Roma, but picks up the pace until the
musicians reach a driving, upbeat pace
they hope will inspire members of the
audience to move along with them. The
brothers have begun composing some of
the selections they include.
"Since our previous performance in
Michigan, we have a new accordionist,"
Slabiak says. "The cello and cymbalum
are no longer in the band." The broth-
ers, who heard Yiddish spoken at home
and got caught up in the klezmer revival
almost 15 years ago, were trained clas-
sically at the Brussels Conservatory and
influenced by an uncle who played gypsy
violin.
"We just have been selected by a TV
show in Israel as one of the best bands
for Eastern European music, and our tune
'Tchayes (Roma for 'Girl') from the album
Balamouk (Romanian for House of
Fools) is the music for the show," Slabiak
says.
"To me, it is very important to be
Jewish, although I am not very religious.
I love the culture — the humor, the sen-
sibility and, of course, the music. It's a
privilege to meet Jewish people from the
audience after each show, especially when
they tell us the memories that klezmer
brings to mind. rl
- Suzanne Chessler
Les Yeux Noirs performs 8 p.m.
Tuesday, June 27, at the Power
Center, 121 Fletcher, in Ann
Arbor. $18-$36.
(734) 764-2538.