The Klezmatics

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More About

• Moxy Fruvous
• Woody Guthrie
• Tony Kushner
• World Music
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Although klezmer was the original inspiration and remains the definitive heart of the Klezmatics' music, the band has taken the often raucous, sad-but-celebratory music on an extraordinary journey over the past two decades. Although klezmer originated in eastern European Jewish shtetls, the fevered imaginations of the Klezmaniacs has Shake 'n Baked it with punk, jazz, gospel, classical, and a United Nations array of world music, from African to Arabic to Caribbean. Ever eclectic, endlessly adventurous, the band has worked with a head-spinning sweep of notables, including classical violinist Itzhak Perlman, avant-garde electric guitarist Marc Ribot, Israeli singer Chava Alberstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, the groundbreaking Pilobolus Dance Theater, and eccentric Canadian folkies Moxy Früvous. The group even wrote some music for stray lyrics Woody Guthrie's daughter discovered in one of her father's notebooks. The resulting album, Wonder Wheel, won a Grammy.
Sat., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., 2009