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Nov. 4, 2005
They are crazy for klezmer
Groundbreaking Toronto band brings their Yiddish fusion to town.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
There are likely few bands of whom it has been said, "They
took the Shetland Islands by storm." Fewer still whose focus
is klezmer music. But that's just one example of the enthusiastic
reception worldwide for Toronto's Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.
Founded by trumpeter David Buchbinder in 1987, the band has gone
from strength to strength, with five albums under their belts, including
2003's Sweet Return, which the Bulgars will be playing from
at their Vancouver show Nov. 6.
"What we do is a unique take on the klezmer tradition, and
so that intrigues people," Buchbinder explained in a recent
interview with the Independent. "From the very first
gig, there was a very strong audience response – and to a very
wide audience. In the early days, we would play to audiences made
up of suburban Jewish middle-aged people to punks. Within a couple
years of founding, we had our first CD and the first klezmer music
video that was ever made anywhere. It got a surprising amount of
play on MuchMusic."
As one of the first klezmer bands to emerge in Canada, the Bulgars
have been at the forefront of the so-called "Yiddish revival"
movement. Buchbinder was also the founder and, for a time, artistic
director of Ashkenaz: A Festival of New Yiddish Culture – a
popular Toronto event bringing together performing artists from
Europe and North America for a week of workshops and shows. His
other band, Medina, is a mix of Arabic and Yiddish influences.
"It's a funny thing," Buchbinder observed, "because
in a lot of ways, the culture has been revived without the language.
Definitely there are more people studying Yiddish now than when
I was a kid, but it's not like a living language that people go
to the supermarket in, so it's a bit of an interesting dichotomy
between [the language and] the culture – meaning the music
and the literature, to some degree. I'd say in a lot of ways what's
happened is there's been a popular embracing of the music and the
dance, the folk kind of tradition and then there's also been a lot
of contemporary artists who look to that world for raw material
in a way that wasn't happening as much before."
Part of that is because people are travelling more and being exposed
to the influence of global cultures.
"Obviously things are way more accessible now," said Buchbinder.
"The digital realm means it's much easier to get your hands
on music. The other thing is I think there are more centres in the
world where people from all over the world are coming together in
a really new way. People are bringing their music with them."
As for the appeal of klezmer, "It's a combination of the music
itself and the tradition itself, which is quite beautiful. A lot
of it is very different and has more depth and soul than what people
used to think of as Jewish music, which is Fiddler on the Roof.
For a long time, I had a real anti-Fiddler on the Roof attitude,
just because I felt like it was a great Broadway show that had not
much to do with traditional Jewish sounds."
Buchbinder didn't grow up listening to klezmer. It wasn't really
until he was in his early 20s and pilfered a record from his mother
that he began to get into the sound.
"That's sort of one of the hallmarks of what's gone on,"
he said, "is that the music almost disappeared from within
the Jewish community."
Now, he pointed out, the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band is part of a
global Jewish music community that includes not only klezmer but
music with more of a Sephardi influence, experimental sounds and
hip-hop crossovers like Matisyahu.
The band's most recent work is fairly jazzy in its outlook –
partly a product of the fact that its members were beginning to
lean in that musical direction. In fact, Buchman is just about to
release a solo jazz album.
Although all of the band's work has mixed and mashed its influences,
the difference with Sweet Return, Buchman said, "was
that everybody in the band composed for it and almost all the tunes,
even the ones that sound traditional, are original compositions.
That, to me, is a very interesting development. That was a definite
step forward, whereas before it was me and maybe one or two others
in the band who were writing. At this point, that's where the band
is going – writing new music, some of which is traditional-sounding
and some of which isn't – it's from different members of group,
so there's a wider sound."
Only about half of the band members come from a Jewish background.
The others simply have a keen interest in the klezmer sound.
"It's just good music," said Buchman, "and our particular
take on it is kind of a unique confluence of music of different
influences. If you've got the will and the gumption to master it,
it doesn't really matter. The only difference is that if you're
playing the music of your culture, it might have some different
resonances."
He sees the trend for cultural crossover continuing.
"In Toronto," he said, "you can hear an incredible
range of music that is traditional from different cultures and then
you can hear what their kids are doing. Pretty much everyone takes
their thing and mixes it these days. There's something going on
which, 100 years from now, I think will lead to some new kind of
musical and cultural expression."
The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band plays Sunday, Nov. 6, at the Capilano
College Performing Arts Theatre in North Vancouver. For tickets,
call 604-990-7810.
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