By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Klezmer music has been around for a long time, and it’s been revived on both sides of the Atlantic. Now a Jewish fiddler in Wales in Great Britain has put a new spin on that old-time klezmer beat.
Meet Helen Adam. I discovered her last year during one of my internet surfing excursions looking for this website’s motto that “there’s a Jewish story everywhere.”
Helen (who prefers to be referred to by her first name rather than her last to avoid gender confusion) told me that she and her fiddling partner George Whitfield had a new CD of klezmer “klezreig” music coming out in April, and I just had to learn more
Their band is called Fiddlebox, and they’re fun.
I asked for an interview, and Helen sent me a few emails.
“Thank you for your interest in our new album, ‘Eastern Honeymoon’, a marriage of klezmer and Welsh music,” Helen told San Diego Jewish World last week.
“I’ve copied in George Whitfield who is the other half of our band. Best wishes, zei guzunt.”
Jews in Wales? Yes, in fact a Jewish community there sprang up in the early part of the 18th century, with the establishment of synagogues in Swansea, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Tredegar.
Fast forward to 2015 and I learn that Sacha Baron Cohen, the Hollywood comedian, movie director and actor, hails from Wales.
And now, according to Helen, klezmer music is popular in Wales, too, and she is leading the charge.
“There’s an eight-piece Klezmer Kollectiv, while my duo Fiddlebox (with George Whitfield) is into klezmer music and we even came up with in a new hybrid of Welsh-Jewish folk music we have dubbed ‘klezreig’ — which is a meld of two words: Klezmer and ‘cymreig’ – since ‘cymreig in the Welsh language means, well, ‘Welsh’,” she explained.
On April 18, Fiddlebox will premiere their new album at the Great Glasshouse in the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and Helen was kind enough to send me an invitation if I have time to fly over from Taiwan.
I’ve already made reservations.
So what’s “klezreig” music all about?
“Well merge some Welsh dancing tunes with klezmer harmonies, the traditional music of Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe, and you’ve got it,” Helen told me.
“Both musical traditions are based on emotional, evocative music, which invites the listener to dance one minute and weep the next.”
This is something very new, this “klezreig.”
It’s not your Bubbie and Zadie’s klezmer, that’s for sure, and it’s fascinating to see Jewish music evolving in Wales this way.
Helen told me that ”Eastern Honeymoon” is a love story, with themes of love and marriage being intrinsic to both traditions.
“Many Klezmer tunes are specifically written for stages of a wedding ceremony and the subsequent party, and we wanted our album to have some of this feeling,”she said.
“The love story is also an imaginary one between Welsh and klezmer music, which feels daring and dangerous — like Romeo and Julliet,” George Whitfield added.
The new CD includes solemn moments like “Tears of the Bride” who weeps for the loss of her family as she joins another, and melodies recalling the elderly and deceased of a family, as well as tunes devoted to celebratory and energetic dance, Helen said.
The title track contains an exotic sounding Terkisher, a klezmer tune from Turkey, which evokes travel, romance and the lure of the unknown, she added.
Helen is on fiddle and vocals, and George is on accordion and vocals.
Together, they make music and fly like angels in a Chagall painting.
Helen told me that she has always been drawn to and found inspiration in the music of her Lithuanian Jewish grandmother. When she arrived in Wales from England , 20 years ago, she also became absorbed in playing and studying Welsh traditional music, as well as learning the language.
”These two musical strands became increasingly intertwined, so I began to play Welsh music with klezmer infections and klezmer music with a slight Welsh accent, and here we are,” she said.
“Part of the appeal of playing klezmer music is to connect with my Jewish heritage, and part of the appeal of playing Welsh music is to connect with my adopted country, to bridge the two cultures, ” she said. “When I play traditional tunes that have been used and loved by generations I feel part of an unbroken stream of melody that carries with it the hopes, dreams and passions of people who have now passed away and reaches out to those yet to come.”
“And the bluesy sensibilities of accordion maestro George bring the needed rhythmic drive and rocking bass to the mix to make this music full bodied and gutsy,” she added. “We’re a duo and we rock.”
This ”klezreig” duo from Wales are planning an international tour later in the year, playing venues in Iceland and The Seychelles. I’m hoping they will make landfall in Taiwan, too.
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Bloom, based in Taiwan, is an inveterate web surfer. Your comment may be sent to dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com or posted on this website, per the instructions below.
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