The Whanganui Jazz Club welcomes the Wellington-based Klezmer Rebels back to the stage of the St John’s Club for their penultimate concert of the 2024 season.
For anyone who doesn’t know the Rebs’ show, the best way to describe it is as “an entertaining fun evening of song, improvisations, storytellingand an opportunity to learn something you never knew”.
Band leader David Weinstein offers a teaser when he says: “Still going strong after 22 years, the Rebs have been invited back to the Whanganui Jazz Club after a rousing performance last year.
“If you missed it, you heard about it. If you were there, you’d want to be there again. We are bringing back our favourite freylichs (wedding dances), bulgars (with that catchy 1-2-3/ 1-2-3/ 1-2 kochek rhythm), and jazzy swing numbers from the old country.
“What does a klezmer country swing song sound like? Come and find out. Brush up on your Italian Neapolitan, cry over dark Russian eyes, and become a Servant of the People. Learn a few words in Yiddish, hear some ancient Ladino melodies, and enjoy some fine improvisation and vocal harmonies,” he said.
Weinstein is Chair of the SlavFest Educational Charitable Trust that created a Festival in Wellington to educate the public about the cultures, languages, arts and traditions of the Slavic communities in Aotearoa New Zealand, promoting and celebrating cultural diversity.
More than 2,000 people attended performances and workshops this past April that featured seven bands and four dance groups. Plans are under way for the 2025 edition.
The Rebs come as a seven-piece band that features solo and group vocals, the clarinet virtuosity that is a hallmark of the music, a solid rhythm section and lots more.
