WOMAD

The Jews Brothers Band

From New Zealand

Biography by Andy Morgan, July 2002:In Grey Lynn, a nondescript burgh on New Zealand’s south island, there’s a convivial little place called Gerhard’s Café. It’s a favourite haunt for local musicians. One gloomy winter Sunday in 1994, Hershal, Nigel Gavin and Linn Lorkin were hanging around at Gerhard’s with other muso buddies wondering where their next gig, their next meal, their next break was coming from. Up to that point the wonders of Jewish klezmer music, with it’s smoky melodies and fiery rhythms blended from old time yiddisher folk, jazz, gypsy, Turkish, Russian, Romanian, Greek and Arabic ingredients, hadn’t made any impression on the clientele of Gerhard’s Café, including Nigel who was, according to the band’s own biography, “a New York Yid”, and should have known better. Then Hershel suggested that he give the assembled company a quick rendition “of the music my grandfather used to play.” Before you could say ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, Hershal’s mates were hooked and The Jews Brothers were born. A regular Sunday residency at Gerhard’s soon followed, audiences grew, and little ol’ Gerhard’s Café became something of a riotous klezmer mecca. In 1996 the Jew Brothers released their debut CD, ‘Live at Gerhard’s Café’, and the following year they performed at WOMAD’s Aotearoa Festival in Auckland. This will be the Jews Brothers Band’s first appearance in Europe… a very strange and very welcome return for klezmer’s distant pacific cousin.Biography provided by artist management, May 2002:Irreverent, iconoclastic, wickedly playful and on the edge, this five-piece band has developed a large cult following Down Under. Their "kiwi klezmer", wild, swinging, eccentric and eclectic, and featuring soulful four and five part vocal and instrumental harmonies, is delivered with "an energy usually associated with padded cells". The un-klezmer-like line-up is melodica,banjo, soprano and tenor saxophones, mandolin, accordion, double bass and zydeco metal washboard.PRESS REVIEWS:"An impromptu collision of Shalom Segunda (Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen) and Django Reinhardt (Hot Jazz of Paris), The Jews Brothers' infectious harmonies and danceable arrangements cross klezmer and swing for the most original Jewish influenced music since the Manischewitz Yiddish Melodies in Swing Radio Hour. Their frenetic energy and irreverent attitude is a partyfrom start to finish."(ADAM DAVIS, KFAR JEWISH ARTS CENTRE, CHICAGO) " this idiosyncratic band with its enormous drive, infectious beat and brilliant musicianship......all five members are compelling music-makers"(AUSTRALIAN JEWISH NEWS)