New Orleans Klezmer All Star Band

A band with a difference!

By Arlene Stolnitz

I heard about this group from Dr. Stacy Lang, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) of Venice, Florida. Stacy, who is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Florida Gulf Coast University, and her husband, Rabbi Ben Shull, moved here recently. He is the rabbi at the Jewish Congregation of Venice. Stacy had posted some comments on Facebook a while back about the NOLA Klezmer All Stars saying she “had never heard anything quite like them before.” She especially recalled a tune called “Not Too Eggy,” which was an ode to a band member’s wife’s chopped liver! I noted that someday I would find out more about them for a future article.

All of this got me thinking about the reason I have always loved klezmer music. Back in the “old country,” my ancestral relatives were klezmer musicians. So, it’s probably in my DNA. My genealogy expert is my cousin, Cheryl Lester, from Lawrence, Kansas, Assistant Professor Emerita of American Studies and English, University of Kansas. Her research has shown that my great-grandparents were from Seirijai, which in the mid-1800s was a “tiny shtetl of 1,492 Jews” in Lithuania. Cheryl found out our relatives were klezmer musicians.

Joel Rubin, klezmer clarinetist and scholar of Ashkenazi Jewish klezmer music, notes that klezmer musicians were looked upon unfavorably and often were spurned by the community. Their interactions with non-Jews made other Jews suspicious of them. But, because of travel and contact with non-Jews, klezmer musicians had unique opportunities to interact with wealthy Polish non-Jews. This was the case in our family, and as a result, some of our relatives were exposed to educated secular non-Jewish families, even becoming proficient in other languages.

Cheryl’s extensive research on our family history includes this excerpt of a letter in “Yinglish” by Guta Ruchel Trotsky, a daughter of my GG written over 100 years ago.

I was a Jewis girl you know your grandfather ust to write musick for them. where I got to know thath little whath keeps me up with my memory from my Past when I was a little girl and I was singin dancing and playing vilin and Piano and my Father was so happy to see me that was takin up the langwich rushing Polish Jewish in rieding and writhing. and now comes very handy to me.

But I have digressed, now back to the subject of this article, The NOLA Klezmer AllStar Band. The band, which has

Arlene Stolnitz been around for over 20 years, marries klezmer dance music with legendary New Orleans rhythm, creating a funky and unique sound all its own. It’s hard to not get caught up in the feeling!

One reviewer describes the group as, “coming out of the turn-of-the-century klezmer renaissance, the All Stars add a special twist to Jewish roots music, based deep in the musical traditions of the group’s hometown. Street parade and Mardi Gras music, Dixieland, traditional, and contemporary jazz were mixed with traditional Yiddish tunes… to produce a unique, joyous and absolutely glorious sound.”

Guitarist Jonathan Freilach, bassist Joe Cabral, drummer Doug Garrison, saxophonist Ben Ellman and other wellknown New Orleans musicians, together with accordionist Glenn Hartman, have been called The Hebrew Allman Brothers Band. One of my most favorite YouTube videos of them is part of a series of performances called Bloody Sunday Sessions, featuring various jazz groups. It is a stroll down Orleans Avenue with the band seated in the back of an iconic New Orleans mule-driven carriage while playing klezmer music.

This is clearly a group that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A couple of their albums have hilarious names, such as “Mozeltov Cocktail” and “Manichalfwitz” (Net Wt. Heavy). In an interview, guitarist Jonathan Freilach said he likes music that has seven letters in it. (Klezmer).

He says, “Without their audience, they would just be another bar mitzvah band.” *More information about klezmer music can be found in my earlier article entitled “As my grandmother would say, ‘Klezmer! Oy vey! I can hardly believe it!’” (Jewish News, May 2015)

Arlene Stolnitz is a retired educator from Rochester, NY., who has lived in Venice, Florida for the last 25 years. Founder of the Sarasota Jewish Chorale, her interest in Judaic Music has led to her column, which appears monthly in Southwest Florida Federation newspapers. She can be reached at arlenestolnitz@gmail.com.

Arlene Stolnitz