The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band plays old-time Jewish music with an Irish flavor.
That’s right — an Irish flavor.
“The original idea was to evolve a way of playing klezmer music that had an influence of Celtic and old-timey music,” said Andy Rubin of Sacramento, who plays mandolin, guitar and clawhammer banjo for the band.
“Klezmer music in this country is mainly influenced by the jazz age and Yiddish theater using a lot of brass and clarinet. We were old-time musician folk. We wanted to play it in a way that we understood better.”
For example, Rubin’s clawhammer — a style of banjo playing that evolved in the southeastern region of the Appalachian Mountains — is definitely novel for a klezmer group. Rubin describes it as “picking notes downhill.
“It was a matter of adapting styles and modes of music we had previously played.”
He added that “fusion always occurs when musicians have certain kinds of backgrounds and they come to a new music.”
Going from Irish to Jewish is not such a stretch, said Rubin, who has played Celtic music in the past.
“To Western ears like ours, it’s very easy for us to like Irish music. It’s very close to folk music we heard growing up. When you go a little bit east and you start listening to klezmer music, it really is a surprisingly small step that you have to make.”
Freilachmakers’ first CD, “The flower of Berezin,” released in December, is a melange of styles. It has traditional klezmer tunes like “Leibedik un Freilach,” (Lively and Happy), splashes of Irish such as “Sonny’s Mazurka,” and American folk, including “Ragtime Annie.”
The result is a soulful, infectious collection of dance music.
Two songs written by Rubin pay tribute to his grandparents.
“The flower of Berezin” is a memorial to his grandmother, who arrived in New York City from Berezin, a city in Belarus, around 1920.
“The Minsker Corporal’s Waltz” refers to his grandfather, who served as a rifle grenadier in the U.S. Army in World War I, after emigrating from Russia. Nathan Rubin later operated a small deli in New York City, where he raised his family.
Freilachmaker (which means joyful or happy in Yiddish) is mostly a string thing, with David Rosenfeld’s guitar, mandolin and banjo; Lou Ann Weis’ string bass; and Dave Kidd’s fiddle. Elaine Fingerett plays accordion.
Rubin, Kidd and Weis all belong to Knesset Israel Torah Center in Sacramento.
Rubin met Kidd, a former member of the Australian band Bushwhackers, at a storytelling event at their shul in 1985. They started playing Celtic music together on Saturday nights after Shabbat. After a few weeks, their Jewish roots called.
“We sort of decided, what’s this playing Irish music? We could be playing real, rooted Jewish music in a very unique way,” recalls Rubin.
Kidd also plays pennywhistle and balalaika for the band.
He and Rubin took parallel paths to Judaism. Both were raised in secular Jewish homes — Rubin in Berkeley, Kidd in New Zealand and Australia. Both gravitated to Jewish music and Israeli dancing as young adults. In the mid-70’s they made a deeper connection to Judaism when they began hanging out at their local Chabad Houses.
Kidd was drawn to the values and the daily discipline that Judaism offered.
“The daily discipline was the most attractive element for me, coming up through the hippie era and leading a fairly fancy-free life,” said Kidd, who davens daily and considers himself modern Orthodox. Kidd, 48, has lived in the United States for over 10 years.
Rubin, 46, who has two children attending a Sacramento Hebrew day school, says the city has a “wonderful Jewish community…fairly tolerant and serious. My wife and I have really found a home here.”
The Freilachmakers play simchas (joyous occasions), concerts, and have a once-a-month gig at a local restaurant. The group reflects a resurgence of interest in klezmer and Yiddish culture in general, believes Kidd.
“People are realizing that the Yiddish-speaking generation for whom it really was the mamaloshen, or mother tongue, really are dying out,” he said. “These links with the Yiddish-speaking world are disappearing quickly. People are realizing this is something precious and it’s vital that we preserve this.”