Third Annual Regattabar Klezmer Music Festival Set for 11/19

By: Oct. 02, 2015
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

The Regattabar, Boston's premiere venue for world music, presents the third annual Regattabar Klezmer Music Festival, featuring Klezwoods and Bessarabian Breakdown, on Thursday, November 19, 8 pm at 1 Bennett Street, (at the Charles Hotel), Cambridge.

In a spectacle of sound, the Regattabar Klezmer Music Festival explores Klezmer and Eastern-European inspired original ensemble compositions. Small ensembles switch it up with eclectic instrument arrangements, highlighting each musician's improvisational and melodic stylings. A rare and exciting phenomenon, the two acclaimed ensembles take the audience to the ends of the earth in an international music tour through a myriad of harmonious instruments.

Deemed "An Utterly Unique Circus of Sound" by Boston Metro, Boston-based, 10-member ensemble Klezwoods is an amalgam of strings, horns, and percussion that melds the spirit of traditional klezmer and balkan music with modern grooves, improvisation and east coast attitude. Each musician originates from a different background, creating the band's unique sound and style, captivating audiences the world over. Klezwoods third album "Toy Monkey" is in the works, recorded by Syracuse-based More Sound Studios, to be released in April, features all original music composed by Klezwoods member musicians, stemming from distant countries, rich in traditional Klezmer, Balkan and Arabic sounds.

Klezmer Conservatory Band (KCB) bassist and founding musician Jim Guttmann surrounds himself with an 18-piece ensemble of some of Boston's finest ethnic and jazz musicians, forming Bessarabian Breakdown. Guttmann's career has taken him from Carnegie Hall to smoky dives, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to legendary Club Passim, playing everything from klezmer to classical - and most styles in between. Bessarabian Breakdown features current and former members of the KCB, as well as friends from throughout Guttmann's career. Leading the band through a program that reflects his many interests, Guttmann's repertoire includes traditional klezmer and fusions with jazz, Latin and R&B with plenty of room for dancing a hora, a cha cha or expressive movement. Bessarabian Breakdown's first album release made a stir amongst fans: "The all-star cast of klezmer talent brings back that wonderful sense of rediscovering a warm, familiar friend infusing the best of the klezmer revival-era recordings of the 1970s and '80s," says Seth Rogovoy, Klezmer book author, "These virtuosos also explore the affinity among klezmer, Latin and world rhythms with convincing authenticity and integrity."

Tickets for the Regattabar Klezmer Music Festival are $20. To purchase tickets, call 617-395-7757, or visit www.getshowtix.com/regattabar/calendar.php. For directions of more information about Regattabar, visit www.regattabarjazz.com. Parking is available onsite at The Charles Hotel.



Videos