A klezmer jam and dance party has been drawing crowds of revellers to a hotspot on Queen Street West in Toronto.
Held at Drom Taberna, a restaurant that serves Polish, Ukrainian and Balkan cuisine, the jam was an instant sensation when it started in December.
People sometimes walk in off the street just to get a meal and a drink, and, mesmerized by the high-energy music, they find themselves dancing, said jam host Lorie Wolf.
Wolf, a drummer, and her co-host, clarinettist Chris Weatherstone, organized the jam to offer musicians with different levels of skill a place to play klezmer. One night, a 30-member band showed up to play, he said. “It got pretty crazy. We had every conceivable instrument you could imagine.”
Non-traditional klezmer instruments like guitars and cellos are welcome at the jam, as well as non-melodic instruments like trombones, Wolf said. She’s posted some trombone exercises for klezmer on the Klezmer Society Toronto Facebook page, which features instructional material and music for musicians who want to prepare for the jam.
The jam’s core band is made up of accomplished musicians, with Wolf on drums, Weatherstone on clarinet and other players on tuba, trombone and trumpet.
“What that means is anyone can come and jam,” Weatherstone said. “If they know a tune and they want to come up and play it and feel confident, they’re welcome to lead the band. But if you’re just learning, you can sit back, play quietly, let the band do its thing and jump in when it feels right for you.”
With the jams, Weatherstone and Wolf are hoping to perpetuate the music by bringing young musicians into the fold. He said they’d like to see new klezmer bands forming and performing in the city regularly.
“What’s exciting for me is being connected to a younger generation of brass and woodwind players who are all between 18 and 25,” Weatherstone said.
“The young classical players and the younger jazz players are interested in branching out and exploring other types of music that are challenging and musically interesting, of which klezmer is one. We have a great opportunity to engage these young people and the only way to truly learn a form of music is to get inside it and play it with people who know it.”
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Weatherstone used to play saxophone with the Lemon Bucket Orkestra and currently performs with trumpeter David Buchbinder. Wolf, a former member of the Yiddish swing and klezmer group the Sisters of Sheynville, leads a wedding band called the Horah Machine.
Wolf said one of the aims of the jam is to build audiences for live music. She teaches music at a Toronto public school and brings musicians into her classroom. “So they grow up and seek out live music,” she said.
Without audience development, “there isn’t going to be anyone to listen to live music anymore,” she continued. “This is completely up to us at this point.”
The jams at Drom Taberna have attracted a diverse group of musicians, including a Japanese tuba player who speaks halting English but can sing in Serbian and Yiddish. “He’s one of the best tuba players I’ve ever heard. It’s so encouraging to have a Japanese kid in a traditional Jewish band,” Wolf said.
Weatherstone added that what’s wonderful about the jam is seeing how people who have no Jewish background respond to klezmer. “This music connects with so many people through the basic human emotions of celebration, joy, great sorrow, striving through struggle and adversity. It’s a great story inside the music,” he said.
“One thing we’re enjoying is seeing how people from different backgrounds can identify and connect with that story through music.”
The klezmer jam and party takes place each Wednesday in February at Drom Taberna, 458 Queen Street West in Toronto, from 9 p.m. to midnight, and continues every second month.