Taking klezmer to the country

POPULAR klezmer band Klezmania, which has been entertaining Australian audiences for the past 22 years, recently embarked on a tour of regional Victoria, performing 13 gigs over five weekends ranging from large population centres such as Wangaratta and Wodonga to the small town of Bena in Gippsland with a population of only 200.

They performed their lively brand of klezmer, Yiddish, gypsy, folk and jazz to enthusiastic audiences.

For far-flung members of the Jewish community, it was an opportunity to celebrate through music, while some locals enjoyed their first taste of klezmer and Yiddish.

“Everywhere that we performed we found that our songs resonated with the audience,” says Klezmania lead singer Freydi Mrocki.

“As a Jewish band, the idea of taking our music and stories in an outreach role really appealed to us. For many members of the audience, it was the first time that they had met a Jewish person.”

The tour was organised by Mary Souness from Just Shows to Go, who had organised some country concerts for Klezmania in 1998 and 2000.

The tour kicked off in Bena on August 14, moved to Mirboo North the next day and to Toora on the Sunday night. Then band members Mrocki, her brother Lionel, David Krycer and Eugene Belenko returned to Melbourne in their rented van to resume their day jobs.

This was the pattern for five weekends at venues ranging from community halls and theatres to galleries.

“At each concert a local representative would welcome the audience and introduce us, sometimes getting their tongue twisted around our name,” says Mrocki.

“We always started with a klezmer instrumental piece followed by the Yiddish classic Bei Mir Bistu Shein, which we began in English and finished off in Yiddish.

“I would then ask who was familiar with klezmer music and usually only two or three hands would go up. This provided us with the perfect set-up to explain klezmer music and Yiddish.

“With the stage set, we then took our audience on a unique musical tour of the Jewish kind. We peppered our song introductions with anecdotes and explanations of Jewish life, history and culture and then let our music do the talking.

“They were moved by Lionel’s soulful clarinet in slow intense numbers, and swept up by the joyful ones. Eugene charmed the audience with his enthusiasm. Depending on the crowd they would laugh, clap or dance along and even sing with us.”

Mrocki and the other band members would spend the interval mingling with the audience.

“It was their turn to share stories of a distant Jewish relative or experience, or talk about their musical passions.”

The first concert was at Bena, a small town near Korumburra in South Gippsland, with a hall (the venue for the concert), a tennis club and curtain shop, and they encountered drama before their first gig.

“A soon as we drove into Bena, we went past a road sign and realised that we were leaving the town! So we did a U-turn but in the process got bogged!’ says Mrocki.

“We flagged down a passing ute and our luck, the local plumber had stopped to help. ‘Musicians?’ he asks. ‘Playing tonight at the hall? I’m the head of the Bena Arts Committee and I’ll be introducing you!’”

The opening concert was a great success. Afterwards, a member of the audience came up and said: “I loved the music, it was great. But do you know the Jewish song that everyone in every town will know … Hava Nagila. Now if you played that, it would really connect.”

Klezmania embraced the suggestion, even though the song is not strictly klezmer or Yiddish.

“The next day we arrived in Mirboo North for our second gig and reworked a klezmer tune to include a slice of Hava Nagila,” explains Mrocki.

“And it worked a treat at that concert and every one after. Each time as we played it I would watch eyebrows raise in recognition, little nods to a partner, hands clapping slowly at first, building in tempo. And people singing along with us until the rousing finale.

“Everywhere that we performed we found our songs resonated with the crowd – they ‘get’ that while we stand before them as Jews who are presenting our culture and language, we also see ourselves as Australian. Our message is one of harmony. As a multicultural society we can celebrate our differences, but focus on what we share.”

One English song required Mrocki to explain words such as mezuzah, Shabbes, shtetl, seder and succah in the introduction. However, at a couple of the concerts she heard audience members laughing at words she hadn’t explained.

“Are there any Jews among you?” she asked. At the interval they slowly came forward and introduced ­themselves.

“One person had gone to school in Beaumaris with Lionel and me, and had been taught by our mother! Others would tell us where they were from, who they know in the shtetl in Melbourne and why they moved to the country.

“Even though they were living in the same region, they didn’t know each other. So I darted around the room gathering up the members of this lost tribe and introduced them to each other.”

At the Lakes Entrance concert in early September, after playing to a full house, a lady named Cherie came up to Freydi Mrocki with a smile and said: “Shabbat shalom”.

“She’s a former Beth Rivkah College student who had believed that she was the only Jew in town – until I introduced her to Jenny and her husband, who promptly invited her for brunch the next day,” says Mrocki, who explained that a month before the tour Jenny had sent David an email introducing herself as “the only Jew in Lakes Entrance”.

Mrocki says: “Jenny said she was thrilled that we were touring, and invited us for a Shabbes meal. And she pulled out all stops – what a spread!”

Klezmania played to a packed house in Marysville in Victoria’s High Country on the final weekend of the tour. Six years ago Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires devastated the area, claiming 40 lives and destroying hundreds of homes and community landmarks.

“The audience was warm and had a good time; it was probably our best performance,” recalls Mrocki.

The final concert was at Ruffy, a small town with four buildings in the main strip, including a general store and cafe.

The hall for the concert featured walls lined with posters of previous shows (including one of Klezmania). Melbourne filmmaker Sean Meltzer had come along to film the concert as part of a documentary film he is making, adding extra excitement to the tour’s finale.

For more information on Klezmania visit www.klezmania.com.au.

REPORT by Danny Gocs

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