Kharkov Klezmer Band

[jonathan walton <jaw42...>]

Yes, these guys are great! I was very lucky to hear them in the Ukraine at 
their Klezfest in September 2000. It is so good to see young musicians 
playing klezmer in back in the Ukraine. The line-up of the band is violin, 
clarinet, accordion, singer/tambourine. It won't surprise any of you who 
heard them on the biomusic.hu link that they're all Conservatory educated 
and serious about their klezmer. The leader is violinist Stas Raiko - you 
can contact him at klezmer (at) mail(dot)ru

There are two other great groups I know of - Pereplet from Vinnitsya in West 
Ukraine, also young Classical musicians by training who play a mixture of 
Ukrainian folk and klezmer with some (close to OiVaVoi's heart) funk thrown 
in
(line-up violin/viola/accordion/bass/drums).

  Most special of all are a trio of old (in their 70s) musicians from 
Simferopol called Khaverim, vocal, violin and accordion, they play really 
wonderful Yiddish tangos amongst other things. I don;t know how many other 
groups there are in th former Soviet Union where the musicians who learnt 
their material before the war are still performing - taking into account 
legendary Ukrainian anti-semitism and the impossibility of public 
performance of Jewish music from Stalin's day until independence, this trio 
are nothing short of a sensation (impeccable musicians too).

As part of the London Klezfest we are inviting these three  groups to 
perform, but I am most excited about the Khaverim trio. Yana in Kiev ( 
center (at) cjeu(dot)carrier(dot)kiev(dot)ua ) has arranged for them to record 
their debut 
CD. They are something so special, I'd like to try and garner as much 
support for them as possible, organise as much coverage as possible. Their 
story is surely worth being documented. ANybody who has any ideas of how to 
help them, please contact me off-line.

Jonathan
www.oi-va-voi.com
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