Bagels and Fraylox Klezmer Band presented by Roanoke Jewish Federation
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time for this Past Event
- Sunday, Nov 20, 2022 4pm
Details
Roanoke Jewish Federation presents: Bagels and Fraylox Klezmer Band
Location: Fitzpatrick Hall, Jefferson Center
$20 General Admission
Doors: 3:30pm | Show: 4pm
Klezmer is a mixture of wedding and party music of 19th century Eastern Europe with strains of Yiddish theater and American dance band music of the early 1900s. It borrows freely from "gypsy" tunes, Middle Eastern music, and other sources as diverse as American folk music and rock 'n roll.
The Williamsburg-based band performs often at community cultural events and coffeehouses as well as weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other parties. The ensemble features two clarinets, tenor saxophone, accordion, bass, drums and other percussion, as well as a vocalist.
The band, Bagels and Fraylox, came together with a bit of serendipity, as four friends from Temple Beth El in Williamsburg, an environmental scientist, a journalist, a psychologist and a urologist, took David Gussman, an accordionist, up on his offer to provide some music for a klezmer jam session. This spark of inspiration occurred at the end of the 20th century, which makes the band now 24 years old, and counting. News of this fledgling klezmer revivalist band began to spread, as did the band's repertoire, borrowing liberally from traditional klezmer tunes, and more recent modern reinterpretations of the klezmer tradition. Along the way, we added "the best drummer in Williamsburg," and an acoustical scientist/cantor, to round out the unique Bagels and Fraylox sound.
We enjoy sharing our music in multiple settings, for Jewish and more eclectic audiences, and we look forward to a memorable evening in Roanoke.
