Bart Weisman Klezmer Swing Group comes to WHAT.

It’s not just Klezmer; it’s swinging Klezmer

Its roots may be in the Yiddish tradition, but Klezmer music as interpreted by the Bart Weisman Group brings a zesty, modern swing to the stage on Saturday, Oct. 22 at WHAT’s Julie Harris Stage in Wellfleet.

Weisman’s drums are joined by Monica Rizzio on violin and vocals, Clayton March on clarinet and mandolin, Alan Clinger on guitar and Laird Boles on bass, as WHAT expands its fall music season during a weekend that includes the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra’s brass quintet playing a Sunday matinee.

For a jazz musician, Weisman brings a twist to the Klezmer tradition. He’s been playing and recording the genre for more than 25 years, and has performed Klezmer from New York to Washington, D.C. including the Kennedy Center. His group has opened for the Boston Pops.

His performances merge the music with personal insights into Klezmer’s history and traditons. “For me, it’s Jewish jazz,” he says.

Klezmer comes from the Hebrew words “kley,” meaning vessel or instrument,” and “zemer,” meaning song. It dates to at least the 16th century. During the vaudeville era, many European musicians rich in the Klezmer tradition began to meld their sounds with Dixieland, jazz and show tunes, absorbing more and more American influences replete with brassy arrangements and virtuosic style.

As it crossed over, Klezmer could be heard in hits such as Benny Goodman’s “And the Angels Sing,” the Andrews Sisters “Bei Mir Bis Du Schon” and Cab Calloways “Ot Azoy.” Weisman’s band will be playing the latter two songs.

Its popularity experienced another resurgence in the mid 1970’s with groups like the Klezmorim, the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Andy Statman. The Klezmatics billed themselves as the “planet’s radical Jewish roots band.” By the late 80’s. Jazz musicians from New York City’s downtown scene began to merge Klezmer not only with jazz, but even psychedelic rock.

Weisman has been enamored with Klezmer for more than 25 years, mixing it into his jazz-heavy repertoire that has let him play with some of the best-known jazz musicians, including Keter Betts, a long time side man for Ella Fitzgerald, and vocalists Lea DeLaria and Rebecca Parris.

Before settling in Provincetown, he lived in Washington, D.C. performing at the White House and the vice president’s mansion numerous times for two presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan.

These days, Weisman is interested in Cape Cod musicians. “I came here and wanted to work with established musicians on the Cape,” he says. “Like you want to buy local, I wanted to work local.”

Weisman and his band play everything from rock to pop, from Latin to Klezmer and even musical theater.
He moved to the Cape because his wife, photographer Amy Heller, had spent her summers in Provincetown as a child, and her sister, Julie Heller, owns an art gallery on Gosnold Street.

“I had never lived in a small town where you walk down the street and people know your name,” Weisman says. “It took me a while to get used to not hearing airplanes or helicopters and all the things we got used to in Washington.” Today, he also is a principal organizer of the Provincetown Jazz Festival.

The group is: Monica Rizzio (violin & vocals), Clayton March (clarinet & mandolin), Alan Clinger (guitar), Laird Boles (bass) and Bart Weisman (drums).

Details:

When: October 22, 2011

Time: 8 p.m

Where: WHAT Julie Harris Stage, 2357 Route 6, Wellfleet (next to the Wellfleet Post Office)

Season Sponsors: WCAI Radio, Winslow’s Tavern, Cape Cod Life

Tickets: $15

Contact: 508-349-9428 (WHAT), www.what.org

Amenities: bar, concessions, free parking

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