Come to London’s Klezfest, it could change your life

IT’S THE time of year when klezmer musicians from all over the world are booking tickets to London in August, because the Jewish Music Institute’s weeklong Klezfest summer school at SOAS has become an unmissable event, somewhere to learn, jam, dance and shmooze with fellow musicians — a celebration of all things Yiddish.

Josh Dolgin, a Montreal-based accordion player, best known as “Socalled”, is on this year’s faculty and says he’s “very excited” to be heading for London. Attending a similar festival in Canada, as a hip hop producer looking for sounds to sample, “led to my lifelong fascination with and dedication to my Eastern European Yiddish heritage… I never in a million years thought I would become dedicated to preserving and presenting ‘traditional’ Yiddish music.”

A festival like Klezfest has the potential to open people’s minds to a lost heritage, he says. “It brings people of different generations together, from different places, to share and celebrate Yiddish culture, which doesn’t get celebrated or even mentioned very much in the modern Jewish ‘mainstream’ of synagogue attendance, Israel-focused discussion, and secular Jewish life.

“It fosters a deeper understanding of who we are as Jews, where we came from, the evolution of our values and narratives… all while having an active, participatory bash of a good time.

Dolgin, 41 studied classical piano as a child, moving via jazz and impro to world music. He played the accordion in salsa, funk and gospel bands around Ottawa. He turned to rap at high school, producing “music created out of snippets of old recordings that are mixed and matched to create new sounds.”

This led to a fascination with vinyl record collecting, particularly Jewish sounds from Yiddish theatre,

Josh Dolgin Chasidic melodies, cantorial music and Klezmer. He worked with clarinettist David Krakauer to create a Klezmer techno hybrid that toured the world. Musicals are a newer passion: “I’m trying to make modern, poppy songs that have echoes of the past baked right in.”

For details of Klezfest: www. jmi.org