Klezmer facts for kids

Jazz Folk Klezmer

Klezmer is a kind of music. It was made by the Jews of Eastern Europe, and it is a mix of Russian, Greek and Romanian folk music, based on and Jewish prayer music.

In old times, it was played during Jewish weddings and religious festivals, and it was made for dancing. The most common klezmer instruments are the clarinet and the violin, because they are the best to play in the sad klezmer style. Klezmer is easily identifiable by its characteristic expressive melodies, reminiscent of the human voice, complete with laughing and weeping.

In the United States the genre evolved considerably as Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who arrived between 1880 and 1924 came into contact with American jazz. During the initial years after the klezmer revival of the 1970s, the American sub-variety was what most people knew as klezmer.