Klezmer covers a broad and colourful range of styles, including the dark and mysterious horas and doinas of the middle east , the lively and ecstatic freylechs and bulgars of the village weddings of eastern Europe, and the jazzy and sophisticated fusions of the New York Yiddish community. Klezmania bring these all together in a lively, compelling and thoroughly entertaining fashion.
Formed in 1999, Klezmania are Chris Haigh (fiddle), Philip Clouts (piano) and Alex Keen (double bass). We are all experienced professional musicians with interests ranging from folk and ethnic music to jazz and swing. In Klezmania we try to take a fresh and invigorating approach to Jewish traditional music, borrowing from many styles to make it as interesting, lively and enjoyable as possible.
We do both private functions (weddings, parties, bar and bat mitzvahs) and public performances (theatres, arts centres, festivals and so on).
If required the band can be augmented by other instruments (clarinet, drums, guitar), a singer (Jewish, jazz and covers) and a caller to lead Jewish dancing.
Klezmania are unique in being able to offer Jewish/Scottish and Jewish/Irish wedding music and dancing. If requested we can combine Jewish dancing and music with Scottish or Irish Ceilidh music, and we have a caller who can lead dances in both styles.
Chris Haigh is a London-based fiddle player who specialises in Klezmer, gypsy and East European styles. He plays with a trio, Klezmania, doing lots of Jewish weddings and Bar Mitzvahs; this band does a mixture of traditional Klezmer and Israeli tunes along with some jazz improvisation. Tziganarama is Chris's own trio, playing a wide range of Jewish, Russian, Balkan and gypsy music, whilst The Kremlinaires is Chris's wacky 7-piece Soviet Swing band.
Chris sometimes plays solo or as a duo with accordion, going "around the tables" at a dinner.
He gives workshops on klezmer fiddle style, demonstrating techniques and ornamentation, describing the different tunes types and scales used in klezmer.
He writes original klezmer melodies; his tune "Klezmania" was used on a worldwide TV ad for Nike!