Download About the Klez Dispensers

THE KLEZ DISPENSERS
The Klez Dispensers are juicy, fresh and daring. They've been dishing up their
signature state-of-the-art, swinging American-style klezmer since their college days.
Audiences can't get enough of their exciting performances, impeccable
arrangements and versatile improvisations. The band's repertoire includes classic
klezmer, Yiddish swing and original compositions. Individually, each Dispenser is an
accomplished musician contributing skill, personality and artistry to the group.
Their sensitive blend of old world and downtown appeals to all generations.
The Klez Dispensers have crammed their sound into New York nooks such as
Satalla, Makor, Tonic, and CBGB’s, filled Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, the
Montreal International Jazz Festival, and the Cape May Music Festival, and lent their
joyful noise to countless celebrations and festivals. The opening track of their second
album, “New Jersey Freylekhs,” was included on the compilation “Celebrate
Klezmer,” and two other tracks were featured in the award-winning film “The Tribe.”
Critical acclaim of “New Jersey Freylekhs” appeared in The Forward and the July
2004 edition of All About Jazz - New York. The album was awarded Best Klezmer
Album at the Just Plain Folks 2006 Music Awards.
Formed in 1998, the band is an eight-piece ensemble comprising clarinet,
trumpet, saxophone, violin, piano, bass, drums and vocals.
“The Klez Dispensers dispense the voice of both klezmer past and future, providing the
connective tissue between the two.” Seth Rogovoy, The Forward
“This is klezmer played by incredibly talented musicians who really love and get the
music. Here's what's scary. If they're this good now, what will they sound like when
they're 64?”
Ari Davidow, Klezmer Shack
“I really love what the Klez Dispensers are doing: reaching back in and getting the
sound of the old stuff and doing some reflective, courageous and yes, in-your-punim
kind of stuff.”
Henry Sapoznik, Yiddish Radio Project
“I will go out on a limb and state that this band, The Klez Dispensers, is the finest
young group playing classic American klezmer style that I have heard, both
individually and collectively.”
Peter Sokolow, klezmer legend
THE BAND
Alex Kontorovich (clarinet, alto and baritone sax) is one of the young rising stars on the
NYC and international klezmer and jazz scenes, having performed with the Klezmatics,
Jamie Begian's Big Band, the Toronto Philharmonia, the Waterloo Symphony, DJ SoCalled,
and many others. Russian-born, he is a member of Frank London's Klezmer Brass AllStars, Aaron Alexander's Midrash Mish Mosh, King Django's Roots and Culture Band, Alan
Bern's Far From Where, and is a founding member of the Klez Dispensers. He has served
on the faculties of KlezKamp, KlezKanada, Yiddish Summer Weimar, Klezmer Festival
Fuerth, and the Klezmer Cruise. His first release as a leader, Deep Minor, was hailed “an
exuberant if not groundbreaking slice of downtown klez-jazz” by Time Out NY. The
Forward raves “in clarinetist Alex Kontorovich, the stately playing of Dave Tarras lives on.”
Ben Holmes (trumpet) is a Brooklyn-based trumpeter who performs regularly with many
ensembles, including The Klez Dispensers, Slavic Soul Party, Romashka, One Ring Zero,
King Django's Roots & Culture Band, and his own quartet and quintet. His inventive
compositions are featured on The Klez Dispensers' second CD, New Jersey Freylekhs. Mr.
Holmes has appeared as a member of the Klezmatics on HBO's “Sex and the City.” Other
recording credits include the Let's Get Serious EP by the Panthers and Tyondai Braxton's
Rise Rise Rise. He joined the faculty of KlezKamp in 2006.
Amy Zakar (violin, mandolin) is a second-generation musician hailing from New York
City. She is versed in classical, folk fiddle, and jazz as well as klezmer. Ms. Zakar graduated
from the Manhattan School of Music's Preparatory Division, received her B.A. from
Princeton University, and is a Masters candidate in music education at Westminster Choir
College. In addition to being a nine-year member of the Klez Dispensers, Ms. Zakar also
performs with Rum&Onions and lends her soulful stylings to the Yiddish Arts Trio. She has
performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Joe's Pub. Ms. Zakar teaches violin in
Princeton, NJ to students of all ages. She joined the violin faculty of KlezKanada in 2006.
Audrey Betsy Welber (alto and tenor sax, clarinet) plays nearly every genre of music on her
saxophones, clarinet, and flute. Best known for her fiery and acrobatic improvisations,
she’s a first-call horn player in several bands between Philadelphia and New York. Other
groups she performs with include Diva (the “No Man's Band”), Midnight Sun Orchestra,
Metropolitan Gospel Big Band, The Jazz Squad, The Jazz Lobsters, and Ambience.
Susan Watts (vocals, trumpet) represents the youngest generation of a klezmer dynasty
that reaches back to the Jewish Ukraine of the 19th century, beginning with her greatgrandfather, bandleader Joseph Hoffman. She is the sole living purveyor of a trumpet style
and sound which electrified Jewish-American audiences for decades. Ms. Watts has shared
the stage with Mandy Patinkin at Carnegie Hall, Dudu Fischer, Theodore Bikel, Claire
Barry, Boban Markovic, DJ So-Called, Alicia Svigals, Margot Leverett, Hankus Netsky,
among others. She is a member of Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars, Mikveh, and
The Klez Dispensers. She also composes for film, including the award-winning “Breath”
and “A Joyful Noise,” a documentary on Philadelphia klezmer. Recent recordings include
Heart Beats and I Remember Klezmer. She is a longtime faculty member at KlezKamp and
KlezKanada.
THE BAND (ctd.)
Adrian Banner (piano) hails from Sydney, Australia, where he started studying piano at the
tender age of three. Ever since, he has been immersing himself as a performer, composer,
and arranger in a wide variety of musical styles including klezmer, jazz, ska, reggae,
classical, showtunes, ragtime, and liturgical music. He is also a member of King Django's
Roots & Culture Band and the Yiddish Arts Trio, and has accompanied numerous choirs
and soloists in Australia and the United States.
Heather Chriscaden Versace (bass) received her B.M. in Double Bass Performance from
Washington State University and her M.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon.
Since that time, she has been active as a bassist, music theory instructor, private lesson
instructor, and clinician. She has performed throughout the U.S., Japan, and Colombia,
and has backed many great artists including Joe Williams, Carl Fontana, Nancy King, Pete
Christlieb, and David Raksin. Ms. Versace's introduction to New York has included work
with the all-female group Mikveh, led by violinist Alicia Svigals.
Gregg Mervine (drums) possesses a wide rhythmic palette, encompassing incongruous
musical genres, disparate personalities, and many other contradictions: east, west,
delicate, furious, simple, tricky, spiritual, and cynical. In the klezmer world, he's played in
Frank London's A Night in the Old Marketplace, and with The Klez Dispensers, Alicia
Svigals, Shtreiml, and Romashka. In 2007, Gregg began West Philadelphia Orchestra, an
Eastern European music-inspired ensemble, for which he is the principal composer and
arranger. He currently plays with Old Goats (North Eastern Brazilian folk), Jack Ohly
(indie), Ari Up (dancehall), Skip Heller (organ jazz) and with numerous jazz and improv
groups.
PRESS/REVIEWS
New Jersey Freylekhs
The Klez Dispensers
With their exuberance, musicianship and ability to have any audience get up and dance, The Klez
Dispensers have become the house band for klezmer's newest wave. New Jersey Freylekhs draws
inspiration from the experimental jazz/Jewish interchanges of the late '50s where bop added to
klezmer's established relationship with swing.
It is obvious throughout that the Dispensers are filled with “players”; clarinetist/ saxophonist Alex
Kontorovich, trumpeter Ben Holmes and saxophonist Audrey Betsy Welber use the genre to
highlight their technical ability while maintaining the requisite melodic respect. Amy Zakar's
heartfelt violin alternates between Jewish and swing to impart warmth that touches the soul. While
the band's take on traditional tunes, like their arrangement of “Dave's Freylekhs,” where
Kontorovich's clarinet brings back clarinetist Dave Tarras; and “Abi Gezunt,” which has Amy's
swing violin conjuring up Stephane Grappelli, do delight, it is the newly composed music and
arrangements that most impress such as the Ben Holmes compositions “Doina,” “Karnofsky Tanz”
and the title cut.
“Doina” draws its effectiveness from Holmes' restraint as he holds each note while delicately
rolling it around until it subtly changes as he spits it out. His “Karnofsky Tanz” serves as the perfect
uptempo release with each instrumentalist taking a turn on the dance floor. The title cut begins
with a traditional sound, as the piano of Adrian Banner pumps along the rhythm with drummer
Gregg Mervine leading violin, clarinet, trumpet and sax to find interesting changes. Banner likewise
proves to be a strong composer and arranger as he blends the classical piano/violin duet of
“Freymilekh” into an introductory doina, followed by some hot avant klez freylekhing. Banner's
version of “Der Heyser Bulgar” takes things further out as Kontorovich switches to bari sax, and
with Ed Browne's electric bass, turns what begins as a stately violin/trumpet duet into a modern
downtown NYC klez blow out.
Elliott Simon, All About Jazz, July 2004
Dispensing the Voice of Klezmer Past and Future
By SETH ROGOVOY
In the mid- to late 1990s, a strange thing began to happen on college campuses across the land.
Alongside marching bands, symphony orchestras, jazz combos and rock groups, klezmer
ensembles began to sprout like mushrooms. By the end of the century, klezmer had a formal or
informal presence on campuses including Yale, Brown, Columbia, the University of Virginia and
the State University of New York at Buffalo.
In 1998, a few students from the Princeton University Jazz Ensemble got together to play klezmer.
The Klez Dispensers began as the officially-sanctioned, university klezmer band, but after the
musicians graduated, they became an independent group, replaced at Princeton by the
Klezmocrats.
On their second CD, “New Jersey Freylekhs,” the Klez Dispensers mine a unique, nearly forgotten
style of klezmer. Picking up where the music left off in the 1950s, before it was all but steamrollered
by mainstream American popular music in the postwar rush to assimilation, the group re-imagines
what would have happened to the classic-sounding freylekhs and bulgars if the music had
continued evolving along the lines of the post-Swing Era experiments of clarinet great Dave Tarras
and his son-in-law, saxophonist Sam Musiker.
On his landmark but grossly neglected 1955 album, “Tanz!,” Musiker, who had played with Gene
Krupa's swing band, tried to update his father-in-law's sound to reflect some of the harmonic and
stylistic innovations of post-swing, small-ensemble bebop. On earlier klezmer recordings, horns
and clarinets tended to double each other's melodies in the same way that Old World violins would
echo each other one octave apart or simply play rhythmic, pedal-point notes. Musiker introduced
the concept of playing sophisticated ascending and descending harmony lines around the lead
melody-player in klezmer.
Nowadays, when you listen to “Tanz!,” it sounds strikingly modern, in part because many of the
early klezmer revivalists of the 1970s and 1980s went back further in time and recapitulated the
more primitive ways of playing and arranging klezmer. Even the more experimentally-oriented of
the current crop of klezmorim, including those who add rock, jazz and other influences to the mix,
tend to build their work upon more straightforward melody-playing.
On “New Jersey Freylekhs,” the Klez Dispensers have chosen to revive Musiker's approach while
adding a few twists of their own. The group puts violin and mandolin back into the ensemble in the
person of Amy Zakar, spicing up the horn-heavy jazz sound with some Old World tam, or flavor.
Many of the group's arrangements are solidly rooted in Adrian Banner's piano, another element
borrowed from jazz.
But purists needn't fret. In clarinetist Alex Kontorovich, the stately playing of Dave Tarras lives on.
Like Tarras, Kontorovich holds much in reserve, carefully parceling out the trademark achy, bent
notes — the krekhts and kneytshn that klezmer inherited from cantorial music — using them as
delicately placed punctuation. Trumpeter Ben Holmes sounds equally schooled in the playing of
Benny Goodman trumpeter Ziggy Elman and the Klezmatics' Frank London. The rest of the
musicians have obviously done their homework, too.
The Klez Dispensers don't play with blinders on. The album's final track, a version of “Der Heyser
Bulgar,” originally popularized by clarinetist Naftule Brandwein in the 1920s, suggests that these
20-something musicians have avant-garde leanings of their own. The selection opens with the
instruments entering one at a time, playing a fractured version of the melody, before the bass lays
down an odd Balkan meter over state-of-the-art drumming of the sort more likely to be heard at
the Knitting Factory than at a Jewish wedding — or any wedding, for that matter.
On “New Jersey Freylekhs,” the Klez Dispensers dispense the voice of both klezmer past and
future, providing the connective tissue between the two.
Published in THE FORWARD, February 13, 2004