January 6-12, 2005

musicpicks

Margot Leverett

by Mary Armstrong

FOLK/KLEZMER

This Sunday is the Philly debut for Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys, but it won't be the first time their music has been on a Philly stage. Music from their self-titled CD (Traditional Crossroads) turned up in the Paul Taylor Dance Company's "Klezmerbluegrass." The commissioned work, honoring 350 years of Jewish-American history, debuted at the Annenberg in December. "Paul Taylor listened to a pile of klezmer recordings and he finally chose five tracks from the CD for the 20-minute piece," explains Leverett.

Leverett is a classically trained clarinetist. "I concentrated on avant-garde, so I already mastered all those squeaks and squawks that are central to klezmer clarinet," she explains. Back in 1985, a chance encounter while recording an avant-garde composition earned her an invitation to audition for a newly forming klezmer ensemble, the now legendary Klezmatics. Since that time, klezmer has been Leverett's main music. Her first solo CD, The Art of Klezmer Clarinet, was well-received.

"But all that time I was actively listening to all kinds of roots music: Cajun, oldtime, French Canadian. When I heard Ralph Stanley, I said to myself, "This is it,'" recalls Leverett.

Lucky for her, New York is home to a number of versatile players who know bluegrass yet love klezmer enough to be KMBs. "I was a little scared at first that people wouldn't like it," says Leverett of her curious hybrid. For their first big bluegrass gig, she says, "at the Big Apple Bluegrass Festival, we actually had a bigger draw thanks to the guys in the band." Joe Selly (guitar), Marty Confurious (bass) and Barry Mitterhoff (mandolin) each have a serious following. And the klezmer crowd? "At first I lost a few people, but say I lost 10, but drew 20 new people out of curiosity. Now the 10 have drifted back and we definitely have a much larger audience."

Sun., Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m., $5-$15, Folksong Society at Germantown Jewish Center, 400 W. Ellet St., 215-247-1300, www.pfs.org.