Back in the mid-1980s, when they started out, the Klezmatics shook up the then emerging world music scene by showing that klezmer should be part of the equation. After all, here was a band from New York who showed that the Jewish music traditionally performed at weddings and ceremonies across eastern Europe could be complex, contemporary and rebellious. And they deservedly won a Grammy. Their 30th anniversary album doesn’t show their full range – they were reworking Woody Guthrie when I last saw them – but the variety is still impressive, with brassy, jazz-influenced instrumentals and dance songs mixed against a dash of rebellion (the title track announces “happy heretics have no rabbi”), and finely sung ballads. The best track, My Mother’s Mirror, starts with a clanging bell and develops into a slow, exquisite lament about ageing that shows off their fine harmony vocals.
