Philippine Butterfly

Posts Tagged ‘tum balalaika’

With its rich urban life that builds on a long and complex history, Chicago is one of Illinois’ great meeting places of culture. There are plenty of new innovations here, in music, architecture, and art, and they all build upon the past. Some of the pasts are very local, connected to things that happened here in Illinois, and some are very global, drawing on the histories of the various ethnic communities that make up Chicago. It’s a dizzying thing to enter into a public space here, having just left the hotel to catch a new exhibition, and happen by some of the most sumptuous music that comes from long ago.

If the music has an accordion, violins and horns, and sounds alternately Romanian in origin, and alternately Jewish, then that just might be klezmer . Klezmer is an old musical form that can still be heard in the US, especially where there are Eastern European descendants who maintain strong connections to their roots. In many ways, it has become something of a new form in the so-called new world, having adapted new musical structures and songs into its mix. It’s something that can excite ethno-musicologists to no end, and it can also have a particularly marvelous affect on anyone else who happens to be in its proximity.

One of the best and most traditional bands in town is very probably Tum Balalaika , who take their name from an old klezmer classic. The band can vary between 5 and 15 members, and always carries a palpable aura of enchantment. This is old world stuff, and there’s nothing about it to suggest that it’s an act. They love playing the music, and the passion carries through to the crowds as well. They’ve followed in the traditional line for developing their sounds, taking the Romanian and Jewish elements, and combining with a sturdy influence from the Ukranian Gypsy forms. It might come from the 15th century, and at times it feels like being transported back into another time, but it makes beautiful noise in the air today.