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THE FULL STORY
Twenty years ago, inspired by a klezmer tune playing on
an Auckland café’s stereo, Hershal Herscher picked up his
accordion and started playing the music his grandfather
Harry had brought to New York from the Ukraine.
The rhythm he was pumping out acted like a magnet on
three musician friends who were in the caf that day, fellow
Americans Nigel Gavin (mandolin) and Kelvin Roy
(trumpet), and Kiwi singer Linn Lorkin. Next thing you
know they were all jamming along. From that nucleus The
Jews Brothers Band was born.
The owner, Gerhard Lottermeyer, was intrigued by the
sound and offered them a regular Sunday afternoon gig at
his cafe in exchange for a croissant and coffee each and, as
if by magic, people came out of the woodwork to check
out this new “exotic” music played by a rather
eccentrically named band. Even the local rabbi appeared
surreptitiously one Sunday, (asking Hershal to remain
stumm about it since the cafe was not kosher). The
Sundays at Gerhard’s Cafe became a rousing success.
After a short time tea-chest bass (Harmen Hielkema aka
“The Dutch Clutch”) was added to the line-up and the
band asked Gerhard for a raise: he offered them two
THE JEWS
BROTHERS
BAND
H O M E M U S I C V I D E O S A B O U T
B O O K I N G
coffees and two croissants. (Don’t laugh, they accepted!!!)
This all occurred in the mid 90s at the height of the
klezmer music revival in the USA. No Jewish bands as yet
existed in New Zealand and very quickly The Jews
Brothers Band cornered the Jewish mitzvah market
(weddings, bars and bats) both in New Zealand and
Australia. While not strictly a klezmer group, (for one
thing they had neither clarinet nor fiddle, the two most
essential klezmer instruments), their original repertoire
was loaded with Yiddish wedding horas and some other
Yiddish favourites familiar to Hershal from his childhood.
Over the next few years the band’s repertoire morphed
from traditional klezmer tunes to originals with the same
vibe although the band still begins each concert with a
medley of old wedding staples. As Hershal puts it, “I
believe that by starting with a few of the oldies it not only
reconnects us with our roots but also helps ensure the
stamp of approval from the audience. People like to know
they are getting the real deal”.
The largely original repertoire that sprang from the songwriting
talents of Herscher, Lorkin and Gavin (with
additional material by local song-writer Arif Usmani), may
have taken them away from pure klezmer music but at the
same time is reflective of the fun and comedy schtick that
has always been a part of Yiddish-American music and
theatre. With jazz-style improvisation and swing rhythms
added to the mix and an emphasis on interesting and
charming vocal arrangements the band is in a sense reinventing
the genre.
The line-up has changed too: mandolin has become guitar,
trumpet has turned into saxophone and the tea-chest bass
has been replaced by upright double bass. There’s a good
mixture of nationalities here: two Jewish New Yorkers
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(Hershal on accordion and Nigel on guitar), a Jewish
Londoner (Peter Scott, the bassist) and two non-Jewish
New Zealanders, Neill Duncan on tenor and drums and
chanteuse/ melodica player Linn Lorkin.
Duncan’s experience with the New Orleans style “Blue
Bottom Stompers” has made him an invaluable player in
the JBB which emphasises the ‘swing’ rhythms that were
part and parcel of American klezmer bands in the 1930s
and 40s. Add to that the virtuoso playing of Gavin, (ex
Robert Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitarists), the groove
slap bass of Scott ( ex Madness), Herschel’s pumping
accordion and Lorkin’s passionate singing and you can see
and hear why this group has been described as the ‘best
swing band in the land’.
