(USA) New York's Klezmatics are one of the first wave of klezmer* music revival groups, and are a hard driving, exciting band by any standards. "Shvarts un Vays" is a "freylekhs (dance) with ska overtones" says Frank London, who authored the song based on traditional motifs he learned from the playing of Abe Schwartz. There's a double play on words, as London is also referring to the 2-tone movement in ska, where blacks and whites played the music together.

*the celebratory and devotional music of the Jews of Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust, continued by the surviving generations in the USA and Europe.

(USA) New York's Klezmatics are one of the first wave of klezmer* music revival groups, and are a hard driving, exciting band by any standards. "Shvarts un Vays" is a "freylekhs (dance) with ska overtones" says Frank London, who authored the song based on traditional motifs he learned from the playing of Abe Schwartz. There's a double play on words, as London is also referring to the 2-tone movement in ska, where blacks and whites played the music together.

*the celebratory and devotional music of the Jews of Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust, continued by the surviving generations in the USA and Europe.