All-purpose klezmer band Dor L'Dor rises to every challenge

Dor L'Dor

KNOXVILLE — Sometimes it's hard to explain what klezmer music is.

"I call it Jewish circus music," says Steve Brown, drummer with Knoxville-based klezmer band Dor L'Dor.

His brother Ken and sister-in-law Susan Brown counter that that description isn't encompassing enough. Klezmer can be upbeat music for dancing, but there are also mournful and sweet ballads.

And if klezmer is hard to describe, how exactly do you describe a band like Dor L'Dor? This is a klezmer group that adapts the style to jazz songs, American spirituals, marches and just about anything else that crosses the members' minds.

The band played a wedding in Chattanooga and the bride and groom requested that the group adapt Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine" for the event. At another, the bride's family were Quakers and Dor L'Dor performed "Simple Gifts."

"Then one wedding the groom had come from an Irish family and they wanted to have some Irish dancing," says Susan.

Of course, Dor L'Dor was up to the challenge.

"We see ourselves as an all-purpose group," says Susan. "We can play before a ceremony, during a ceremony and after a ceremony. And we can break out a jazz trio or quartet if we need to."

And, of course, the band also plays straight-up concerts.

Dor L'Dor first came together in 1999 when one of the family nieces needed traditional music for a bat mitzvah. Ken (clarinet), Susan (keyboards) and Steve (who also performs with blues, rock and jazz groups) formed the core of the band and enlisted Ken and Susan's son Michael and his friend Brandon Armstrong (both trombone players) into the group. Susan made some arrangements of traditional klezmer pieces with trombone. Later, Ken and Susan's younger children Daniel (bass) and Rachel (vocals, percussion) also joined the group. In addition, the group welcomed good players (both Jewish and non-Jewish) into the band. Some were classically trained and some (including Michael) have gone on to symphony careers. Others, including lead trombonist Jon Walton (an expert in switchgrass), have remained in Knoxville.

The band took it's name from the Hebrew term "generation to generation," which seems more appropriate every year.

Susan wrote surprising arrangements that made audiences do a double take.

One of the stand-outs for the group is always "Lights" - a traditional Jewish number that morphs into the spiritual "This Little Light of Mine." And it never fails to take audiences by surprise when what sounds like a traditional klezmer song morphs into "Stars and Stripes Forever." The group's second album, "Not Your Father's Klezmer Band," earned accolades from around the country.

The members say the group has benefitted from a more stable lineup as the younger members graduate college and become adults.

"We used to have a sort of revolving door of trombone players," says Ken. "And now there's a real jazz contingent in the band. Susan's arrangements incorporate more improvisational sections and we hope to have more of that."

"There's a lot more of a feeling of collaboration in how we do things," says Susan. "Everybody feels more comfortable contributing."

The band will perform some new arrangements at the Laurel Theater show, including a combination of "Jingle Bells" and "I Have a Little Dreidel" - and, perhaps, a salsa piece.

One Jewish listener at a wedding came up to the band afterward and summed things up nicely. He said, "I'm from New York City and I've never heard anything like you guys!"

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