Published: 6 December 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Australian Klezmer big band has an eclectic new album, ZETS! - born from the resurgence of Yiddish in Melbourne and the pressures of lockdown.
What do you get when you mix Klezmer with free jazz, a funky rhythm section and electronic dance music? You get YID!
Led by Melbourne jazz musician Simon Starr, YID! is more than just another big band. It brings the laughter, tears and vision of the age-old Jewish experience to a modern audience yearning for inspiration - and connection.
YID! was formed when Starr returned from Israel at the end of 2015, wondering what to do next. When guitarist Willy Zygier (who plays in a duo with Debra Conway) suggested a Yiddish big band, the two friends laughed. However, the idea resonated with Starr, and the more friends he tested it with, the more it generated enthusiasm.
With his deep love of all types of music and hyper-intense focus, Starr’s grooves and idiosyncratic melodic invention have featured in every type of Australian and international music, both here and overseas.
In December 2016, there were 27 people at the first rehearsal for YID! The band made its debut in 2017 with 22 players at the Jewish concert In One Night., “It was absolute chaos, but it clicked,” Starr says.
The band has evolved from a rag-tag bunch of recruits trying to recontextualise Yiddish into a more focused, highly experimental ensemble. YID! flows between eras, genres and moods, from the frenzied euphoria of dance music you might hear at a wedding, to aching songs of love and affliction, free jazz, modern hip-hop and funk.
“I wanted to achieve the deep yearning for something better than the persecution our ancestors faced, both melodically and narratively, as well as the many ideologies they devised to solve their problems,” Starr says.
