YALE STROM & HOT PSTROMI

Yale Strom & Hot Pstromi began in 1982 with Strom (violin), Jeff Pekarek (bass) and Fred Benedetti (guitar/mandolin) as the original members. Today, the San Diego-based ensemble is rounded out by Lou Fanucchi (accordion), Duncan Moore (percussion), Tripp Sprague (tenor sax/flute), Elizabeth Schwartz (vocals), as well as its original members. The band draws much of its repertoire from the ethnographic field research Strom has done in Eastern Europe among the Jewish and Roma communities. Strom learned much of the klezmer techniques he employs in his playing from klezmer musicians who played before, during and after the Holocaust. The music to be performed here will be both traditional Yiddish songs from the Second Avenue Theatre and towns and villages of Eastern Europe, as well as klezmer instrumental tunes Strom either collected or composed. The music will take the listener on a sonic trek throughout the hinterlands of Eastern Europe with melodies that will be at times intimate and intense and at others wildly exuberant, all with a large dose of improvisation.

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