Klezmer Rebs are an 8 piece Wellington band that plays (mostly) klezmer music, an engaging style of world/folk music born out of the Yiddish/Jewish culture of eastern Europe in the 1800s and 1900s. Klezmer then went to America and in the early 1900s began to fuse with jazz and swing. There has been a worldwide revival of klezmer music since the 1980s.

Klezmer Rebs instrumentation includes guitar, mandolin, clarinet, violin, accordion, keyboards, trombone, helicon (like a tuba), string bass and vocals. Together the Klezmer Rebs capture the true klezmer spirit with songs of joy, sorrow and rebellion.
Klezmer Rebs have been shaking ‘tuchases’ (Yiddish for ‘bums’) in Wellington and places north and south since 2002..

The Rebs world music appeals to everyone. While many of songs are sung in Yiddish (that mostly-Germanic and very onomatopoeic language), they also perform partisan songs from Italy, Russian folk tunes, French chansons, Latin cowboy love songs, Argentine Yiddish Tangos and 1940s swing vocal songs. Their own quirky, politically charged multi-lingual originals are some of the most popular crowd tunes.

The Rebs will perform in the Fairfield Courtyard – expect a night full of story. songs and dance.