YID! to perform at WOMAD in Adelaide
This amazing band is to take its unique brand of music to Adelaide next month for its second appearance at the WOMADelaide 2022 festival.
YID! is a Melbourne based big band that performs sing songs in Yiddish, created by Melbourne musician and record producer Simon Starr.
After living in Israel for six years, Simon returned home and was jokingly told he should start a Yiddish big band. So that’s exactly what he did.
Husky Gawenda and Gideon Preiss from the indie-folk band Husky, Electronica pioneer Josh Abrahams, up and coming stars the Zygier sisters (including Alma Zygier), jazz musician and composer Simon Starr, Melbourne legend Willy Zygier and a coterie of Melbourne’s finest jazz musicians make up YID!’s line-up.
YID! plans to release its first album later this year.
Among their fans is acclaimed author Arnold Zable who wrote:
YID! is a longing, a yearning to break free, a quest for a way forward, while wedded to Yiddish songlines descended from an ancient past.
YID! is an echo of the klezmer minstrels, feverish poets and troubadours who travelled the dusty roads of the shtetl in search of an audience, a fair share of luck.
YID! is a space-age adventure drawing on swing, jazz, Gypsy, spoken word, hip hop and funk.
YID! is a paradox, weaving mayhem and anarchy with virtuoso musicianship, performed by devoted professionals dedicated to perfecting their craft.
YID! is a joyous eruption of sound, interlaced with revered folk ballads, moments of reflection, exquisite harmonies—the lull before the return of the storm.
YID! is an ongoing journey, a pilgrimage, a search for meaning in a chaotic world.
YID! is an invitation to uninhibited dance. An outburst of love, a euphoric embrace. A rapturous blast.
WOMADelaide will run from March 11 to 14.
