Nu Haven Kapelye, sometimes billed as New England’s largest klezmer band, saw out the final days of 2021 with two concerts — one on Dec. 25 at Congregation Mishkan Israel and one on Dec. 31 as part of Yiddish New York’s globe-spanning, 24-hour Klezathon — that saw the ensemble carrying on longstanding traditions, expanding its reach, and exemplifying the tenacity of musicians and music to get through another pandemic year with spirits intact.
“We managed to make it work, and not do one, but two shows within a week, which was really cool,” said Nu Haven Kapelye bassist, bandleader, and arranger David Chevan.
In the modern era, bands playing klezmer (or, to sum it up all too quickly, traditional Jewish music from Eastern Europe) tend to be smaller, with one musician per instrument and an emphasis on virtuosic solo playing. Not so the Kapelye, which draws its strength from its numbers, entire sections of strings and horns, with Chevan in the middle, leading the charge from his bass. In its approach, the Kapelye resembles both a big band and, reaching into the past, the large klezmer ensembles, like Belf’s Rumanian Orchestra or Abe Schwartz’s Yiddisher Orchestra, of the first half of the 20th century.
In Europe before the Holocaust, Chevan pointed out, while rural Jewish communities might have had small music groups, “ensembles tended to be bigger in urban areas.” In cities like Warsaw and Prague, “centers of Jewish culture, you had these theater bands,” akin to the big bands in the early years of jazz. “There were these opportunities for larger professional ensembles,” Chevan said. The urban enclaves were the result of, on one hand, greater freedoms for Jews in Europe in the 19th century that allowed them to live in cities commingling more easily with non-Jews, and on the other hand, baked-in antisemitism that meant Jews tended to live with other Jews. They “might have been equal, but they were separate,” Chevan said. It set the stage for escalating violence that culminated in the Holocaust. Hitler “couldn’t have come to power” with his antisemitic message “if there wasn’t a culture for it that already existed.”
Chevan had that history in mind as the Nu Haven Kapelye took shape in 1998 for its first Dec. 25 concert at CMI and Chevan began making charts for the variety of musicians he knew he would be working with. “I use a mental model in my head of what it would mean to have a klezmer orchestra or big band,” he said. For many of the musicians in the Kapelye, the group is their first chance to play klezmer. The Kapelye “creates an opportunity for people to get to know the music,” Chevan said.
In turn, the Nu Haven Kapelye has been turning New Haven audiences onto klezmer for decades. It began as a group Chevan put together for a Dec. 25 event held at CMI, but developed into a permanent ensemble performing in New Haven and elsewhere, with the Dec. 25 concert as an annual touchstone. “There are musicians who only come for the December 25 concert,” Chevan explained, including Kapelye alumni who may have moved away but return each year to visit their families. “The biggest band we ever had was 33 people.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, the Kapelye’s size and the fact that many in the group played brass and wind instruments were hurdles to overcome. The Kapelye responded with virtual recordings and short films in 2020, holding its annual December concert virtually. “We managed in a weird way to keep it live,” Chevan said. “We also used it as a time to do some learning.” The group hosted talks on the history and style of klezmer.
In 2021, as Covid vaccines arrived and the weather grew warmer, “we were rehearsing outside at least once or twice a month in the parking lot at CMI. People would come by and check it out.” The group even started gigging again. To prepare for the December concert, with the enthuasiastic support of CMI Rabbi Brian Immerman, the group began rehearsing in CMI’s large social hall, with face and instrument masks. In November and December they rehearsed once a week. Along the way, they discovered one person wasn’t vaccinated and “I had to let them go,” Chevan said. “Those are Covid lessons you learn.”
As late as early December, it seemed possible to hold the Kapelye’s annual concert in person. But with the rise of Covid’s omicron variant, “you got to pivot, you got to be nimble, you got to persevere,” Chevan said. They switched the format so that the band could play together in person, but the audience would be virtual. About 200 people were registered as tuning in, “which means more people, because I know my mom was watching with eight other people,” Chevan said with a laugh. “We’ve been doing this for 24 years now, which kind of knocks me out.”
Meanwhile, the Klezathon slot (which begins at 4:52 in the video on Facebook Live) for Yiddish New York “allowed me to continue my streak of playing on New Year’s Eve,” said Chevan. The spread of the omicron variant meant many Kapelye members tested positive for Covid and couldn’t attend. For Yiddish New York, Chevan marshaled a band of nine players — a relatively low number for the Kapeyle, which a few days earlier filled the stage of CMI’s social hall for its Dec. 25 show, but a high number for any klezmer band these days.
“Our numbers were so severely whacked by Covid,” Chevan said. “You just have to make lemonade, which is a challenge with an ensemble that big. I don’t want to be too stoic because I’m not, but you just make do.” That said, when he got together the group he had, “it felt like a victory.” With a smaller group, “I could show different sides of what the ensemble can do,” and create “a couple opportunities for players to take chances. I baked all that into that 22-minute set, and it was wonderful to hear how good everyone sounded.”
Chevan is already looking into 2022 for what the Kapelye can do next. “We’re going to start up some educational work” while the omicron variant prevents larger groups from congregating safely. “We’ll use this moment of temporary quarantine to do a little learning.” But he’s looking forward to using CMI’s social hall to get everyone back together to play in person — “knock on matzah,” he said — and rehearse outside again when the weather warms.
“I can remember when I was younger loving big band. There’s nothing like it — the whole idea of 15 to 20 people playing in sync together is really cool,” Chevan said. That’s reflected in the band’s longevity, the enthusiasm of its members, and the way alumni come back to play the group’s December concert. The regular band is now multigenerational, with members ranging in age from teenagers to octogenarians. Quoting master drummer Baba David Coleman, who died in March 2021, Chevan said “It ain’t a me thing, it’s a we thing. It’s a powerful thing of people coming together and believing in the power of music making. There are enough people who want to make music together that we’ve persevered.”
To find out more about the Nu Haven Kapelye, or to contact the group if you’re interested in joining, visit the band’s website.