David Krakauer is one of the well known clarinetists of our times, an acclaimed artist expressing himself in traditional East European Jewish music, in jazz, and classical music.
Born in 1956 Krakauer and his band band Klezmer Madness! are promoting a style that is both true to the traditional origins of the Jewish music, and also takes the genre in new territories in fusion with jazz, rock, and even hip-hop. Here he is playing with his band in what is today the world capital of klezmer music – Krakow, home city of the famous klezmer trio Kroke.
See and hear him playing with local musicians in the synagogue in Dneipropetrovsk.
Here he is with a couple of more rock-oriented arrangements, and also saying a few words about his music.
Krakauer collaborated with famous chamber music ensembles including the the Tokyo String Quartet and the Kronos Quartet. in collaboration with jazz pianist Uri Caine. Krakauer performed music written for him by Osvaldo Golijov for a BBC documentary ‘Holocaust, A Music Memorial from Auschwitz’ which won an International Emmy in 2005. The film deals with the experience of the musicians who were forced by the German to play for the deportees during their last walk to the gas chambers.
David Krakauer’s Web site can be accessed at http://www.davidkrakauer.com/