December 18th – Sunday, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Kids welcome & free!
$10 suggested donation per adult

Chelm Feelharmonic Klezmer Band

which way west?
sunday concert series

Providing just a bit of a counter to all that Xmas mania, trombonist Rick Elmore, a musicological genius if we’ve ever known one, has collared some top local players with decades of musical collaboration under their collective belt for a klezmer & yiddish music extravaganza at Bird & Beckett!

Mandolinist Gerry Tenny has been a cornerstone of the Yiddish music scene here for decades, and he joins Rick and Mike Perlmutter on clarinet, plus accordionist Ilya Cremer, fiddler Mike Hayes and cellist Leo for a roaring celebration of Jewish music and culture, two days in advance of Hanukkah (which begins this year on December 20 and runs to the 27th).

Rick started at age 10 in 1964, and sat in as a teenager in L.A. with Rosy McHargue and Pete Daly at The Cliff House, and various jazz clubs up and down Central Ave. At age 20 in New Orleans he worked with Murphy Campo & Connie Jones. From ’76 – ’82 in San Francisco, he played with Dick Oxtot & Jack “Jive” Shaefer. Then it was back to New Orleans till ’88, playing with Banu Gibson, The Dukes of Dixieland & The Creole Rice Jazz Band. In Sacramento from “88 to “90 he played with Dutch Deutch, Jimmy Rivers, and The Silverado Brass Band. Since 1990 he’s been back in the Bay Area playing with Don Neely’s Royal Society Orchestra, Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band, American Heritage Jazz Band, a brazilian ragtimeband called Choro Time, California Klezmer, and various latin and eastern european bands. He’s pictured here as “Professor Gizmo” — a one-man-band.