IN CONCERT
What: The Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra
Where: Hermann’s Jazz Club (753 View St.)
When: Thursday, Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 5:30 p.m.)
Tickets: $15
If you have dined at Pagliacci’s restaurant on Broad Street during the past two decades, there’s a chance you’ve seen — and heard — the Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra.
The wild, cacophonous klezmer group with the fun-loving frontwoman has been a mainstay at the Italian restaurant for 20 years — the septet’s biweekly Sunday-night sets have become legendary. Guitarist Avram Devon McCagherty figures the band has played more than 500 shows at Pagliacci’s, entertaining diners with a unique mix of Yiddish theatre, Eastern European klezmer and 1920s swing.
“It feels like one big family,” McCagherty said of the group.
“We can’t wait to get down there each week. We eat and drink and play music and love each others’ company. I think that’s because we haven’t had too many aspirations beyond Pags, so we’ve been able to be successful and stay together.”
The Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra — which next performs at the restaurant on Jan. 26 — will stay busy during its off week with a concert tonight at Hermann’s Jazz Club. The show celebrating 20 years of klezmer swing by the group features members McCagherty, Marion Siegel (vocals), Michael Mazza (trumpet), Nick LaRiviere (trombone), Julien Vitek (violin), Rod McCrimmon (accordion) and Doug Rhodes (bass), who will mark the anniversary by digging deeper into the catalogue of hybrid klezmer music for a rare show outside the confines of the restaurant.
Klezmer is dance music made for celebrations. But while many of the songs are what McCagherty calls “freilach” (the Yiddish word for joyous), those familiar with the genre will recognize the inherent sadness in some, he added.
“Hava Nagila is the perfect example,” McCagherty said of the popular Hebrew wedding-celebration song. “It’s a klezmer tune, and has that tonality. No matter what instrument you’re playing it on, it’s klezmer. But the scale of it is sad. It’s almost a different shade of the blues.”
The group was initially assembled by Siegel, who gathered the city’s best klezmer players for rehearsals at her home in Fairfield, supplying elaborate dinners for sustenance and music from Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory Band as inspiration, McCagherty said.
“I remember the food was just amazing, which was a huge plus.”
Siegel (whose son, Solomon, manages Pagliacci’s and whose ex-husband, Howie Siegel, founded the restaurant with his brother, David, and Alan DiFiore in 1979) eventually worked the Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra onto the busy music calendar at the restaurant.
“I feel like the Ronnie Hawkins of klezmer music,” Siegel said of the rock ’n’ roll icon, who mentored members of The Band before they joined Bob Dylan. “I started this band by offering a home-cooked dinner on rehearsal nights to a bunch of bachelors. I have been privileged to play with some of the best musicians in the city. The guys are like my brothers now, except we see each other more often.”
McCagherty and LaRiviere, two of the busiest and best musicians in the city, also play with other groups at the restaurant, and regularly gig in other venues around town.
McCagherty says his steady stream of work with the Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra was key to his development and a boon to his career. “I wouldn’t be a musician if it wasn’t for Pags.
“I’ve had two or three bands where I’ve been able to hire the best players and commit to some rehearsals, because there was a regular place to perform, and with payment.”
