Birthday Pretzels by The Bazargan Book Club

The Bazargan Book Club, on this debut album, brings their bumping, raucous live performances often heard in basements and backyards around Bloomington to the studio. As many dyed-in-the-wool members of the Book Club know, just one set can somehow weave together a traditional klezmer melody, the Rocky theme, a battle between the fiddle and sax, and the feeling of a brisk gallop through the desert. This same creativity, variety, and tight musicality, surround every track on this record. They come together best on tracks like Birthday Pretzels, a fan-favorite, where a simple and catchy Randy Newman-esque melody rolls on as each member of the band adds their own little stings and flavor, creating something complex and complete. Der Heymisher Bulgar, the 6th track on the record, never seems to end (in the best way) as the band takes a traditional upbeat klezmer style and brings in some rock breakdowns, conjuring up images of an hour-long hora set at a simkhe, complete with circles within circles of sweaty, jumping, joyful people.

It’s not easy to take the feeling of a traditional klezmer band and translate it into different genres and eras. It often feels like there is some gap of tone, musicality and emphasis between the era often seen as “traditional” and modern klezmorim trying to keep the neshome of the past alive. These modern takes can sometimes feel stilted, artificial, too backward-looking or, in fact, too forward-looking. It takes real skill to bring something special to an old genre based on half-remembered nigunim, driving percussion, trance-like repetition, and that odd euphoric-melancholic energy. With this first record, the Bazargan Book Club has managed to create something that is not only beautiful and lively but, nokh vikhtiker, new!

Jason Rosenblum (Yosl), WFHB DJ - The Old Changing Way - Klezmer Week

We play Hoosier Smurf Klezmer with a dash of Bollywood, mostly original instrumental, but not entirely. We hail from good ol' Bloomington Inianer.I don't know, how would YOU describe this stuff?!