2: Clarinetist, jazz musician, and klezmer virtuoso DON BYRON. He's an unlikely candidate to play kelzmer, a product of Eastern European Yiddish culture: BYRON is African American and dreadlocked. BYRON has become best known for klezmer, but musically he's all over the map: He plays jazz with his Don Byron Quintet, modern classical music with the Semaphore quintet, and he toured Europe last fall with Music for Six Musicians, an Afro-Cuban ensemble. He's also currently writing a classical piece for the avant-garde Kronos Quartet. BYRON's most recent CD is "Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz," (Elektra Nonesuch).
Copyright 1994 Fresh Air
