Yid Vicious Klezmer Ensemble

Yid Vicious takes an innovative approach to klezmer, or Eastern European Jewish folk music, through its incorporation of elements as diverse as bossa nova and ska, homages to the likes of Johnny Cash and George Gershwin, and even occasional solos.

Yid Vicious was formed in 1995 in Madison, WI in order to ameliorate the woeful dearth of klezmer in America's otherwise pleasant heartland. Klezmer is Yiddish folk music, music for dancing and celebrating, and no band has caused more dancing and celebrating than Yid Vicious. Indoors and out, at weddings, at Bat AND Bar Mitzvahs, on flatbed trucks, in ramshackle bars and luxurious ballrooms, on high festival stages and on bare sod, Yid Vicious have driven crowds into flurries of freylekh-fueled dancing fury. And that's just warming up, yo.

Although their repertoire is drawn mainly from traditional secular Yiddish music, they strive to infuse the music with their collective aesthetic and experience. Rather than replicate a particular time and place, they celebrate the long-standing tradition of klezmorim incorporating new musical ideas into an organic and ever-evolving art form.

All told, there are seven members of Yid Vicious, with a musical arsenal consisting of clarinets, saxophones, fiddle, horn, vocals, guitar, bass, mandolin, prima, drums and sometimes theremin.

Madison Area Music Awards:
* Best World Music Artist 2004 & 2005
* Best World Music Album 2006

To buy tickets

Call Cedar ticket line 612-338-2674 ext 2

(No tickets at outlets for this show)

Online sales available at Ticketweb