The Essential Klezmer is the definitive guide to an ancient music made new again, mesmerizing dance music that is simultaneously reverential, mischievous, ecstatic, and tragic. It is Old World and New World, secular and sacred, traditional and experimental.

With the love of a fan and the acuity of a critic, Seth Rogovoy leads the reader through the past, present, and future of klezmer: its survival despite the splintering of the Jewish world of Eastern Europe; its popularity in America during the early decades of the twentieth century before being driven underground by the pressures of assimilation; its rediscovery in the 1970s by a new wave of Jewish musicians raised on jazz, rock and roll, and American folk; and its influence on more contemporary musicians, including John Zorn, David Krakauer, and Ben Folds Five.

You'll find a comprehensive discography of old and new klezmer, a thoughtful guide to building your own klezmer library, and a tour of klezmer on the Internet.

"An informative and entertaining guide to the most unlikely musical trend of recent years. Rogovoy lucidly explains what is culturally significant about klezmer; better yet, he captures the music's fun." —Francis Davis, author of Bebop and Nothingness and The History of the Blues

"Klezmer has become one of the primary languages of the musical avant-garde." —The New Yorker

"The music of my childhood memories came flooding back through the decades as I read. Maybe, as Seth Rogovoy suggests, it's time for our music to awaken once more to an entirely new generation." —Arlo Guthrie