Cross-Cultural Chords

In almost any other city, it might be considered a cross-cultural stretch to blend the festive music of Eastern European Jews with the melodic and vibrant sounds that evolved on the streets of Mexico.

But not in Los Angeles, where organizers of an annual Yiddish festival plan to kick off eight days of celebrations with a concert Sunday combing the music of klezmer and mariachi bands.

“The musics have a lot in common,” said Aaron Paley, the president of Community Arts Resources and the festival’s producer. “They are both music of celebrations. There is a common history of being a minority in a country, of being immigrants and of maintaining your traditions.”

The festival, held at the Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State L.A., continues until Oct. 25 and features nearly two dozen events. It is sponsored by Community Arts Resources and Yiddishkayt Los Angeles, an organization founded to revitalize Yiddish culture, including the traditional klezmer music that is played to celebrate weddings and births.

In preparation for Sunday’s “Viva Klezmer-L’Khayim Mariachi” concert, the Los Angeles Klezmer All-Star Band and the Mariachi Sol de America squared off Friday in a dress rehearsal before a packed audience of elementary school students at the Luckman Theater.

Barry Fisher, an attorney who plays the accordion and leads Los Angeles’ Ellis Island klezmer band, said the concert will emphasize some of the bonds between Jews and Latinos. For example, he said, some of Mexico’s first Spanish explorers were Jewish. Jews fought alongside Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa at the turn of the century, and Latinos and Jews lived side by side in Boyle Heights--historically the first center for Jews in the city and a longtime center for Latinos.

“The goal is to bring cultures together,” said Rodri J. Rodriguez, chairman of the board of Mariachi USA, a concert co-sponsor. “Music is our common bond.”

Proceeds from the concert will help support folkloric and mariachi programs in schools that participate in the Mariachi USA program.

Many of the klezmer and mariachi instruments in use at Friday’s rehearsal were similar. Both groups had brass sections and violins. The mariachi band also had guitars and a harp; the Klezmer All-Stars had an accordion, drums and tubas. Combining the sounds presented a musical challenge.

“They are going to play some songs together, play some separately and come back together,” said Fisher. “What I’d really like to happen is for [the musicians] to enjoy themselves and understand a little bit about each other’s culture.”

The excitement was catching.

“This is something different, something that has never been done before,” said Marcos Gonzalez, a 26-year-old guitarist who was born in Los Angeles. “When we play our music, we feel it. Just like when they play their music, they feel it.”

The two bands moved seamlessly between the two styles of music, without any sense of competition.

“If we were playing the same music, then we might be competing,” said Juan Jose Almaguer, the leader of the mariachi band. “When it’s different music, it’s just fun.”

On the stage, the two bands represented different generations; the klezmer band members were older. Miamon Miller, a violinist and musicologist, said that the mariachi musicians have maintained their cultural traditions, while the klezmer artists are trying to revitalize theirs.

“They have an unbroken chain, their tradition never lapsed,” Miller said. “We are trying to restore a music tradition that almost died.”

The desire to hold on to that tradition stems from need to recapture the music that was popular at the time of the Holocaust, he said. “I get emotional every time I hear it.”

In the brief presentation, the young audience was clapping singing as the musicians played numbers that switched from European to classical Mexican songs.

One song, a salute to Poncho Villa, was sung in Yiddish.

“I don’t understand the language,” said teacher Wing Lai, “but the music is great.”