Ziganoff Jazzmer band

KOILEN
From klezmer to jazz following the tzigane route

A revival of the lost connection between klezmer music, the beginnings of jazz, and gypsy manouche swing.
This is the basic concept underpinning the project of the jazzmer band Ziganoff, conceived by Renato Morelli with Manuel Randi (guitar), Fiorenzo Zeni (sax), Christian Stanchina (trumpet), Rossana Caldini (violin), Hannes Petermair (sousaphone).

The project takes its name from the emblematic figure of Mishka Ziganoff, a gypsy accordion player and Yiddish speaker. He was born in Odessa and emigrated to New York, where he worked with klezmer and jazz groups, and where he recorded the piece ‘Koilen’ in 1919, the tune regarded as the melodic prototype of the Italian patriotic song Bella ciao.

Klezmer – popular music of Europe’s south-eastern ashkenaziti community - has been handed down as a peculiar fusion of traditional Romanian-Polish-Russian-Hungarian-Balkan repertoires in spite of the vicissitudes suffered by this minority at the hands of emperors, popes and tsars.
The Klezmorim have crossed the borders between three empires – Austro-Hungarian, tsarist and Ottoman - suffering the same fate as the gypsies, including the Shoha tragedy; it is no coincidence that, over time, two societies have succeeded in creating an human-musical association among the most tenacious and prolific in south-eastern Europe.

A number of klezmer and gypsy musicians emigrated to America at the beginning of the 20th century to escape the pogrom and persecutions at the time when jazz was in its infancy. This resulted in a new musical fusion which developed in the Afro-American community though also – as has already been acknowledged – absorbed significant influences from European immigrants, including Jews and gypsies.
The Jewish community has produced artists such as George Gershwin (Jacob Gershowitz), Leonard Bernstein, Benny Goodman etc.

The gypsy influence is especially significant, embodied in manouche jazz (or gipsy jazz).

Its most famous protagonist was the legendary Django Reinhardt, who made possible the fusion of traditional manouches gypsy music and nascent American jazz music.
Another less-famous figure is Mishka Ziganoff, a gypsy accordionist, a Yiddish-speaking Christian who emigrated to New York at the beginning of the 20th century and worked as a jazz and klezmer musician. In addition to his virtuosity, Ziganoff is famous for his 1919 recording of ‘koilen’, regarded as the original melody of the Italian World War Two partisan song Bella ciao.
He is consequently an emblematic figure not only because he connected klezmer music, jazz and manouche swing, but also his connection with Italian music .

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