David Julian Gray is a klezmer musician and the founder of the group Klezcentricity in Silver Spring, Maryland. He was also a founding member of The Klezmorim—one of the first bands to spark the revival of klezmer music in the United States. Klezmer music is associated with Eastern European Jewish traditions, especially those of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. Once popular in the early 20th century, klezmer’s acclaim faded in the 1930s. The genre regained popularity in the 1970s and 80s, largely due to the rise of The Klezmorim. The Klezmorim was founded in Berkeley, California in 1975 and rose to national recognition during its 12-year run. The group was signed to a record deal by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records, nominated for a Grammy Award, and performed at two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1983.

Gray grew up near New York City area and was initially inspired by the music of The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, and the electric blues. He moved to Philadelphia in his teens with the goal of becoming a blues musician and popstar. However, he was also interested in Jewish music at the time and admired musicians such as Andy Statman and Dave Tarras. Later, when he moved to northern California, a co-founder of The Klezmorim named Lev Liberman convinced Gray to join the band. Gray says that the goal of The Klezmorim was to revitalize klezmer music and to showcase its beautiful repertoire because it deserved more attention.

The Klezmorim began playing at folk clubs and folk festivals since, according to Gray, much of the Jewish community was not interested in klezmer at the time, and their record deal with Arhoolie Records supported the band’s credibility with folk music audiences. While recording their first album and playing a monthly gig at the Freight and Salvage, they were approached by Dr. Martin Schwartz from the University of California, Berkeley. Schwartz invited the band to his home and began playing records of klezmer music, providing constructive criticism for where the band could improve their performances of the klezmer style and their musicianship. For two years, Dr. Schwartz helped the band by collecting klezmer music, studying it, and then coaching them to gain a more authentic sound.

In 1977, Gray decided to devote his life to klezmer music. His goal was to ensure that the music he played was true to the klezmer tradition and to make the genre popular again. Today, even though playing klezmer music is not his day-job, Gray still identifies as a musician and says that his music comes first:

Even though I have this nice day job at NPR I like, which is what brought me to Maryland . . . first of all, I’m a musician. I have to do it. It’s like eating . . . I gotta play and I gotta play for people. [It’s] not just enough to practice . . . playing in a jam session. Playing for a crowd . . . you need that energy, you need that back and forth.

After Gray moved to Maryland in 1996, he decided to form a klezmer band in the Washington, DC area. His friend, Ari Davidow, introduced him to Wendy Morrison, an accordion player. Gray and Morrison found that they worked together well and began playing gigs. Not long after, the duo added Richard Sidel, an electric bass and cello player, to the band and Klezcentricity was born. The original trio played together for 17 years, until Sidel’s unfortunate passing in 2015. Nevertheless, the band continues on with new members to this day.

Gray says that he loves to play weddings because of the energy in the environment and because they allow him to take more risks and improvise in a way that he would never be able to on a concert stage. In fact, he describes the hallmark of great music as when:

You get into a groove . . . set up certain expectations . . . and then you start going where everybody thinks you’re gonna go and you go someplace else. And the challenge is to do that in a way that’s musically satisfying, that really works musically, and that may also be supportable [and] defensible in the tradition you’re in, even if it opens up a whole new door to another world.

Gray does not despair for the future of klezmer music because of contemporary musicians such as Seth Kibel, Joel Rubin, and other klezmer bands. He is optimistic that the tradition will continue to flourish.

Authored by Allie Stanich