A Jumpin’ Night in the Garden of Eden

Klezmer music found its way from the shtetls of Eastern Europe into America's Yiddisch theatre, then went 'underground' in the thirties and fourties. In the seventies klezmer was revitalized by young American musicians who brought to it their training in classical, jazz and folk idioms. A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden is the first documentary to investigate klezmer's history and celebrate its irrepressible, freewheeling sound. The film focuses on musicians from the Klezmer Conservatory Band and Kapelye, as they piece together the music's history, discover old klezmer musicians and perform in venues as diverse as Jewish weddings and 'The Prairie Home Compagnion'. The klezmer revival is part of a larger phenomenom, as young Americans reach past 'The Final Solution' to the legacy of their forebears. Reinventing the past lies at the heart of the klezmer revival and A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden reveals three generations involved in the transmission.