New York's Best
Jewish Wedding Band

This was the summer of Jewish farm weddings. Farms all over New England and the tri-state area. Farms with animals, farms with agriculture. Working farms, farms that function just as event venues. Every farm was beautiful, from the mountains of Vermont to the woods of Maine, to the sprawling vista of the Hudson. The drives were intense and heels got ruined in the grass. Nonetheless, the chuppah against those stunning backgrounds in the fresh air caught our New Yorker breath again and again.

We love city weddings, but farm weddings are something special. No one leaves early to beat the traffic home. People dance the night away, knowing that tomorrow and perhaps the next day, they'll still be there. Somehow the parties feel wilder and the sound of the 7 blessings against the huge blue sky is just spectacular.

There were several inches of mud around the tent to sink into at one farm. At another there was no rain alternative for a ceremony in a wide open field. We all just stood under umbrellas until, magically, the sun came out only half an hour off schedule. In Massachusetts, they served bourbon and donuts during the cocktail hour, with shot glasses lined up on skis. In the Hudson Valley, an orthodox rabbi lay tefillin on guests' arms on the farmhouse porch in the pre-ceremony sunset.

Our sound team traveled to all these venues, making us sound great and lighting us dramatically in the night. It felt good to play our music, from the traditional procession to the chuppah to a Golem gypsy tune, to Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" as a bonfire blazed before us. After all, rocking the farmland is what klezmer musicians have always done.

I've been asking Golem to play my wedding for the past decade, since long before I met my wife, Tamara. I'd seen them at least 21 times previously, including one fake wedding and one real wedding. Last month, my dream came true: Golem played our wedding!

Golem played a varied set that was great whether the tempo was fast or slow, the songs familiar or unfamiliar, the language English, Yiddish, or other. They performed with tremendous energy and charisma. Singer Aaron Diskin was a masterful showman, engaging with the crowd and giving off a vibe more reminiscent of a concert than a typical wedding. Singer/accordionist Annette Ezekiel Kogan drew compliments from our guests for her beautiful voice.

There were myriad musical highlights. The epic 16-minute hora rocked hard, and I couldn't get parts of it out of my head during the honeymoon. A cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" garnered enthusiastic dancing. Golem did a fantastic job with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" for the first dance and "Sunrise Sunset" for the parent dances.

Now I have to wonder how many of our friends are dreaming of having Golem at their wedding despite not having found that special someone yet. I highly recommend Golem to any couple looking for a wedding band!

Golem plays all kinds of Jewish weddings — from Orthodox to Reform, secular, mixed weddings (Jewish and non-Jewish), Russian Jewish, gay weddings, and the list goes on.

The tisch (table, in Yiddish), a practice where the groom and the male guests sit at one table while the bride and the women sit at another at the beginning of a Jewish wedding, was long considered a strictly Orthodox thing. Traditionally, the groom gives a "d'var Torah" — a speech commenting on a passage of the Torah. Schnapps is drunk, and the groom gets a good ribbing from his friends and relatives.

Today, outside the Orthodox community, many couples have reappropriated the tisch. The religious element is often gone, replaced with aged Scotch, jokes, roasting, and advice. Even without the learned aspect, the essence remains: a primal separation of bride and groom with their own circles, full of warmth, nervous excitement, and a real sense of Jewishness. It is a great way to start a wedding, no matter how observant or unobservant you are.

At the end of the men's tisch, Golem enters the room quietly with our instruments, waiting to lead the groom to his bride. When the rabbi says "Let's go!" we break into a loud, raucous rendition of Od Yishama and the men start singing and dancing, pushing the groom forward. Once, a groom put his hands on our bass player's shoulders, closed his eyes, and said, "Take me to her." This is why you have a Jewish wedding band that knows how to rock.

Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs used to be the main social events in the life of a Jewish family. In a way, they still are. When else do all the generations of a family and friends from every circle get together in one room? All of a sudden, your work colleague dances next to your grandmother and your best friend.

As a result, a Jewish wedding band's job is to keep all these members of different ages and social circles happy. Golem has a huge repertoire at our disposal — Jewish songs of many genres (hora, swing, bossanova, rock) woven into sets of covers that break down by genre: rock, funk, Latin, jazz standards, swing. We balance the set by tempo: four fast songs, then one slow, allowing the dancers to draw close and then separate again.

At many weddings and bar mitzvahs, there is also special music for particular groups of guests. We have French-language, Spanish, Russian-language songs, and selections that guests from different backgrounds particularly enjoy. We change the balance at every event to reflect the people for whom we are playing.

Not only do we play something for everyone, but we manage to get everyone to dance together. I love to see a young couple whirling around the room, or an elderly gentleman grooving to Low Rider. Then I know that Golem has done it again.

Jewish traditions have always been flexible. Klezmer music itself is a hybrid genre — local Polish, Ukrainian, and Romanian music fused with distinctly Jewish musical attributes. Orthodox or unorthodox, Jewish culture has always adapted to its environment and somehow shone through without disappearing.

The same thing should happen at a Jewish wedding. The cultures and backgrounds of the bride and groom should be included in the spirit of the event, while the Jewish soul — "Yiddishkayt" — still shines through it all. Golem has created this multicultural Jewish vibe hundreds of times, each wedding different and unique.

We have sung mariachi songs followed by "My Yiddishe Mama," played a Chinese melody during a ceremony, mixed Russian pop from the 1980s with American rock songs, and created hora medleys of Jewish simcha tunes and Italian tarantellas. Instead of the Jewish element becoming buried in all this "other" stuff, the contrasts only strengthen the Jewish music and feeling. The more you mix it up, the better.

We bring a Jewish vibe — often described as "very New York" — to any celebration. Wherever we go, we bring the New York Jewish wedding with us. We have played Jewish weddings in San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Portland, Maine, even Paris. We always bring a little NYC and a lot of Yiddishkayt with us.

Happy New Year! May it bring you health, happiness, fulfillment, and yes, love. We hope that many will decide to tie the knot this year and choose Golem as their wedding band.

Golem loves being an organic part of the wedding celebration — from the ceremony at the chuppah to the last song of the reception. We provide the soundtrack to the realization of your wedding dreams.

Golem closed out the year by playing a gorgeous winter Jewish wedding in downtown New York City. The setting was spectacular with a white, wintry glow, and Golem's music lived up to the occasion. In the midst of the beautiful winter setting, the music was warm like a fire in the fireplace, full of Yiddishkayt and Jewish soul — from walking to the chuppah, accompanying the cantor, to the first dance, parent dances, and friends and family rocking out on the dance floor.

Wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead. We can't wait to celebrate with you.