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Clarinetist, Jazz Musician, and Klezmer Virtuoso Don Byron

Clarinetist, jazz musician, and klezmer virtuoso Don Byron. He's an unlikely candidate to play klezmer, a product of Eastern European Yiddish culture: Byron is African American and dreadlocked. Byron has become best known for klezmer, but musically he's all over the map: He plays jazz with his Don Byron Quintet, modern classical music with the Semaphore quintet, and he toured Europe last fall with Music for Six Musicians, an Afro-Cuban ensemble. He's also currently writing a classical piece for the avant-garde Kronos Quartet. Byron's most recent CD is "Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz," (Elektra Nonesuch).

17:00

Other segments from the episode on January 25, 1994

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 25, 1994: Interview with James Trefil; Interview with Don Byron; Review of Benjamin Cheever's book "The Partisan."

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