Klezwoods play Johnny D’s this coming Sunday night.

By Max Sullivan

Johnny D’s will be rocking with an Eastern flare this coming Sunday night as Klezwoods bring their unique take on traditional klezmer music.

Klezwoods are not your traditional klezmer group. While rooted in the traditional Jewish musical form, the group’s members have a fascination with all Eastern music. Balkan, Egyptian, Polish, Arabic, Israeli, Gypsy- all of these flavors have crept into the Klezwoods sound. There is even a hint of Americana in there. Sam Dechenne, the band’s trumpet player and booker, grew up with a personal love of Dixie-land jazz.

Along with the unique and upbeat sounds of the Eastern klezmer music, Klezwoods also often features belly dancers to move to the music. This Sunday, the band’s friend, AKA “Hybrid”, will be the featured dancer. Belly dancing is not associated with traditional Klezmer music, but as stated before, this is not a typical klezmer group. It is a melting pot of Eastern music. Dechenne said the group thought it would be a good fit to incorporate the Gypsy tradition of belly dancing into their shows.

“The communication between the music and the dance is a really interesting thing because belly dancing is not a klezmer tradition at all,” said Dechenne. “But, because our band is not a traditional klezmer band, we fuse so many styles together, and one of those styles is Arabic music and music that has that gypsy music feel to it, so we’re open to new things.”

Dechenne said the belly dancing adds a great deal to the experience. The dancing and the music, he said, meshes seamlessly together for an interesting effect.

“She interacts with the musicians really, really well,” said Dechenne, “And we interact with her really well in a magical way that makes here really fun visually and you can almost see the music through her dancing and vise versa.”

Klezwoods came together at Christmas time in 2007. Originally, the bandleader, Joe Kessler, was approached by the Atwoods Tavern in Cambridge about putting together a different sort of Christmas performance.

“It was kind of funny, a Jewish, Klezmer Christmas,” said Dechenne.

That night, the band came together, incorporating Kessler’s musical friends as well as some of the best local Klezmer talent in players like accordion player Michael Mcglaughin. Since then, the band has stuck around.

Klezwoods will be playing music from their upcoming second album, 30th Meridian: From Cairo to St. Petersburg with Love. The name derives from the concept of following the 30th Meridian from Egypt to Russia, traveling through the different lands “where all of our music is from,” said Dechenne.

“We talked about making this CD kind of special and not just making a CD to make a CD,” said Dechenne. “A real album that kind of tells a story. So we put together this album with a mix of songs that, everything we do is on that CD, and I’m very, very proud of it.”

After the show on Sunday, the band will be kicking off a CD release tour at the Regatta Bar in Boston. The tour will extend down to New York and up to New Hampshire.

While some of the members have been playing klezmer music their whole lives, like Kessler, Dechenne was not introduced to the music until more recently. However, he was not totally unfamiliar with Eastern music tradition. In high school, Dechenne had a good Egyptian friend who showed him the music of his country. Dechenne became completely fascinated with Arabic music.

“I grew up listening to a lot of Arabic music and loving it, actually, and playing it,” said Dechenne. “For me personally I’ve always been attracted to melodies and the harmonies of a lot of music from the Middle East.”

Accompanying Klezwoods are their opening act, Cirkestra, a group that Klezwoods are extremely proud to bring with them, said Dechenne. In fact, the two groups share tuba player Jim Gray. Led by Berklee professor Peter Pufano, the group plays their own original circus themed music with flavors of klezmer sounds, boxcar blues and others.

See Klezwoods and Cirkestra Sunday night, July 29, at Johnny D’s in Davis Square. The show starts at 8 p.m. with Cirkestra. Klezwoods goes on at 9:30. Tickets are $10.