A Jumpin Night in the Garden of Eden (1987)

A Jumpin Night in the Garden of Eden was the first film to document the klezmer revival tracing the efforts of two founding groups Kapelye and Bostons Klezmer Conservatory Band to recover the lost history of klezmer music For nearly a millennium this vigorous and soulful music was part of the celebration of Jewish life in Eastern Europe In the early decades of this century the music took root in America Klezmer musicians learned hundreds of tunes by ear and their ears were open to Gypsy Ukrainian and Greek melodies of the old world as well as to the new sounds of American jazz Music born in Eastern Europe lived on in the imaginations of composers for New Yorks Yiddish theater men whose tunes entered the mainstream through such unlikely adapters as the Andrew Sisters Eventually Klezmer went underground as its audience assimilated into mainstream American culture