[Excerpts from Joel Rubin's liner notes:]
The Klezmorim from Berkeley, California, formed in 1974 by Lev Liberman, David Julian Gray and departed member David Skuse,* are generally credited with having started the American klezmer revival. With their loud and brash style, and an entertaining, theatrical presentation, they were the first to record (East Side Wedding, 1977), the first to tour extensively on the college and fine arts circuit, and the first to attract the attention of the mainstream media.
Lev Liberman felt it was no accident that the klezmer revival started in Berkeley, where there had been "a tradition of street music, lots of ferment and experimenting, [and] a receptivity to different music."
"Bucharest" is based on a 1924 recording from New York by I.J. Hochman's Orchestra. Metropolis is the only klezmer album ever to have been nominated for a Grammy Award.
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* Correction: Formed in 1975 by Liberman and Skuse, who had been performing
together since 1973. Gray was the first additional member to join.