klezmer

1. Traditionally, a musician playing at Ashkenazy Jewish celebrations, mainly life-cycle ones such as weddings and {bar mitzvah celebrations. In this sense, the type of music being played does not matter. From Yiddish; derived from the Hebrew expression, "kley zemer", meaning, "vessels of song". Pl. "klezmorim"
2. Since the revival of traditional Ashkenazy music in the US in the 1970's, the word has been used to refer to traditional Ashkenazy (mainly secular) music.

1. Although they were poor, my grandparents had a jubilant wedding, with a band of four klezmers playing drum, clarinet, violin, and accordion.
2. For their new album, the klezmer music group researched early recordings by clarinetist David Tarras.