This year, we were extremely lucky to have The Klezmatics perform as the headline band. This popular New York based Klezmer band, which has been around since the 1980s, pioneered fusions of Klezmer with other music styles including Jazz, African, Gospel and Middle Eastern music. At Simcha on the Square, their set included tracks from their Grammy Award Winning album, WonderWheel, which featured their compositions for Woody Guthrie poems. Tracks such as Im Gonna Get Through This World show how easily Klezmer can be fused with pop-folk music, adding something really special to both genres.

Another kind of fusion music was demonstrated during Simcha by The Max Pashm Band, who specialise in fusions of Balkan, Klezmer and dance music. During their crowd pleasing set, they pulled together trendy club dance rhythms, arrangements and vocals laced with untamed Jewish clarinet samples and Klezmer riffs. Band leader Max Pashm estimates that about a third of the band's music is Jewish and describes the Jewish element as "the glue that binds the rest of the sound together". The band played several tracks from their recently released album Never Mind the Balkans including tracks Klezmernaki and Anarchy which even features Yiddish Vocals. Max's vocals are completely unorthodox, part rap and part circus master, and exude a very theatrical quality giving a sense of lightness and humour to the music. . Being the proud product of a Sephardi-Ashkenazi marriage Pashm insists that he wants to continue exploring his Jewish roots in his music and now intends to focus more on his Sephardi roots. The band's unusual sound is currently attracting a lot of attention from the Jewish press, so keep your eye out for a Pashm experience near you.

Young 17 year old singer Lauren Rose, who also performed during the gorgeous afternoon of music at Simcha on the Square, confirmed that popular Jewish songs can easily cross over into the mainstream world with her pop versions of popular Jewish songs. Her hit single Hava nagila (Baby Lets Dance) nearly made it to the Christmas number 1 slot in 2007. Other cross-over titles include Aveinu Shalom Aleichem ('Cos of you) and Oseh Shalom Aleichem (In A Childs Eye). The young singer was introduced to Jewish Music from her Grandfather, Norman Goldberg who is a big fan of Jewish music. Needless to say, the proud Grandfather came to Trafalgar Square to witness Lauren's performance and was apparently very tearful! With her next project working with the infamous Ministry of Sound, lets hope she can cling onto her Jewish music roots and take them to new musical heights.

The Klezmatics

Avivit Caspi

Eugenia Georgieva from the Max Pashm Band

Lauren Rose

Young people in the Square