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Sid Beckerman, probably the closest link to the European clarinet tradition of all his contemporaries, springs from a family of accomplished professional musicians: his ancestors were klezmorim in Europe, his cousins were active in Jewish, American popular and classical music, and his renowned father Shloymke Beckerman was highly respected for his work in Jewish traditional music. Sid's repertory is one of the largest of any Jewish musician performing today. Tenor saxophonist Howie Leess has had a long and distinguished career in Jewish and American music. He studied with Sid's father, played in various big bands in the early '40s, and after the war continued to build on his fine reputation as a strong all-around reedman among traditional Jewish klezmer players, the growing Hasidic communities of post war Brooklyn. The rest of Klezmer Plus! is comprised of Pete Sokolow, piano; Ken Gross, trumpet; Tommy Abruzzo, bass; Si Salzburg, drums and Henry Sapoznik, tenor banjo.