In February 1994 the members came together for the first time. They started out playing Jewish traditional music, but with their own style and flavour. The name comes out of a song: ‘Ot Azoj, Git Azoj’, which means: ‘That’s how it is and it’s okay that way’. The band, consisting of clarinet, saxophone, violin, accordion and tuba, was well received in the Dutch klezmer scene.One year later percussion completed the band with instruments like the tapan and darabuka. Today, the members of Ot Azoj add a different variety of instruments from the Middle East to achieve a wider range of sounds.Ot Azoj loves to play on any occasion and in the most peculiar places. Performing on the street in Amsterdam, as well as Berlin, London, Krakow or Buenos Aires. They can play at a wedding at the Hilton Hotel, as well as on an intimate birthday party for someone who turned eighty.In 2004, when the band celebrated their 10th anniversary, they organized a concert with many guest-artists in a sold-out Paradiso in Amsterdam. One of the artists performing was the Klezmerband Di Gojim. Together with this band, Ot Azoj forms the 11-piece orchestra ‘The Dutch Klezmerband’.Ot Azoj toured abroad for the first time in 1997, visiting London and Berlin. It got them regular invitations to play the Hackesches Hof Theater and the Labsaal in Berlin, as well as Hamburg and Chemnitz. They attended the large klezmer festival in Krakow, and in 2004 they performed at the prestigious Yiddish festival Ashkenaz in Toronto, Canada. In February 2006 Ot Azoj was invited by the Dutch embassy of Guatemala for a small tour, with a key performance at the opening of an Anne Frank exhibition in Guatemala City, and in September 2008 they were invited to be the main act of the first annual klezmer festival KLEZFIESTA in Buenos Aires/Argentina.--------------------------------------------
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-----------------------Images from KLEZFIESTA, LIVE IN BUENOS AIRES
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