The Jerusalem Taverners band got together as a group for a first time in 1976.
The band was named after the pub where they met and started playing together as a jam session every Thursday night, "THE TAVERN" in Rivlin Street, Jerusalem. As UN officers visited the pub and saw the few musicians playing together they invited them for a concert in the UN headquarters in Armon Hanatziv, Jerusalem , and the rest is history.
The band had quite of few members throughout the years, and finally disbanded in 2003 as a result of multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Miller and Banjo player Dr. David Deckelbaum leaving Israel.
The Taverners were a major attraction of the biggest and most important folk festival in Israel, "Jacob's Ladder" and played there many years.
The band played many years at the "Yacht Pub" in the "King Solomon" in Eilat and broke any known records of number of people who attended the shows there and the alcohol sales of these nights. This venue was considered to be the top one in Eilat, and possibly in the whole state of Israel.
The band played throughout the years at almost all of the Kibbutzum and "moshavim" in Israel, all of the official major festival as well as the fringe festivals, and performed at almost all of the major venues in Israel and also on board of Mediteranean cruise ships to Turkey.
The Taverners as a band and some of its members played with many well known artists, like Andy Statman, Larry Adler, Shlomo Karlibach, Suzy Miller, Tom Paxton, Shuly Natan, Nechama Hendel, Beni Amdurski, Israel Gurion, Mati Kaspi, Igal Bashan and many others.
Among the others, the band hosted frequently the son of Dr. David Deckelbaum, Ron, who was a banjo player and live in the USA now and considered to be an excellent banjo player over there, and David's daughter, Yael Deckelbaum, who lives in Israel and is considered one of the best singers/songwriters/performers in Israel nowadays.
In 1981 the band members participated as musicians and actors in the famous TV movie "Red River Valley" where the most popular Israeli singers sand popular American Country songs translated to Hebrew accompanied by the band members who also played the music for the square dance session which was a part of the movie.
A Jerusalem Taverners reunion tour is scheduled to take place between May 1st and 9th 2007 while the big reunion concerts will be at Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival in Ginosar near the sea of Gallillee, May 4th and 5th. Details can be found at http://www.jlfestival.com .
Discography
The Jerusalem Taverners - The First Decade - (1987) (with Ruby Harris) recorded in Jerusalem
The Taverners - Up Yours (1990)
The Jerusalem Taverners bootleg - (1992), recorded live in Pargod, Jerusalem
Songs From The Barrel (in Hebrew) (1992)
