Kumpania Zelwer is the brainchild of composer and multi-multi-instrumentalist Jean-Marc Zelwer. Zelwer plays everything from nyckelharpa to santur to glass xylophone. His eight-piece band plays everything from washboard to toy piano to singing saw. This eclectic assortment of household appliances would yields a colorful pastiche of sound. Zelwer and company use these and more conventional weapons of mass construction such as accordion, cello, trumpet, violin, and tuba to create a sound that mixes elements of klezmer, cabaret, and street theater, with touches of Gypsy and Breton music for good measure. The band has released a CD on Harmonia Mundi, "Dassa". Web: www.zelwer.com (mostly French). Contact: Christine Declercq, BABA YAGA Records, 8 rue Adolphe Focillon, 75014 Paris. Tel: +33 1 45 40 31 31 - Fax: +33 1 45 40 32 34. Mobile: +33 6 71 08 16 22 E-mail Kumpania Zelwer. (Jean-Marc Zelwer)

I want to give you notice about my group, called Zemer. We play Jewish Music, including Klezmer, Mizrachi and Sephardi. We are six musicians (soprano sax, keyboards, bass, acoustic guitar, percussion and a singer), I play the guitar and I am the arranger. E-mail Zemer. (Mauro Perelmann).

Zemer Chai, the Jewish Community Chorus of Washington, DC, is celebrating its 30th year singing the full range of Jewish choal repertoire, including folk music from around teh world in Yiddish, Ladino, and Hebrew; as well as classical and liturgical pieces and new works composed especially for the choir. Under the incomparable leadership of founding director Eleanor Epstein (a popular leader at KlezKamp and the North American Jewish Choral Festival. Releasing our first CD this year, featuring Moishe Oysher's "Drei Dreidelah." Web: www.ZemerChai.org. E-mail Zemer Chai. (Eileen Kugler)

Zemer Ve'kinor is a klezmer Band living in Lyon, France. We play klezmer but also israeli traditional songs. Our style is marked by classic jazz. Web: zemervekinor.free.fr. E-mail Zemer Ve'Kinor. (Edmond Ghrenassia)

Zina & Federman are Zina Sinell who plays violin, and Pio Federman, who plays guitar and sings (also directs). We had performances in Germany/Berlin (for example "Hackesches Hof-Theater" etc..) and Israel. Tel: 0049 30 302 12 63 / fax: 30 122 815. Web: www.zinaundfederman.de.vu. E-mail Pio Federman. (Pio Federman)

John Zorn's Masada exists to play a body of work that the avant garde horn player feels is based on a Jewish context, and which takes those melodies into the future. The music is often good, although sometimes in concert, the band appears not to be pushing too hard. Their live recording, however, is another matter.

Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment. The word "Zoyres" comes from the Yiddish word "zoyers" which refers to "sours" - soured vegetables (like pickles and sauerkraut) that are common to Eastern European food. These foods not only cross borders, but represent organic change, ferment - somewhat akin to Zoyres' music, which has also made its way across borders and has been transformed through the filter of the band's aesthetics and culture. The music's roots are still recognizable in klezmer and Balkan music, but so is the transformation into something new (much in the same way that a pickled cucumber is visually recognizable as a cucumber, but is quite different to the taste buds). Zoyres Eastern European Wild Ferment is: Mike Perlmutter - alto and tenor saxophone; Josh Sirotiac - tuba; Olivier Hamant - clarinet and bass clarinet; Liam Staskawicz - trombone; Dave Mairs ­ drums. Web: www.monopod.net/~zoyres. E-mail Mike Perlmutter. (Mike Perlmutter)

The Zydepunks, New Orleans, LA, are New Orleans' own Cajun Irish Klezmer Slavic Zydeco band, doing traditional Klezmer instrumentals and songs in Yiddish. Write: 1020 Piety Street, New Orleans LA 70117, USA. Tel: (504) 232-9930. Web: www.zydepunks.com. E-mail The Zydepunks. (Christian Kuffner)