The Odessa Klezmer Band was formed in 1998 by well-known figures of Hungarian folk-, world-, jazz and rock music. They discovered the folk music of Eastern-European Jews in the course of their work, - partly while collecting folk music in the Carpathian Basin, and partly while composing music for films, theatre and dance performances. As musicians, they were stunned by the beauty of the tunes, the uniqueness of performance, and by the peculiar instrumental ornamentation, which has a characteristic atmosphere - sometimes bitter, sometimes humorous and joking, or, at times, even ironic. They were also impressed by the ability with which the Jewish village performers could transform the music motifs of the people living beside them into their world of musical images, and last but not least by the playful and sometimes meditative improvisational skill which is manifest in their performance.