Oi Va Voi live review: A homecoming concert with the feel of a north London Jewish wedding ★★★★

In the quarter century since they started, Oi Va Voi have had more line-up changes than most football teams. Big talents like KT Tunstall, Earl Zinger, Sophie Solomon, Nik Amar, Anna Phoebe and Bridgette Amofah have passed through their ranks, along with dozens of guest musicians from around the world, from Hungary to Uzbekistan, Turkey to Armenia.

While facing boycotts from BDS activists in the UK, they have remained a popular fixture on the festival circuit around the world, particularly in Turkey. This might seem unlikely for an avowedly London Jewish outfit, but their music has always made explicit links with music from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and beyond, always placing ancient musical traditions through a contemporary filter.

The current incarnation features two founder members – clarinet virtuoso Steve Levi-Kallin and drummer Josh Breslaw – who have successfully injected young blood into Oi Va Voi over the years with a series of new recruits. One is violinist Nadine Galea, who stands on the opposite side of the stage from Levi-Kallin tonight, the two anchoring Oi Va Voi’s modern dance music in traditional styles that appeal to our primal emotions.

Both play florid klezmer flourishes that imitate the sighing, sobbing, chuckling contours of the human voice, but these are constantly set against appealingly disparate influences: the growling John Barry guitar riffs of John Matts; the windswept Ennio Morricone-style desert trumpet fanfares of David Orchant; and the soulful vocals of the band’s Tel Aviv-born singer Zohara Niddam, whose flowery sundress and high hairdo seems like a nod to Amy Winehouse.