“This is new New Orleans party music, y’all!” It is a bright, cold afternoon, but the WWOZ studio is quickly heating up during an on-air performance by the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars. The eight-piece band is launching into a Yiddish tune called “Bubba Tantz” (“Grandmother Dance”), featuring a funky march tempo, wailing horns and a chorus that goes “Waa-waa-waa-waa.”

What the radio audience can’t see is band member Arthur Kastler dancing around his stand-up bass, seemingly oblivious to th...