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It's Hammer Time.

Maccabees, miracles, light in the darkness: Chanukah. Time for lighting the menorah, spinning the dreidel, eating potato latkes and, maybe, feeling a little bit out of the loop while all that Christmas music swirls through the air. That last part is about to change, with a full bill of Chanukah songs at Strathmore on Saturday night.

It has been the Festival of Lights for, oh, about 2,200 years now, since the Maccabee brothers led the Jews to defeat the Hellenist Syrians and reclaim and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem. And this Saturday at Strathmore, it shakes out with music and merriment, and a fundraiser to benefit Hungry for Music, the charity that puts musical instruments into the hands of needy kids that crave them.

"I was pretty fortunate," notes Seth Kibel, a tenor saxophonist who performs with the Alexandria Kleztet. "I grew up not wanting for the basic necessities of life and music."

But Kibel knows that many children who want to learn to play music just don't have the opportunity — particularly during tough economic times.

"Hungry for Music is really filling a void," he says. "There's a critical need for musical education, especially in the inner city, and so many programs are being cut back."

So what exactly is Hungry For Music? Kibel calls it "this wonderful D.C.-based charity that supports different ways of providing instruments and music programs for underprivileged and underserved populations."

Founder-director Jeff Campbell says, "It's real simple: We provide musical instruments for kids whose parents can't afford them.

"Horns, brass instruments, violins, guitars — you name it."

Sometimes they clean up and refurbish old instruments that are donated; sometimes they purchase new instruments for deserving young musicians. Always they use music to raise the money it takes to make music.

"We raise money through concerts like this," says Campbell, a sportswriter when not advocating for Hungry For Music. He started the group as a George Washington University student in the wake of a successful concert he organized to benefit the homeless.

"In 1994, we became a 501c3 non-profit," he says proudly. "And [Strathmore's director of programming] Shelley Brown approached us to do a summer concert series… They've held musical instrument drives for us, raised money and [provided] instruments.

"It's been a fantastic relationship."

Literary latkes

Campbell's relationship with Mikhail Horowitz was always about baseball.

"I met him at the American Society of Baseball Writers convention," says Horowitz. "Jeff Campbell — the inspiration, the driving force behind Hungry for Music — he's a big baseball fan."

Horowitz, an editor who moonlights as a comedian-musician- performer, had catapulted onto the winding path to show business after a sixth grade talent show recitation of "Casey at the Bat" got him "all this attention — the good kind!

"I kind of got hooked," he says. He's part of the group Grown Men with Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine; their duet "Hebrew Blues" is the standout cut on "A Chanukah Feast," the first of two CDs that benefit Hungry for Music. It's a different kind of Chanukah song, a departure from "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel" and other ho-hum holiday tunes. It's funny — and it brings together blues, vaudeville, tradition and a bit of satire.

"We're going to be comic relief," says Horowitz. "Gilles can pretty much play anything with strings. I can play blues harmonica, recorder. I can sing — and I play a very mean kazoo.

"We do a lot of stuff based on literary sources: hip-hop ‘Heart of Darkness,' ‘Waiting for Godot,' ‘Beowulf,' ‘Alice in Wonderland,' ‘MacBeth,' etc., etc."

Like them, "Hebrew Blues" is about telling a familiar story in a surprising new way. Horowitz says he can relate to Christian gospel music because "I find it beautiful and moving.

"Do I believe? No. But I have so much respect for the art form.

"I hate saccharine sappy Christmas music," he adds, "and I hate saccharine sappy Chanukah music."

So he and Mallkine jazz up the arrangement, add zingers to the storylines and don't stint on what's topical or political. And they make sure that, first and foremost, it's all about the music.

"One of the things about the bands on this bill," he says. "They're killer musicians."

And diverse. The Chanukah feast will include performances by Grown Men and the Alexandria Kleztet plus the Robyn Helzner Trio, The Sinai Mountain Boys, Klezcentricity and Marc Glickman. Horowitz says it's a fitting reflection of the diversity of the Jewish community.

As for Chanukah itself, Horowitz admits it isn't the most important festival on the Jewish calendar.

"It's a minor holiday, that's true," he says. "But it's one of the most festive holidays, an occasion that calls for celebration and music — and comedy as well."

Strathmore presents A Chanukah Feast in Concert to benefit Hungry For Music at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. Tickets are $21. Call 301-581-5100 or visit www.strathmore.org.