Re: Jewish music

[Ari Davidow <jmusic...>]

>I do not think that Klezmer is inherently Jewish.
>Recently I came across some Turkish music....

Oh, but there there is a difference (if only in my mind) between
sharing sounds with all of the cultures around us, and being able
to describe it as "Jewish" music. No music exists in a vacuum.
Certainly, I was set up to love Klez by an earlier love for music of the
Balkans and Arabic music. And I have a wonderful recording from Yugoslavia
of a band playing a song that sounds exactly like "Schneider-Zwiefacher"
on the first Klezamatics album.

Certainly, Jewish wedding tunes reflect the world geographic regions
from which our recent ancestors came. Yiddish theatre music and Yiddish
flk song (or Ladino folkson as performed by groups such as Alhambra)
might be closer to pure ethnic roots, but it all spills up and spills over.
I like both aspects--I like the "kvetch" (as Miriam Dvorin would describe
it) that makes some songs uniquely Jewish, and I like the way it reminds
me how much I have in common with people from all over the world.

ari "rose-colored glasses" davidow
jmusic (at) israel(dot)nysernet(dot)org

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