Re: Klezmer Music (influences chart)

[Martin J. Morgenbesser <mjm...>]

 ehn (at) world(dot)std(dot)com wrote:

> There are some European Klezmer groups, but I don't know whether any of
> them have real roots in pre-WW2 Yiddish culture.

Have you heard the band Brave Old World (in particular their most recent
CD "Beyond the Pale")?  Of the groups I've heard, they seem to have the
strongest connection to pre-Holocaust Yiddish music and culture.  Yet they
are, in many respects, a modern band whose work includes original
compositions with jazz, western classical and "world music" influences.

In a sense, BOW is restoring Yiddish music to it's European context:

-with their presence in Europe,

-the teaching by Michael Alpert of the original dances which go with the
music and

-Mr. Alpert's and the band's understanding of Klezmer music and
pre-Holocaust Yiddish culture in the context of other Eastern European
traditional folk dance music and non-Yiddish culture.

The two "Buffalo on the Roof" music camps, produced in part by BOW a few
years back, also helped re-establish this context and link by relating
Klezmer to Roumanian music the first year and to Ukrainian the second.

There is also the work of Bob Cohen, currently residing in Budapest, who
has been involved in the research, revival and reconnection of "Alte
Yiddishe Tantz Musik" (a term he prefers to Klezmer) in Hungary.

Of course, the pre-Holocaust European Jewish world is gone.  BOW's CD
"Beyond the Pale" speaks of this in its notes, compositions and lyrics.
Most poignant, and at times chilling, are Michael Alpert's Yiddish lyrics
in the opening and closing pieces "Berlin Overture" and "Berlin 1990."
Just as poignant is the composition "Waltz Roman a Clef" by Stu Brotman,
with the accompanying liner note:

"Imagine the Holocaust never happened.  You're on a cruise ship on the
Danube.  Erik Satie on piano and Joseph Moskowitz on cymbalom are the
house band.  It's the last waltz of the evening..."