David Krakauer

[Seth Rogovoy <rogovoy...>]

Here's an article I've written for publication in the Berkshire Eagle on 
Aug. 22, 1996. Keep in mind that it's geared toward the readership of a 
general daily newspaper, and not the sophisticated connoisseurs of Jewish 
music that typically read this list. ;-)  But I thought it might be of some 
interest to y'all, anyway.

POPCORNER

Aug. 22, 1996

David Krakauer Makes Old-world Klezmer New

by Seth Rogovoy

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Aug. 22, 1996 --Klezmer is typically 
regarded as an Eastern European-derived, Jewish party music from 
the 19th and early 20th-century, played by traveling musicians at 
weddings and other joyful occasions and featuring fiddle, 
clarinet, accordion and horns. For the most part, klezmer has 
remained an ethnic music, only occasionally surfacing in more 
popular arenas, most notably in the klezmer-like opening bars of 
George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue," in the klezmer-like tones 
of jazz clarinetists Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Ziggy Elman, 
and through the gauzy, musical filter of Broadway's "Fiddler On 
the Roof." 

But over the last two decades or so, there has been a revival of 
interest in klezmer music, with repertory bands, most notably the 
Klezmer Conservatory Band and the Klezmorim, sprouting up around 
the country. Interest in klezmer has perhaps peaked this summer 
with "In the Fiddler's House," the album and tour of summer sheds 
by violinist Itzhak Perlman and several well-known klezmer 
groups, including Brave Old World, the Klezmer Conservatory Band 
and the Klezmatics.  

Perhaps the most exciting trend in klezmer is the innovative use 
of the tradition by some downtown jazz artists who don't approach 
it as a fossilized object of ethnomusicological interest but as a 
living form worthy of updating and experimentation. Up until now, 
the most notable exponents of the new klezmer have been the 
Klezmatics and John Zorn. The former takes traditional klezmer 
and tweaks it a bit, making it sound more contemporary by adding 
rock, hip-hop and jazz influences. Zorn, perhaps the spiritual 
leader of this movement, sometimes called Radical Jewish Culture, 
is an avant-garde saxophonist whose group, Masada, combines 
Jewish and klezmer-like themes with Ornette Coleman-style 
harmolodics for a kind of fusion of klezmer and free jazz.  

With the release of "Klezmer Madness" on Zorn's record label, 
Tzadik, clarinetist David Krakauer, a former member of the 
Klezmatics, stakes his claim as a leading performer and innovator 
in the new-klezmer movement. On "Klezmer Madness," Krakauer 
combines traditional klezmer forms with a variety of jazz and 
funk influences to come up with a unique fusion full of wit, 
personality and the sort of sophistication one would expect from 
a musician whose background includes stints with the Philadelphia 
Orchestra, New York Philomusica, Music From Marlboro and various 
other chamber music groups.  

Krakauer will be bringing his trio, including accordionist Ted 
Reichman and percussionist John Hollenbeck, to St. James Church 
on Main Street in Great Barrington on Tuesday, April 27 at 7, in 
a concert sponsored by Congregation Ahavath Sholom. Tickets are 
$17 in advance and $20 at the door and can be reserved by calling 
(413) 528-4197. Children under 12 are free.  

Although Krakauer is Jewish and was raised in a very musical 
home, he never heard klezmer music while growing up. "The only 
Jewish tune I heard was `Hava Nagilah,'" said Krakauer in a 
phone interview from his apartment in New York City. "I didn't 
grow up with any Chanukah songs or any Israeli songs. I basically 
grew up listening to Schnabel playing the late Beethoven piano 
sonatas, and when I was eleven Sidney Bechet." 

Yet when he finally began learning and playing klezmer music 
about 10 years ago, it was as if he had been hearing it all his 
life. "As soon as I started to play klezmer music, I had the 
feeling that I knew it very well," he said. "Somehow there was 
this incredible recognition, and I had to conclude that what I 
was hearing in the music was the sound and the inflection of my 
grandmother's very heavily, Yiddish-tinged English.  

"I realized that klezmer music was the Yiddish language in music, 
and I felt in a certain way that I had found a kind of musical 
home." 

Discovering klezmer after years of playing primarily classical 
music in chamber ensembles opened up doors for Krakauer that had 
long been shut. "I had given up on my jazz playing when I was in 
my early twenties to concentrate on my classical career," said 
Krakauer, who has recorded for the Nonesuch, Eva, Opus One and 
CRI labels. "But when I got into klezmer, it was a kind of 
lubricant, leading me back to improvising and composing." 

In addition, playing freestyle klezmer, which he approaches much 
as a jazz musician approaches a standard -- paying homage to the 
melody and form but using it as a launching pad for his own ideas 
and experiments -- allowed Krakauer to make use of the various 
clarinet techniques he had been experimenting with.  

"A lot of my compositions are based on exploring the 
possibilities of the clarinet, such as circular breathing, 
multiphonics, different fingerings, crazy stuff with the overtone 
series on the instrument, the natural overtones, and then putting 
all these experiments into klezmer," said Krakauer.  

The result is a dazzling, soulful, provocative music that 
combines the melancholy sonorities of traditional klezmer, the 
influences of jazz greats like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, 
and a thoroughly contemporary sensibility.  

"To find a music that can stretch back to my heritage, my 
lineage, my grandmother's generation, to the language of my 
ancestors, this for me was somehow very important," said 
Krakauer, who has given numerous solo appearances and residency 
workshops throughout the U.S. under the auspices of the Affiliate 
Artists program and the Concert Artists Guild.  "And then to take 
it and to work with it and improvise with it, I think that that 
was a way for me to connect up a lot of elements of what I was 
trying to do." 

Krakauer is on the clarinet and chamber music faculties of the 
Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music. He has 
composed works for Newband, Goliard, the AIDS Quilt Songbook and 
his own improvisational/theatrical solo performances. This fall 
Krakauer will perform with the Kronos Quartet, with whom he will 
appear on an upcoming recording.More information is available on 
the David Krakauer home page on the World Wide Web at 
http://www.trilliumproductions.com/dkhp.htm.  

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Aug. 
22, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]


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Seth Rogovoy                        
rogovoy (at) berkshire(dot)net
http://www.berkshireweb.com/rogovoy
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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