Re: greetings from oz

[the Cheshire Cat <alanacat...>]

On Thu, 19 Sep 1996, Fred Jacobowitz wrote:

> Seth,
>       I think you have fallen into the trap many people do, of believing 
> that Klezmer is a mongrel art form, just as many people still mistakenly 
> believe that Yiddish is nothing more than debased German. While there may 
> goes". Klezmer music has its own specific, idiosyncratic rules and 
> traditions. And they can be quite specific. No, you can't just throw any 
> old thing into the mix and say, "look, it's still Klezmer", assuming that 
> "anything goes". You may call it "something new" but don't call it 
> Klezmer. A tangerine is NOT an orange.
> 

On my radio show, I play Jewish music from Eastern Europe, Sephardic style
and Mizrachi style. And American Style. What the heck do I call it?
Klezmer. Not because it's klezmer in the usual sense, but because I need a
title for my radio show, and including all that other stuff is too long.
Also because "Keley zemer" -musical instrument- doesn't seem to me to be
limited to just Eastern Europe. Sure. there are specific rules about what
makes something klezmer, but I gotta tell ya', most people who play
klezmer aren't playing klezmer. For example, traditional klezmer doesn't
have any percussion. Does that stop all the American klezmer bands from
throwing some in, even on the traditional tunes? No, no more than not
having brass instruments stopped Lt. Frankel from using brass instruments. 
How about lyrics? I know of approximately three "klezmer bands" that don't
use songs with lyrics.  But traditional klezmer doesn't have vocals
(except for a few hoots and whoops). Most of those songs with vocals are
from the American Yiddish theatre. A few are folk songs (which are *not*
the same as klezmer, if we're going to be technical). But in any case,
none are klezmer.
        For that matter, what about the substitution of the xylophone for
the stroyfidl? The stroyfidl apparently didn't sound so hot on recordings,
but the xylophone worked beautifully. I could go on, but I think most
people get the point
        On the other hand, if we simply say any music made by Jews is
klezmer, we're going to lose what makes klezmer special. I don't want to
canonize already existing klezmer music, and say that no one can add to
it, that's a sure trip to the graveyard, but at the same time, there are
things that clearly demarcate what is klezmer and what isn't -right now-
klezmer is a blend of folk music from lots of different places, that's why
we have turkishes (which aren't especially turkish) together with shers,
gypsy music, and folk from the Balkans to the way far reaches of the East
europe. 
        Probably klezmer is in the stage of being revived. Two of my
favorite groups are those which have mixed klezmer with African/mizrachi
or with Sephardic traditional tunes, or sounds or instruments. The
combination is thrilling,a nd I think I would be willing to call it
klezmer. Likewise a group in the deep south of the US of A which plays
traditional (and new) klezmer material with an electric bass and a driving
funk beat. It's phenominal, and you know what? It's definitely klezmer
-traditional klezmer electrified. I asw them perform once -they had a host
of Deadhead spinners dancing off to the side  of the stage. That was
something.

Alana Suskin