Budowitz = avant garde?

[Gyorgy Sajo <sajo...>]

Dear Avi,

Since nobody really reacted on your call on discussing Budowitz and 
klezmer avant garde, I would like to come up with some remarks on the 
issue, that hopefully will make some things clearer.

Let me start with my point: I definitely do not think, that the new CD 
from Budowitz is either "mind-blowing", or avant garde, neither is it 
"19. century klezmer sound". It is a fusion of Central/Eastern European 
folk music and (American) klezmer, and in this regard it does not differ 
much from many of todays American klezmer music with its Jewish/jazz 
fusion style. And their record is not the first of that kind, too.

To begin with, I must admit that I did NOT listened to the whole CD - as 
I do not have it yet -, so my remarks are solely based on the four audio 
clips heard on your klezmer page. But I must tell you, that the style and 
the sound is quiet familiar to me: from the CD of the Hungarian folk band 
Muzsikas, with the title "The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania" (in 
Hungary produced under the title "Szol a kakas mar: Hungarian Jewish Folk 
Music."). Since this CD is one of the few on your list which you have not 
reviewed yet - have you listened to it? -, I must say a few words about it.

Muzsikas, who basically plays Hungarian folk music, became interested in
Jewish folk music played in Hungary before the war in the late eighties. 
Their primary source were Jewish tunes from the collection of the music
etnographer Zoltan Simon, who collected them shortly after the war in
Maramures, Rumania (before the war: Maramaros, Hungary). He recorded only
the melodies in writing, but he could still remember the tempo and the
rhythm of the accompaniment. According to him, they were played in the
same way like the local Hungarian folk music. He encouraged the members of
Muzsikas to start field works for finding more surviving materials in the
area. 

On their field work in Rumenia Muzsikas have met two excellent gipsy 
musicians, who were used to play regularly for local Jews before the war. 
They had a considerable repertoire of Jewish melodies and dance tunes, which 
Muzsikas has learned from them, and which they used to perform in the 
same way like the local - Hungarian and Rumanian - folk music.

Following their field work, Muzsikas has produced a record in 1992, where 
they play together with four Rumaian gipsy musicians; they play mostly 
the tunes learned from them, but there are also melodies from Simon's 
collection.

The style of their performance is most resembling Hungarian and Rumanian 
folk music: both the instruments, the rhythm and the harmonies. Actually 
it is hard to decide whether one should call it "authentic" Hungarian 
Jewish music, or it is simply Hungarian folk music with some melodies of 
Jewish origin or with just a strain of "orientalism". Although I wished 
it was the first, I tend to believe the latter. Even scholars of this 
field have completely different opinions about it: Avigdor Herzog, the 
founder and director of the Phonotheca in Jerusalem claims that it is not 
at all Jewish music, while Judit Frigyesi (University of Princeton, New 
Jersey) believes that this compilation gives the proof of the existence 
of a particular form of Jewish folk music in Hungary, that borrowed 
considerably in style and form from the local folk music.

Since we do not have any other evidence (recordings, notes, collections)
about this (or any other) kind of Jewish folk music from pre-war time
Hungary, and there has not been - of obvious reasons - any continuity of
that kind of music in the last fifty years, it is hard to judge who is
right.  My point is, however, that Budowitz does not come up with
something completely new, avant garde innovation of klezmer, but they goes
the same way like Muzsikas did: they have made field work, collecting
surviving materials, and perform it - together with other klezmer melodies
- in the style of Hungarian/Rumanian folk music. Or, if you want, in the
same style Muzsikas used to play their "Hungarian Jewish folk music". I
just can not see any particular "19. century klezmer" in it. (If anything,
so "The Bessarabian Symphony" might be a reviving of that "19. century
klezmer sound".) Even the "19. century tzimbal" is a Hungarian/Rumanian
folk instrument ("cimbalom") commonly known and used until this very day. 

The link with Muzsikas is quiet clear from the choice of the first track 
on the CD: Cili Schwartz, who sings the beautiful melody, is one of the 
last (Hungarian) Jews living in Maramures - at the very place Muzsikas 
made their field work!

The only difference I could hear between the two records - judging out of 
the four samples of Budowitz -, that Budowitz biases more towards the 
well-known American klezmer-sound and klezmer-melodies, while Muzsikas 
has the weight on the traditional Hungarian folk sound. As about the 
former, I agree, that this mixture of American klezmer and 
Eastern European folk music could sound very exotic and avant garde - if 
you are not familiar with (at least) one of the components. Otherwise it 
is essentially not very different from much of the klezmer played in the 
US.

Finally, I want to make it clear: my purpose was and is NOT to degrade 
the efforts and the musical qualities of Budowitz - I think I can agree 
with Ari that this is one of the most exciting things that happends in 
Jewish folk music (I don't want to call it just klezmer, as it is 
more), and my favorite of all klezmer music is clearly the "The 
Bessarabian Symphony" with the same Joshua Horowitz. All what I whished 
was to put some things to their more proper place.

Any comments?

Gyorgy Sajo
sajo (at) dorit(dot)ih(dot)ku(dot)dk