Re: Budowitz = avant garde?

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

Gyorgy,

>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.

This is quite an interesting message, and it gets quite radical.
I say this because it is generally lamented that Muzikas did =not=
in fact, get good advice in how to inflect the music on their 
wonderful album, and consequently, put out an album of songs of
Jewish origin done in non-Jewish Transylvanian styles. In that
sense, yes, considering that to be authentic Jewish music does
take us very far over the edge away from any current norms of
klezmer. This problem, in fact, is one reason why I have yet to
write up a review of this particular album--I love the music,
and love watching and listening to Muzikas perform it when I
have seen them on tour. But it just doesn't happen to be Jewish
music performed in a Jewish style.

I would take issue with many aspects of what you write, in particular,
there is nothing about Budowitz in particular that resembles American
klezmer, except in some of the repertoire. For instance, American
klezmer is very much characterized by use of the trap drum and a 
relatively regular rhythm. This is absolutely not the case on the
Budowitz material. 

What =is= true, and perhaps unfortunately, is the way that the
material on the Budowitz album is arranged "song" "song" "song"
instead of in the medley fashion presented on the Di Naye Kapelye
album. This latter more closely represents how the music was
played at actual simkhas (although, had Budowitz adopted that
approach, there were have been considerable difficulty in 
highlighting and explaining the specific styles and songs).

But, in all events, thanks for raising the question!

ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
http://www.ivritype.com/