Re: somewhat pure klezmer

[Eric Goldberg <ericgoldie...>]

>On Wed, ^ Aug 1997 22:23:10 -0400 (EDT), Seth Rogovoy wrote:
>
>On Wed, 6 Aug 1997, Eric Goldberg wrote:
>
>>
>> There are a few bluegrassish jewish recordings although each music is best
>> when it is presented somewhat in a pure state.

>Seth wrote:
>Really Eric, you didn't mean this, did you? ;-)
>
>talk about your can of worms.....
>
>you want to define "a pure state" of either type of music? or any music,
>for that matter?
>
>--Seth
>________________
>
Itzik-Leyb Volokh (Jeffrey Wollock) wrote:

>Seth, if klezmer were not generally played "somewhat in a pure state,"
>well, it wouldn't be klezmer, would it?

I could not have stated the argument better then Itzik Leyb did in his much
longer comments. Personally I have no problem with people adapting
different musics to their own mode of expression. In example the Cuban
group Irakere made a recording of the Mozart clarinet concerto slow
movement played by Paquito d'Rivera on the soprano sax. It shows great
respect for the music even though it gets into a rock groove. And Paquito
sounds great, BUT it is not the Mozart Clarinet Concerto as played by ANY
clarinet student or player of classical music.

In the same way, I have questions whether much of Giora Fiedman's work is
klezmer music or a unique artist's perspective on the music.

I wish that I heard more exploration and less tribute from some of the
klezmer bands, and I know that several of the members of this list belong
to groups that do this to varying degrees. I don't hear the kind of growth
exemplified by just one example from jazz, that being the change from
Charlie Parker to Lee Konitz and Eric Dolphy.

So that none of you think that this is off topic (Jewish music) it is just
easier to see the issue from the viewpoint of other musics rather than
klezmer.

Itzik-Leyb also wrote

The entire phenomenon of baroque music is
>circumscribed by certain stylistic traits, and even though there are
>transitional styles and we can't mark absolute boundaries, baroque music
>is a definite style and everybody accepts that.

I believe that the return to 'correct' baroque practices after the excesses
of people like Stokowski, is  interesting in that it is mirrored in the
klezmer world. Musicologists view of how things 'really were' in the past
often impose a rigidity that was not present when the music was new.

Of course ultimately we must deal with Duke Ellington's assertion that
there are only two kinds of music......good and bad.

Shalom
Eric Goldberg