Re: somewhat pure klezmer

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

>Date: Fri, 08 Aug 1997 12:03:06
>To: ericgoldie (at) mhv(dot)net (Eric Goldberg) 
>From: Owen Davidson <owend (at) crocker(dot)com>
>Subject: Re: somewhat pure klezmer
>Cc: 
>
>At 09:27 AM 8/8/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>>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.
>
>Comment:  A distinction should be made between the old-time mountain banjo
that Henry (Sapoznik) plays, which is a true oral-tradition folk style (thus
as much of interest to folklorists as is early klezmer music), and
"bluegrass," which is a synthesized form of popular commercial music,
created by one single genius and spread widely thanks to recording and
broadcast media.  The former places the musician in the role of transmitter
of a musical force larger than any single person.  The latter makes the
music subservient to the artist's personal expression and ultimately results
in a cult of personality.
>
>Owen  
>
>>>
>>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.
>
>This reinterpretation of classical pieces, in itself, represents a "folk
tradition" of sorts.  To quote Dick Spottswood in the notes to his album
"Calypso Breakaway"  (Rounder CD 1054, cut 12: "Violets"-Venezuelan waltz by
Lionel Belasco's Orchestra):  "Chopin's waltz in C# minor is the second
strain. In Cuba, the danzon also incorporates familiar melodies into new
compositions." I've heard that same Chopin piece played quite beautifully
(and "seriously") by a Trinidadian steel-pan player in Washington Square
park!  In the same way, professional Jewish and Gypsy musicians in eastern
Europe included popular classical pieces in their repertoires, as well as
other popular music.  It is not so much a blurring of distinctions as an
absence of them.  Surely the musicians in question knew that some music was
considered more "serious" than other music, but there was an emphasis on the
utilitarian aspect of the art: "give the people what they want."  As another
example of cultural cross-over, the Calypso compilation mentioned above also
includes a very strange version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen" (sic).
>
>
>
>
Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.

I look into its glowing screen 
And see the Adversary,
And know that it, could it see me,
Would see the Beast all hairy.