Re: Cartoon music klezmer?

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>Several years before getting into klezmer music I was a college student
>majoring in ethnomusicology and minoring in film history. My specialty was
>American animation and had the great good fortune to watch dozens and dozens
>of early cartoons, mostly of my favorites, the work of the Flesicher
>brothers. My end term project in fact was a index of the music scores for the
>cartoons including the Betty Boops and the "Bouncing Ball" series. 
>Imagine my surprise, then that when The Klezmorim started up and I heard for
>the first time that there was klezmer music in those cartoons.I was puzzled.
>Going back to the actual films I failed to find a single example. In fact,
>locating several of the Betty Boop cartoons which featured Jewish characters
>in them (for example "Betty's Medicine Show") there was no Jewish music on
>the soundtrack --that one, for example features the playing of Ukelele Ike. 
>In fact, there IS no klezmer music in early cartoons. In an interview I did
>with master klezmer clarinetist Max Epstein he told me he had worked at the
>Flesicher studios when they were still in New York. I asked him about playing
>Yiddish music for the soundtracks and he looked at me like I was crazy. The
>myth of klezmer in cartoons is is like UFO sightings: everyone claims to have
>seen one but when it comes to conslusive proof...If there is anyone out there
>who can come up with ONE concrete example of klezmer music in animated
>cartoons, (especially the Flesichers) I will be thrilled to rewrite the
>chapter in my upcoming book on klezmer music and give them a acknowledgment
>in the credits. As to the issue of klezmer musicians not having the skill to
>play music for cartoons, try listening to the sophisticated arrangements of
>Alexander Olshanetsky of some Abe Schwartz recordings before you make such
>uninformed snap judgements. They COULD have, they just didn't...

I think Marty Schwartz' point, when he gave a lecture on the
subject several years ago, was NOT that there was actual
klezmer music in the cartoons, but that one could follow
a progression of klezmer music, through, say, some of
Kandel's pieces, and then hear it echoed in the cartoon
music. 

Having said that, it does seem fair to hear some of that
filtered back out through the playing of The Klezmorim.
Other than Itzik, however, I don't think anyone was
saying that the two were synonymous.

ari