Re: Cartoon music klezmer?

[Dan Peck <danpeck...>]

>
>
>I think the mystery has now been sufficiently explained. It appears that many
>people have been under the impression that there is some connection between
>klezmer and cartoon music. There is reason to suspect that this impression
>was deliberately fostered by the Klezmorim in the late 70s, or the line
>between fact and fiction was somehow blurred.

I think it's more than "reason to suspect". I saw them in 1981 and a goodly
portion of the show was devoted to a sequence that began with a definitive
statement about klezmorim writing music for cartoons leading into a lengthy
stage bit.

It's pretty clear that their "history" had more to do with establishing the
shtik than with reality. The line was not blurred. It was bulldozed.


>The only connection between klezmer music and cartoon music is in the
>shtick of the Klezmorim themselves. But I suspect they got that idea from
>their illustrious predecessor, Mickey Katz. Only in the days of Mickey
>Katz, people got the joke. Personally, I love sendups and lampoons. But
>it becomes another issue when the sendup is believed to be the real thing
>and actually replaces it.

Well put. The difference between Mickey Katz and the Klezmorim is that
Mickey wasn't selling his shtik as scholarship to impress clueless
audiences.


Dan Peck                                       Milesquare Associates
danpeck (at) panix(dot)com                              Living Traditions
http://www.panix.com/~danpeck/ma.html
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