Re: Cartoon music klezmer?

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>>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.

I dunno, Dan. I neither see that as having been established
in this discussion, nor understand the vehemence behind the
insistence that only those awful "Klezmorim" would be so
gauche as to see a connection between klez of that age
and the wonderful stuff that was happening behind the
scenes in cartoon soundtracks.

I would still maintain that I hear cartoon effects in 
Harvey Kandel's recordings, and I'm not sure why no
klezmer would have written or been involved with cartoon
music. I'm not even sure why it matters given what we
know about criss-crossing influences, then as now. To
me, this begins to sound like the argument about Jews
playing gypsy music and vice versa and how could that
possibly be? But we know that it was, and I'm not sure
what that knowledge changes.

There are many reasons to criticize what the Klezmorim
were doing, and criticizing them for =focusing= on this
style might be one, but I don't know that there are 
grounds for anything harsher.

ari


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