Re: Klezmer Clarinet

[Sherry Mayrent <oyfpro...>]

At 11:45 PM 1/20/98 -0500, PETE RUSHEFSKY wrote:

>Just coming off listening to the new Joel Rubin album, I'd be interested in
>a discussion of the work of clarinet players in the klezmer scene
>(Bjorling, Rubin, Krakauer, Stahl, etc.).  We could also talk about the
>older generation (Max Epstein, Sid Beckerman, Ray Muziker).  

It seems to me (if a lowly clarinetist may be permitted a word here) that
the discussion has strayed very far afield from what Pete originally
brought up.  He asked for a discussion of the various styles of different
players, and what ended up taking place was a discussion about which
instrument "deserved" to have the place of honor, as it were, in klezmer
ensembles.  This is an interesting question, and has brought up other
interesting questions, but it isn't what Pete was talking about.

It may be that that would be a very difficult issue to discuss in this
list, because taste is so entirely personal and idiosyncratic, and many of
the players or their colleagues are members of this group.  I personally
would be a bit timid about voicing my own views of the relative merits of
anybody here.  There is also the difficulty of distinguishing between a
good musician and a good representative of Yiddish style -- the recent
discussion of klezmer flute players is a good case in point, since to my
ears, most of those mentioned are outstanding musicians but don't know from
traditional style.  

However, what I think is most important about this kind of question is that
it brings to the fore the idea that there are, in fact, a zillion different
klezmer "styles" -- not just jazzy or traditional.  This seems to me to be
an essential principle that most of the world is unaware of -- which is why
so many folks seem to feel that if you've heard one klezmer group you've
heard them all, or why they believe that there's really only one universal
klezmer band to which we all belong....

Perhaps a less inflammatory way of discussing the stylistic differences
that Pete brought up would be to focus, at least to start, on our
predecessors and discuss what distinguishes them from each other and how
they achieve what they do.


Sherry Mayrent
Wholesale Klezmer Band
www.crocker.com/~ganeydn