RE: Review of NOKAS at BU Hillel

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

Let me backtrack somewhat on something I said in my review. I just heard
a piece from a NOKAS recording called something like "Mazel Tov Dance".
In that piece they sounded more like a traditional Klezmer Band
(although they did play it way too fast for dancing, but that is easily
adjustable). Evidently they have a traditional side as well as an
avant-garde side. 

So maybe I would hire them for my kid's Bat Mitzvah after all :-)

Dick "who is still not too old to learn something" Rosenberg

>----------
>From:  Dick Rosenberg
>Sent:  Monday, November 09, 1998 9:48 AM
>To:    World music from a Jewish slant.
>Subject:       Review of NOKAS at BU Hillel
>
>I saw the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at BU Hillel Thursday night.
>Unfortunately they didn't have much of an audience, although we were
>enthusiastic. There were only 20-30 of us and half of us were local
>Klezmer musicians (which seemed to intimidate them more that it should
>have, considering how proficient they all are on their various
>instruments).
>
>They did about a 2 hour set. My take on what they did is: For what they
>do, they are a very good, high energy band, composed of very good
>musicians. The key phrase is, "For what they do". I would characterize
>their music as "Jazz-Rock based on Klezmer themes", not Klezmer music.
>They would often start off with a familiar "lead" and then individual
>musicians would solo, based on either the underlying chord changes of
>the "lead" they had played, or sometimes a repeating background using
>familiar Klezmer chords (D-Cmin for the musicians among you). Often they
>would go back to the "lead" in between solos to anchor the piece. I like
>Jazz and I like Rock and I was moved by and clapping to their music, but
>not in the same way I do to Klezmer music and not in a  way that would
>make me want to get up and dance. In some ways it reminded me of what
>Andy Statman is doing nowadays, starting from a Klezmer base and then
>going in an entirely different direction.
>
>On the way home my accordion player asked me "What did you think of
>them?" and my answer was, "Well, I thought their music was great, but I
>wouldn't really want to hire them for my kid's Bat Mitzvah". 
>
>What they did at Wesleyan, where they had a hall full of people
>seemingly dying to get up and dance rather than listen, I'm sure was
>different than what they did at BU, and I suspect that when they do play
>a New Orleans Bat Mitzvah they do it differently than when they are in
>"jazz" or "rock" mode (as, I understand, do the Klezmatics).
>
>To sum up, I think they are a great band, composed of very talented
>people, who play very lively energetic Klezmer-based but not Klezmer
>music. Just know that they are what they are, and judge them on that.
>
>Dick Rosenberg
>