RE: Kol Simcha in U.S.

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

Dick,

>Having said that about Kenny G, I don't hear that mindless 
>synthesization at all in the music of Kol Simcha. It seems to have 
>movement, rhythm, soul, Yiddishkeit, but again in a non-raucous way. 
>(The Klezmorim were also fairly non-raucous in their recordings from 
>the 70s).  I respect your opinion so I am wondering where the disjoint 
>exists. Is it possible that the clips were not really representative 
>what Kol Simcha does? Would it be feasible, without doing anything 
>unethical, to put longer clips from the 3 songs on your site? Or put 
>clips from a few more cuts?


That's why the clips are there--so that people can listen to the
music and decide the degree to which they agree with how I wrote
about it. (It is certainly true that if I go to the trouble of putting
up sound clips, I will look for those that put the band in the best
possible light. I can't imagine doing otherwise.) If you listen to 
the clips and and decide that you'd like to hear more, that's also okay.

Happily, I am not the pope, need not be considered infallible, nor have
I ever written anything with the authority of Moses and the bible at Mt.
Sinai. 

I did spend quite some time trying to like this particular band, listening
to three CDs, including one live album, and ended up writing about the
single one that I could say some nice things about without lying. Nice
people seemed to care about the band. As I said, I did not manage to
achieve a similar state. I have no quarrel with those whose mileage
differs; I can say that I have also discussed the band's work with 
musicians who have even performed on the same bill, who felt I was 
being kind, and at least confirmed that I wasn't unique in feeling 
the way I felt about the band's music ;-).

They're =your= ears! If you like the music, that's good!

ari

P.S. "non-raucous" isn't bad--I hope I didn't write that it was.
Deracinated means "racial characteristics removed; blandified."
(or, that's what I thought it meant)


Ari Davidow
The klezmer shack: http://www.well.com/user/ari/klez/
owner: jewish-music mailing list
e-mail: ari (at) ivritype(dot)com

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