Music at Jewish affairs.

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

First, let me just say that I changed the subsject line to reflect the 
topic so that those who are so afraid of jingoism will not miss out on the 
topic  :).

I am talking about listening, dancing, and especially the whole Jewish 
experience at rites of passage celebrations.

Sorry, but wedding traditions don't change from week to week.   Jewish and 
non-Jewish line dancing has been popular for at least the last 10-15 years 
and getting more and more popular each year.   At the last 4 affairs I 
went, there must have been at least 50-60 people doing line-dancing - 
Jewish and non-Jewish.

Most simkha bands play different kinds of music, but then comes the 
question which genres and in what proportions.

>And I don't think you'd have to really be much more of a scholar to
>appreciate Brandwein as to appreciate those other three guys-

I don't know about the other 3 guys, but I totally agree about Brandwein. 
 In fact, I will never forget the first times I heard Brandwein.   Henry 
Sapoznik had just found "Firn di Makhetonim Aheym" in the YIVO archive for 
my husband to put into his film "Image Before My Eyes" and I was just 
bowled over with the unique, haunting sound of that music.  It was 
sssssssooooooooooooooooo extraordinary.  Once you hear the original, you 
don't forget that sound.   It's the kind of experience similar to a first 
time hearing Paul Robeson or the Italian tenor Gille sing.  Once you have 
heard it, you KNOW that sound, you will always recognize it, and you will 
not forget it because it is so unique and special.  "Firn di Makhetonim 
Aheym" played in brain for years and years after the opening of Image.   So 
the question is what occasions do you create where you can expose people to 
Naftuli Brandwein?    The fact is that, although many klezmer bands have 
tried to copy the sound for the last 19 years, no one, absolutely no one 
has yet been able to capture it.  So what do you do?  I don't know.   Put 
the original in some commercial or Hollywood film so that as many people as 
possible can discover it?   That's all I can think of right now, but I 
don't know if it's doable.   Put it on a web site that plays it 7/24 ?  I 
know that it's not good for line dancing.


Reyzl




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