RE: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

Although my band is not well known enough to have "been there" I do have
some thoughts on the matter.

I think that there are a number of approaches a Klezmer band can take
toward the music. None of these are better/worse than any other, they
are just different. Broadly I see 3 groups:

        Preservationists

        Entertainers (there must be a better word)

        Innovators

For agruments sake (and I know I will probably get a lot of disagreement
on this), some examples of the three would be:

Preservationsists - Budowitz

Entertainers - Klezmer Conservatory Band, Maxwell St.Klezmer Band,
Mazeltones

Innovators - Klezmatics, New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, Andy Statman
Quartet

Disclaimer - all of the above are some of my favorite artists and the
list is only intended to be illustrative, not inclusive.

I think that the "nostalgia crowd" wants to be entertained and that they
will respond to the Entertainers. I think that they would find the real
Preservationists to be almost as un-entertaining as they found the
innovators to be. In a sense they don't want Klezmer music as it was in
the old country (they weren't in the old country), they want the amalgam
of Klezmer, Yiddish theater, Yiddish folk/pop and modern Jewish/Israeli
that the Entertainers do so well.

I think that the Presevationists and the Innovators succeed by appealing
to audiences other than the "nostalgia crowd". I think that what makes
the best of the Entertainers the most entertaining is that they have
kept intergrity in their music while still being wonderfully
entertaining.

I also think it's an interesting marketing problem. Where I leave, near
Boston, there is a city called Newton with a sizeable Jewish population.
The Newton Public Library has a small auditorium and has a free concert
series. There is always at least one concert featuring some local
Klezmer talent. The audience always seems to me to be not only over 60,
but over 70! It always surprises me that there are not more younger
people at these concerts. How do you reach them? (I think this is the
problem that Bert ran into)

Genik shoyn.

That's my $.02

Dick

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Bert Stratton [SMTP:yiddcup (at) en(dot)com]
>Sent:  Tuesday, July 20, 1999 8:34 AM
>To:    World music from a Jewish slant
>Subject:       schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics
>
>        Have you been here? Scenario:
>       I'm a volunteer on a Yiddish concert committee for Cleveland's
>Workmen's Circle.  I lobby to bring in the Klezmatics.  I persuade the
>mostly elderly committee to "go for a younger crowd."
>       Good publicity. Audience: 2000.  Free tickets.  Audience turns out
>to be the "nostalgia" crowd. Young folks -- and I mean under 60 -- mostly
>stay home.  Maybe 20% under 60 -- and I was at the door counting 'em as
>they came in.       
>       Klezmatics use a jazz-concert model -- minimal explanations(like going
>into "Shnirele Perele" without an intro. no explanation of reefer song --
>good idea), some very extended improvisations.  Musicians in the audience
>-- about 20 of us -- love the music, but the concert is a bomb -- no
>request for an encore, very little visible energy from band -- one
>musician looked kind of asleep on stage,  a lot of  audience kvetching
>afterward about where's "Romania, Romania" and "I don't want to hear
>snake-charmer music!"  About 30 people danced in the aisles, but most were
>comatose after the three-song "Possessed" medley.
>       Afterward, I asked a Klemzatics musician, "How about when you play a
>college town, like Ann Arbor?  Same repertoire?"  Band member said the
>group isn't playing too many hip college gigs --  band is too expensive.
>The hip young-people scene is in Europe, band member said.  In America it's
>mostly the "gray-haired" (my words) crowd.
>       The crux:  should bands use the elitist jazz model, or go schmaltz -- 
> sell
>out! pander! juggle! whatever.  I think there's a valid  middle
>ground.(Klez Conservatory Band and Perlman's well-paced klez-smorgasbord
>come to mind.)
>       Saw the Chieftains the last night, same venue.  Great musicianship,
>excellent pacing and variety, tons of guest artists, great communication
>with audience thru ad lib and self-depracting humor, a dab of schmaltz (did
>a "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" parody with disco lights going). Huge
>ovation and encore.  Lots of fun.
>       There's a lesson here for klez bands. The jazz-model of klez (like when
>some of our leading clarinet players play to the bass player instead of the
>audience) isn't going to help us expand our appeal beyond the core
>"nostalgia" crowd.
>       What do you think?      
>
>
>Bert Stratton
>Yiddishe Cup Klezmer Band
>http://www.yiddishecup.com
>

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