Re: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[parentheses <Sara.Marcus...>]

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Bert Stratton wrote:

>       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. 

        I have to disagree from my own experience.  I think it is
*precisely* this model that *will* expand our appeal beyond the core
nostalgia crowd.  What's beyond it?  Young folks, the people who
worship Philip Glass and pack the Stravinsky festival in San
Francisco.  Musicians in other genres.  Radical Jews who are seeking
new ways to make Judaism relevant in 1999.  It's the musically
interesting, culturally innovative side of klezmer that will ensure
klezmer's survival.

        I'm 22. The Klezmatics were the first klezmer band I ever
liked, and I had been hearing the schmaltzy nostalgia stuff for years. 
It's the Klezmatics that got me into klezmer at age 18 exactly
*because* they were the first inkling I had that klezmer was a living
tradition that could be continued and moved forward -- and that it was
a music that could speak to young people and to "newmusic"-oriented
musicians. 

        The love for klezmer that the Klezmatics instilled in me has
brought me in two directions: one, the "nostalgia" direction, where I
value preserving music the Jewish people have created... but two, and
more importantly and inspirational in my mind, the direction of what
Ari calls "edge" music.  Music that continues the evolution process,
and that claims for klezmer a place in the world of music outside of
the insular Jewish-music shtetl.  Masada blow my mind day and night. 
Kletka Red.  New Klezmer Trio.  David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness. 
Charming Hostess. Cayuga Klezmer Revival.

But the question Bert asks is a valid one: if it's a choice between

1) having schmaltz and leaving out the youth (like the Maxwell St.
concert I attended last summer in the same series, at which I enjoyed
the musicianship but at the same time felt embarassed and left-out by
the schmaltz) and

2) bringing the new, innovative musicians that the older set can do
without -- and then not getting enough of a young audience to justify
the choice --
        then what's the solution? 

>       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 Klezmatics are such an incredible group that I feel like
if the band would play some college gigs, accepting that they might
not get the fees they'd like at first, that might help *create* the
young audience for klezmer that is now quite small.  It's a matter of
exposure.  You wouldn't believe how many people at Oberlin were fans
of my klezmer radio show, many of whom had never heard klezmer before.
They just need to hear it.

>       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.) 

        I have to say that I don't think this is a "middle ground" at
all.  I have the highest respect for the KCB musicianship, and I play
them on my show with pleasure (same, incidentally, for your wonderful
band, Bert), but most of my show's enthusiastic listeners would not
spend $20 to see a concert of the KCB while I *know* they would jump
at a chance to see the Klezmatics (I know because I tried last year to
bring them to Oberlin). The Perlman I don't even play on my show.

        I really respect Bert's efforts within the WC to bring klezmer
forward and get it out of its nostalgia phase.  If klezmer doesn't
move forward, it will die with the nostalgia generation who made up
the majority of attendees at the Cleveland show.  This is not to say
it's ignoble to do concerts to please and entertain these people as
well, and I know enough senior citizens to know better than to suggest
"teaching" them to appreciate klezmer/no wave fusion.  I just think --
well, if the Jewish establishment doesn't support musicians who are
doing inventive things with the tradition, then who will support them?

Love,
Sara Marcus

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