RE: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Steve Singer <ssinger...>]

Boy... no lack of JM-net emails this month, eh?

I've been reading the discussion on the original post about the "failed"
Klezmatics concert - especially Dick Rosenberg's contribution about
different *types* of bands (i.e. Innovative, Traditional, Entertainers).

I disagree with the assessment that "innovators" cannot be "entertainers".
If the Klezmatics' concert was a (mild) failure - with an audience that
didn't "get" their performance,... I blame the Klezmatics for not
ENTERTAINING their audience.  IMHO, only the goofy minimalist contributions
of the early 20th century composers were greeted with the kind of wine &
cheese, "let's go listen to a concert that we're not going to really
enjoy... but it sure will be INNOVATIVE".  I mean, look at Duke Ellington as
an example.  He single-handedly BLEW the status quo of the "popular" musical
world of the 40's away with INNOVATION that was SO "outside the box" that
people (today) on the 100th anniversary of his birth STILL can't stop
singing his praises.  BUT, I ask you... what did DUKE do to present his "new
sound"?  He started his sets with tunes that his audiences knew and loved --
won them over, ENTERTAINED them, *then* introduced his really WACKED OUT
stuff later in the show when he already had the audience in his pocket.

I feel that music - especially Jewish music - is about connecting &
communicating with the audience.  That communication can be uplifting.. or
shocking.. or irritating, but it has to remain a "performance" where the
onus is on the MUSICIAN(S) to speak in a language that the audience can
grasp.  Not just an "inside joke" that only the musicians in the crowd can
laugh at.

I'm sure that I'm going to get bashed for this -- as I appear to be the only
non Klezmer-yingle on this list, but... I really don't feel that the
Klezmatics are very innovative at all.  I *do* love their music... their
recordings, and have seen them in concert several times.  If those of you
who listen (and understand) more about Klezmer than I do listen to some of
your old recordings of the "covers" that the Klezmatics have done, I don't
think you'll find that much has been added. (gulp)  What the Klezmatics HAVE
done -- and have done so well is to turn the MARKETING of Klezmer music on
its arse.  As many of the posts from youngins' have attested, the Klezmatics
"reinvented" - and very dynamically introduced klezmer as something hip and
MODERN to a *mainstream* audience that either (a) never cared about Jewish
music or, (b) cast it aside as something for their bubbes and zaydes.

But, notice in my tone that the ZENITH (in my mind) of the Klezmatics
contribution has been to create a novel way to COMMUNICATE (to) and
ENTERTAIN audiences... not simply by playing Khasider Tants with a Bo
Diddley beat.  If they currently find themselves unable to show audiences a
good time... while highlighting innovative additions to their repertoire,
then they need to re-examine what performing is all about.

Contributing to the email clutter, I remain,

Steve Singer


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