Re: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

Lori Lippitz said:

><< The Klezmatics should actually be much more popular than they are.  >>
>
>I hope you can read this without misinterpreting the tone, which is 
>matter-of-fact.  Many of us k-bands out across America should be more
popular 
>than we are.  Considering that they are a world music group, the Klezmatics 
>have done enormously well for themselves, and power to them.  But in the 
>world of top k-bands, they have enjoyed the lion's share of popularity.
>

Agreed. What I'm saying is that I'm surprised that the Klezmatics aren't
pulling in the college indie rock audience as well as the klezmer audience.
Maxwell Street, for example, is a fantastic band, but you're a party band
(with scholarly leanings) which doesn't seek to embrace, for example,
Arabic or Balkan influences, or to make any sort of (to the general public,
radical) political statement. Yes, all good k-bands should be more popular-
that's a matter of public education and exposure- what I'm surprised at is
the fact that the Klezmatics haven't broken out in the more general
marketplace. Maybe (sad, but possibly true) it's because the general public
sees them as just another 'k-band'!
                EK


---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+