re:schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Bert Stratton <yiddcup...>]

Thanks to all for your responses to my so-called Klezmatics review.

Simple self-interest compelled me to write the "review."  Klezmatics, in a
sentence, didn't do anything positive for the klez scene in Ohio.  Lost
opportunity.  Chieftains, one night later, same location, primed the local
Irish scene, like a blow torch at the Kleenex factory.

A woman responded, "Klezmatics shouldn't change a note." (paraphrase).

I suppose if Miles Davis, resurrected, had walked into that Workmen's
Circle gig he wouldn't have changed a note either.   But we, the
organizers, took a pass on Miles and invited the most popular klez band in
the world.

Certainly, as one man wrote, venues plays a role -- you'll get an older
crowd at a senior center than a college. But interestingly, the 'Matics
played at a prestigious in-town amphitheater that brings in groups like Don
Byron, Bobby McFerrin, Ladysmith Black M., Chieftains, B. Fleck.

Another take...the woman who wrote about the  generation gap -- a term I
hadn't heard lately, but it's probably applicable.  Your typical
22-year-old college grad is probably not going to feel too comfortable at a
concert with a slew of elderly people.  (When I was  20-something, I
attended a Workmen's Circle concert and felt like Margaret Mead exploring
an exotic tribe. Who were these folks with their Oyfn Prip-a-something and
their tears for Yiddishe Mama?   Why no tears for Big Mama Thorton?)

Entertainers vs. innovators....... A writer mentioned Duke Ellington's
ability to do it all. Good point.

Also, a young woman said she got into klez thru the 'Matics.  She initially
 was attracted to them, in part, because they didn't play to the audience.
They did not sell out. (Our ex-drummer used to say, "I'm trying to sell
out, but nobody's buying!")  That's a valid perspective.  As the Duke
Ellington- writer pointed out, it's a masochistic one -- let's go to a
concert and not have fun.
 
Lastly, I didn't mean to deprecate the 'Matics in particular.  I meant to
deprecate the  klez-as-hip-jazz model, of which the Klezmatics are
emblematic.  (I know, you peacemakers are saying, "Get under the Big Tent
of Klez and chill out.") 

But if you're the most famous, most popular, best-paid klez band in the
world, and you play a new town, you owe it to your new audience, and the
regional klez scene, to put on a performance with the same energy and savvy
that you would use, for example, at a hard-driving 30-minute Klezkamp set.

PS. Some nuts-and-borscht minutae....  Publicity for the concert was
excellent, including alternative weekly.  Granted, the local daily doesn't
have a staff writer who knows and enjoys klez, but a free-lancer does. 

I had thought the klez audiences on the East and West Coasts were a lot
younger than the Midwest audiences, but thru this thread I'm hearing
otherwise.

And, yes, there was a crowd of younger people getting down at the 'Matics
concert, but I knew nearly every one of them by name or face.  I, as an
organizer, had been hoping for a bunch of new bodies. 

Finally, what triggered this: seeing the Chieftains the night after the
Klezmatics.  If the Irish can do it, why can't we?
 

Bert Stratton
Yiddishe Cup Klezmer Band
http://www.yiddishecup.com

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