RE: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Seth Rogovoy <rogovoy...>]

>  The assumption you make is that there is a promoter involved,
> i.e. a booking
> agent.    Many times organizations rely on committees to
> investigate and book
> talent.  These folks are usually well meaning, but not
> professional bookers
> and rely on the promotional materials of the groups to make their
> decisions.

look, whether or not they are professional promoters, these people are
"buying" a band for a night and "selling" them to an audience. Don't you
think it is in their best interest -- as well as in the best interests of
the audience and the musicians -- to "market" the band faithfully? What
about "truth in advertising"? What about the ethical responsibility on the
part of the well-meaning folks staging the performance to be accurate in
their publicity? It's a serious task and perhaps it's better not to be taken
lightly, or only be attempted with the advice of someone who knows something
about the field.

> Ok, so when you are booked and you find that you are playing to a
> still-life
> painting ....Are performances so set that on the spot changes
> cannot be made?

We were talking about fundamental disparities in performer's styles and
audience expectations -- I don't see how these can be overcome with "on the
spot" changes. What were the Klezmatics supposed to do, all of a sudden
ditch their entire repertoire and approach and play "Romania" and "Bay Mir
Bist du Sheyn" in classic 30s/40s style? Or suddenly morph into the KCB?

You hire a band like BOW or Klezmatics or Andy Statman or the KCB, you are
hiring musicians who are artists with great artistic integrity, and ones who
shouldn't have to change their act because they were misrepresented to an
audience. Should Jackson Pollock have painted motel landscapes because most
people prefer them?

>   I feel that one of the components of professionalism is
> flexibility. (Not
> only on the concert stage, but for those of us who work simchot and other
> private affairs....it is highly important to be able to think on
> one's feet
> and make adjustments).

yes, for a wedding band that is exactly the most important qualification.
but not for an established concert artist with a well-established repertoire
and style.

> It
> would seem
> that the group has to be able to grasp that very early in the
> performance and
> do something to turn it around. Hey that's what we get paid for -
> entertaining.

maybe entertaning is what you get paid for, and that's fine. I have no
argument or problem with that -- in fact that's very much the klezmer
tradition, and it's a wonderful thing to be a great entertainer.

i'd argue that concert bands do not get paid to entertain any more than do
symphony orchestras or jazz ensembles. They get paid to play their original
music, period. If it's entertaining, fine, but there are other criteria,
aesthetic and otherwise, to consider (e.g., challenging, provoking,
informing, emotionally affecting, making beauty, replicating and commenting
on harshness of reality, etc.), and entertaining doesn't take priority over
them.

> Also, in your post you refer to the ill-conceived, pre-conceived
> notion of
> what Klezmer is.  I believe pre-conceived is fair, but
> ill-conceived is not.

i think people who conceive klezmer to be "Bay Mir Bist du Sheyn" and
"Romania" are ill-conceiving it terribly! I think anyone who conceives the
music of BOW NOT to be klezmer is terribly ill-conceiving it. And anyone who
sits through a concert by the Klezmatics and at the end says "I didn't hear
any klezmer" clearly doesn't know a freylekh from a jig. they are one of the
best "traditional klezmer" bands in the world. listen to Brandwein's Fun
Tashlich and then listen to the Klezmatics' version. 90 percent of it is
note for note.

> Obviously, I believe in the audience and their inherent right to be
> entertained and to be sent home happy.  Of course, this is my job
> and I gotta
> do that.

yes, you do Mike, and that's great, and all power to you. but that's not the
primary responsibility of a concert artist -- unless he chooses it to be so,
and can pull it off without violating the integrity of his concert art.

with all due respect,
Seth Rogovoy

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