Re: Being sensitive to a Yiddishe crowd

[DrRMF2700 <DrRMF2700...>]

In a message dated 7/21/99 11:53:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com writes:

<<  Could be that being a rather simple  simcha musician has it's 
 rewards.....one 
  of which being free of the almost arrogant attitude that you seem to 
  attribute to the concert musician.  >>
<< But I am bothered when simcha music (that 
IS the origin of klezmer, after all) is performed as art to the exclusion of 
being simchadik (or when the performer is more into his thing than how it 
communicates)--because jazz is great, but it's not the wellspring of Jewish 
music.  Nor does it sit well with me when a klezmer fancies himself a sort of 
contemporary atonal/angry artist.  Many in New York would disagree with me, 
but if it loses its chen (charm, sort of) and its Yiddish character, I think 
klezmer's on the wrong path.  And I don't blame the audience who is 
disappointed when they've come to connect to their warm past and have more of 
the cool present foisted upon them.....
People who are looking to this music for sunshine and humor, the touching 
sound of Yiddish voices and the krechts of emotion--if instead they get 
Jeremy Cohn-trane on 
sax, it's confusing and disappointing.  (Likewise, I suppose the band who 
breaks out in Yiddishe Mama at the Knitting Factory is going to turn up some 
noses--as the person who titled this thread "shmaltz" must feel.)>>

Wow, what a post!
I have experienced this aloofness at too many a musical performance.
I clearly remember a Zappa concert at the Filmore East with little 
conversation other than an attitude of pointed disdain for the idiots who 
showed up to hear him.
I also recall Jimmy Smith, the fabled Hammond organist spewing an angry 
sullen contempt for his NY audience with no rapport and embrace...
I have seen The Klezmatics at a Rockland County(NY) HS auditorium concert a 
heavy weight to the so-called "gray" crowd. Very cool,yet little 
conversation, joy
or hamish expression with intent to bond with or lift the audience.
They came. They played. They left.   Not a memorable experience.
Unfortunately, I have felt the same way with Andy Statman's performance's.

Yet, when I heard Klezmer Plus recently at Tonic's I got their  willingness 
to talk, teach and share the heart of this emotional music.

I don't think Klezmer is served by cool, aloof  artisans in an ivory stage.

Robert Fogel
Nyack NY

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