re:schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Trudi Goodman <goobietheg...>]

Yes:
I agree with you.  But then you need to account for some performer's lack of 
exhibition.  What I mean by that is that some performers are interested in 
their work for the sheer enjoyment that they get rom it--but they don't know 
how to impart that to an audience.
Better communication/performance skills with an audience are probably needed 
here.



>From: "Robert Cohen" <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: re:schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics
>Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 12:03:31 PDT
>
>If you don't "play to the audience" in the broadest
>(_communicative/presenting,_ not pandering) sense, you shouldn't be (or
>aren't?) performing at all.
>
>
>>From: Bert Stratton <yiddcup (at) en(dot)com>
>>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>>Subject: re:schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics
>>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 10:20:30 -0400
>>
>>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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