Re: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Bloom <bloom...>]

No one has yet specifically mentioned what I consider to be the heart of
this subject: the difference between the music, and the presentation of the
music in a concert setting.

I would not advocate that anyone make any compromises in the music they
perform.  It's fine to play By Mir Bist Du Schoen if you love it, but
otherwise there's no sense in rehearsing it, and it wouldn't make sense to
perform it unrehearsed in a concert setting.

However, once you have your set list, there is still the question of how
you are going to present this music you love to the audience, to get them
to love it too.

Joe Kurland said:

>We've played to audiences of mostly older people (it's wonderful when you
>can talk with the audience in Yiddish and most of them understand you) and
>we've played to mostly younger audiences (it's wonderful when kids can
>really get drawn into this music). It seems unpredictable what kind of an
>audience you'll get in an unfamiliar location.
>
>I think some locations or sponsoring organizations draw audiences based on
>whether people expect to find a show aimed at them.  When we played for
>Workmen's Circle in Philadelphia, we had a mostly older crowd, in spite of
>an offer of free admission for grandchildren.  (Well, the location was a
>senior center.)  When we played, for example, for a new synagogue in
>Cheshire, CT, the crowd was mostly young families.  We did practically the
>same show at both places with a warm reception from both audiences.

While Wholesale Klezmer may have played the same set at both places, I
doubt it was the same show.  For one thing, more Yiddish could be used with
the older crowd.  I'm sure that the length and content of the explanations
between songs also varied, and that these changes flowed naturally from the
fact that Joe was talking to different people when he gave them.

In my opinion, the ideal would be for performer(s) to immediately judge the
best way to communicate to the audience they are playing to at the moment,
and adjust their stage patter and other audience interactions
appropriately.  Of course, this is not possible, but it's an ideal.  (The
performances I do are of dance leading and storytelling rather than music,
but I still try to approach the same ideal - and I wish to God I were
better at it!)

There are different ways to try to bring the audience to the music, and
it's true that some performers choose to ignore the audience, figuring they
can take the music or leave it.  But that's certainly not the only way to
relate to an audience, and trying to relate to an unfamiliar audience
doesn't mean that you have to pander or play shmaltz.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Jacob Bloom

www.gis.net/~bloom

>
>But I wouldn't pander or play shmaltz.  Play what is most meaningful to you
>unless you want to take all the joy out of performing.  Communicate with
>and educate your audiences.  Let them know what the music means to you and
>why you play it and how it can mean something to them.
>
>We, all of us, have a task:  To educate the public about the richness, joy
>and variety of Jewish music.  The public, Jewish and non-Jewish, old and
>young and in the middle, needs to know that there is more to Yiddish music
>than 10 shmaltzy, nostalgic songs.  And they need to know that they don't
>need to understand Yiddish to understand the music.
>
>Zayt gezunt (be healthy),
>
>Yosl (Joe) Kurland
>The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>Colrain, MA 01340
>voice/fax: 413-624-3204
>http://www.crocker.com/~ganeydn


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