Re: schmaltz, pandering and Klezmatics

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

I did _too_ specifically mention this!--and agree that it's the heart of the 
matter.  _Communication_ (/presentation), just as Richie Havens said.


>From: bloom (at) gis(dot)net (Bloom)
>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: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 02:02:21 -0400 (EDT)
>
>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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