klez go classical (was: Buena Vista Social Club)

[ganzl azoi freyl <d6l...>]

>I get the feeling that klezmer audiences are more and more judging a
>performance on (first world) standards of classical music, i.e. artistic 
>level of playing and sophistication.

gotta drop my dreigroschen into this; it's a pet peeve....(this is all 
somehow inspired by alicia svigals' klezmer manifesto in i think an issue of 
_judaism_ a year or two ago-- anyone have a copy, or the proper citation? 
i've lost mine)

one of the most troubling parts of the current incarnation of klezmer music, 
to me, is exactly this-- the classical-ization of the genre.

seems to me that one of the few things capable of killing klezmer as a 
living artform/cultural element is the archival approach that's so often 
taken to the music.  don't misunderstand me, i love brave old world and the 
other groups who take a classical or archival approach to the songs they 
play, providing the clean versions of melodys and styles that are needed to 
make sure that the klezmer repertoire isn't reduced to 400 versions of the 
'heyser bulgar', 'ale brider' and the 'russian shers'.  *but* the danger 
(apparently in the low countries as well as the usa) is that this will 
become "what klezmer is", period.  in which case, klezmer will end up in 
more or less the situation of the Child ballads or the schotisches embedded 
in bach's work for solo 'cello-- performed in versions that contain none of 
the fire of the originals, for audiences which see them as somehow important 
but not relevant or connected to their lives.

again, so as not to be misunderstood: i'm *not* calling for an abandonment 
of the project of re-recording all the old tunes in versions close to 
brandwein's or tarras' (or mickey katz' for that matter); i'm not saying 
"back to the folk!".  what i am saying is that i think there needs to be 
more, much more promotion of the varieties of klezmer and klez-related music 
which are expanding the genre's range, not contracting it.  f'rinstance-- 
the klezmatics' hip-hop-tinged 'reefer song'; kletka red's klezcore 
masterpiece _hijacking_; the yale klezmer band's forays into sun ra 
territory; paradox trio's hard-groove balkanity; cayuga klezmer revival's 
klez-grass; and so on.

one of the key things, i think, about the classicalizing tendency is its 
butts-in-seats presentation of the music.  i was at a pharoah's 
daughter/paradox trio show last month, and was finding it very difficult not 
to get up and dance......but i was in the knitting factory old office, a 
very small room mostly filled with tables and chairs (cabaret style) and had 
i tried, someone would've gotten hurt (probably me) and the hipsters 
wouldn've been able to see from the bar.    lack of room to dance is a 
problem on its own (why bother booking klez if you're gonna fill the room 
with chairs?, sez me), but it's even more so when so often the music itself 
is moving away from what people feel comfortable dancing to.  (and, frankly, 
that's one problem with the archival approach--it's *hard* to dance to 
something that polished and through-composed)
      which leads me to another aspect of the classicalization problem... 
one of the great hopes of klezmer lately (i hear) is the nyc downtown 
scene's embrace of its jewish roots.  and, yeah, some of it's good, and some 
of it's klez (or klez-fusion), and some of it's both.  but it's almost 
always presented as if it were classical music (or jazz-- most of which 
currently suffers from a similar classicalization problem of its own right 
now, don't get me started).  i mean, the diference between a knitting 
factory audience set-up and a mostly mozart festival auidence set-up is that 
the first has higher volume and the second has comfortable chairs.  it's 
still a contemplative, sit-in-yer-seat experience....no matter how much the 
music wants you to dance.

on the other hand, the knit/RJC approach is getting some things very right.  
they're not trying to build an audience for klezmer through the JCCs and 
shuls and other 'jewish' networks.  they're building an audience for it (and 
a big one too) by getting people interested in it because it's interesting 
music, with a lot of ruakh-- by getting the kids who listen to punk and 
avantjazz and electronica to dig it.  and, i should add, to dig the trad 
stuff as well as the john zorn end of the music.  so i say: next time you're 
booking a klezmer band, or looking for a gig, forget the JCC auditoriums, 
forget the concert halls, forget the hotel ballrooms, forget the shuln.  
book it in the local rock club, advertise it with palm cards and posters 
where the kids hang out, get a tape to the local-music radio show and the 
college stations, and don't forget to leave half the floor chairless so 
folks can dance.   it's twice as much fun when intergenerational doesn't 
mean 'drag your kids along'.

a final note:
"more artistic level of playing and sophistication"?
"level of virtuoso playing"?
??!!??
i feel like i shouldn't have to be saying this to this group, but for the 
record: classical instrumental training/approach to material is neither 
"more artistic" nor more "virtuosic" and "sophisticated" than other forms of 
training and approach.  i've heard recordings of rom (gypsy) musicians doing 
things on clarinet and trumpet (not to mention sax, taragot and ocarina) 
that no classical composer would **dare** ask for from a "virtuoso"; and so 
on.  please let's not adopt the rhetoric that says the classical/'first 
world' is the only true art/truly good art....

sorry it's so long
zayt gezunt un freylekh

daniel
the kid up front breakdancing to a bulgarish



I get the feeling that klezmer audiences are more and more judging a
performance on (first world) standards of classical music, i.e. artistic 
level of playing and sophistication. This is purely based on what I've seen 
in my town (that beautiful city called Groningen in the north of the 
Netherlands). The average klezmer audience here seems to judge a concert on 
the level of virtuoso playing displayed, a group like Brave Old World is 
very popular. The thing is also that groups like BOW have created a certain 
expectation about what "klezmer" is in terms of approach and artistic level 
(and the mere fact "klezmer" is being staged in classical concert halls and
theatres alone creates this expectation of course). I remember a Budowitz 
concert here which made this quite clear to me (but
maybe Josh can comment on that also): I felt the audience had expected a 
more sophisticated sort of playing like BOW and had trouble with the more 
raw and folky Budowitz approach. The whole case was illustrated very clearly 
in a double concert with the duo Kurt Bjorling/ Kalman Balogh and the 
Ukrainian Brass Band from Vinnitsa (Doyres track 15): quite a contrast 
indeed. The audience admired Krut & Kalman but could hardly prevent an 
outburst of laughter when the Ukrainians played. They were staged as some 
sort of musicological interesting act, a non-jewish band still playing 
jewish melodies, and are a simple village orchestra (not meant derogatory) 
indeed; clearly this was not what the audience wanted. Although it was clear 
this band belongs in a more natural setting, a party or wedding or whatever, 
nevertheless the way the public reacted to them showed the lack of 
understanding where the music originally comes from> its FOLK music by 
origin. The dedain for the Vinnitsa band was annoying somehow..



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