Old World vs. New World klez

[Bert Stratton <yiddcup...>]

Q. Was 1920s NYC klezmer so incredibly different than European klez?

I recently heard a Zev Feldman lecture in Cleveland, where Zev made the
point that  prototypical American klezmer -- what eventually became "the
bulgars" of the 1950s -- was developed entirely from American cloth -- ie.
by Tarras and Brandwein in their NYC period. 
 
I asked Zev afterward if Brandwein in his 1920s recording wasn't, in fact,
playing some stuff that was European.  And Zev said that the recorded tunes
were American klezmer.  Zev said he knew the tunes were American because he
had played them for a certain elderly NYC Eastern European-immigrant
klezmer  -- still living, don't recollect his name
-- who said the tunes were not known in his European community.

I mean, did Brandwein, who immigrated in 1913, just up and junk his entire
European repertoire and create a whole new thing when he went into the
recording studio in NYC in 1922? 

I'm aware the Euro tsimbl/violin/flute sensibility didn't go over big in
the US, particularly in the recording studios.  But wasn't there anything
like, say, Brandwein's "Heyser Bulgar," (which is also Greek, right?) being
played by clarinetists in pre-1920 Yiddish Europe?   

Of course there was. There were freylekhs, shers, kolomeykes ... basically,
a whole set of lively dance tunes in Europe.  And what about the Hasidic
courts?

To say that New World klez is a thing apart from Old World klez is quite a
stretch.  It's something I hadn't heard, or read, before. (I'd read Zev
Feldman's "Ethnomusicology" article on the bulgar and his  liner notes to
Alicia Svigal's "Fidl" album,  but I'd never before had the impression the
author was saying there was a complete disconnect between Old World and New
World.)    

Maybe Henry Sapoznik in his new book, or somebody on this list, will
address this matter. (Speaking of which, Amazon.com says Henry's klezmer
book is due out in October.  With six days left in the month, does that
really mean before Chanukah?  I don't want to see Henry jump, weighted down
by the latest in XL hooded klezkamp sweat gear, into that hazardous
chemical vat known as the Klezkamp pool.  So get that book out already,
Mr./Ms. Publishing House.) 

Bert Stratton
Yiddishe Cup Klezmer Band
Cleveland
http://www.yiddishecup.com 

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