Report on Wolf Krakowski at the NYBC Dec. 19

[Seth <rogovoy...>]

My family and I, as well as about a hundred other concertgoers packed into a
standing-room-only theater at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst,
Mass., Sunday afternoon, enjoyed a remarkable performance by Wolf Krakowski
and his band.

The program consisted of works from Wolf's "Transmigrations" album, and the
performance featured many of the same musicians (all?) that recorded the
album with Wolf several years ago. To my knowledge, this was the first
public performance by Wolf of these arrangements.

As I said, the performance was remarkable, and on so many different levels.
First of all, as anyone who has heard the original recording knows, Wolf has
created a remarkable fusion of classic-style Yiddish theater, folk and pop
song with American roots-rock. In his hands, the fusion is seamless,
organic, and appears totally intuitive and logical, even though on paper it
seems like it shouldn't work.

In concert, the songs came to life even more than on recording. The feeling
was definitely that you were at a rock concert -- much to the chagrin of one
or two concertgoers who apparently fell for the misleading advertising that
touted this as a "klezmer" concert. But even the most vocal of these
disappointed patrons -- an elderly woman who shouted out "This isn't Madison
Square Garden!" after the second number, and I thought, "Aha! Now I
understand Newport Folk Festival 1965," and refrained from hollering
"Judas!" at Wolf as a joke -- was seen boogie-ing by the end of the concert.

Fortunately and obviously,t he vast majority of people there knew what they
were coming for -- and that's why dozens were left stranded at the door,
unable to get in to the sold-out performance (some just stayed with their
ears pressed up against the door; others went outside behind the theater and
pressed their faces up against the window behind the stage).

As I said, they heard an amazing rock concert, music steeped in country,
roots, blues and reggae, played by a  six-piece band with three (very
attractive) backup vocalists whom Wolf called "The Transmigrations" but whom
I prefer to think of as the "Oy-Threes." At the core of the group were the
Lonesome Brothers, featuring guitarist/mandolinist/saxophonist Jim Armenti
and bassist Ray Mason. If I ever were to do something as stupid as return to
the concert stage of my youth, i would definitely do evrything I could to
hire these two guys to back me up. They were rock-solid, telepathic, and
Armenti in particular put his heart and soul into this show -- one of the
hidden pleasures was watching him, off-mike, singing the Yiddish lyrics.
(Jim is not a total stranger to Yiddish music -- he plays clarinet in the
Northampton-based klezmer band, Klezamir).

It was a pleasure to hear these familiar numbers stretched out, opened up.
Wolf has found a way to make these classic melodies fit naturally in the
rhythms and framework of American roots music, in a way that connected
Yiddish soul to American soul. This could have been so corny, but this was
no novelty show; Wolf was a serious performer, investing the material with
effortless dignity (as these songs are extremely dignified, and their new
settings did nothing to take away their dignity), and a depth of passion and
commitment one rarely sees from ANY performer in any genre.

Wolf's music reached an audience of multiple generations, from my 6 and 8
year old children to my 70-year-old aunt, who was literally jumping up and
down at the end saying how utterly thrilled she was and insisting I tell her
when she could see them again. I had to break the news to her that as of
now, this was a once-in-a-lifetime event; as far as I know, there are no
plans to reprise this show, although I bet Wolf will find it hard not to,
given the response he received last Sunday.

I should also note that it was hard not to think of how a bit of history was
undoubtedly being made here, at a building and organization which is
primarily dedicated to the preservation and archiving of Yiddish culture
(unless I'm mistaken about the NYBC's mission, and if so I apologize), a
certain aspect of Yiddish culture, while rooted in the past, was being
reinvigorated. Was this the first performance of its kind here? Anywhere,
for that matter, in the world? I don't know for sure, but somethign tells
me, yes, it was.

I wish all of you were there.

yours,
Seth Rogovoy

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