Re: New Jewish Music

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

Hi Alan-
At the time your album came out (& it's a wonderful piece of work) I felt
(and commented on this list) that it had more of an ECM-jazz feel to it than
a 'klezmer' feel. But doesn't a genre grow by pulling in this 'n that from
here 'n there and absorbing it? And aren't all labels (such as 'klezmer') in
general some artificial attempt at categorizing something for the
marketplace?
                            EK



----- Original Message -----
From: <Uravreml (at) aol(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 3:10 AM
Subject: New Jewish Music


> When Brave Old World released Blood Oranges in 1997, we were in agreement
> that a scholarly consensus was developing to adopt a narrow definition of
the
> term "klezmer," including Yiddish instrumental repertoire but excluding
folk
> song, for example. We also agreed that there were good reasons to adopt
that
> usage. When we then considered our own repertoire, it was clear that it
was
> broader than klezmer music, understood in this narrow sense. For that
reason
> we left the term "klezmer music" off the cover and instead plastered the
term
> "New Jewish Music" all over the place. (The graphic is even of a label,
meant
> to be a semi-ironic comment on the function of musical labels). That term
> seems to have caught on in some places, judging from the titles of some
> current radio shows, conferences, etc.
>
> I recommend the term "New Jewish Music" as one which can include both
> instrumental and vocal, compositions and arrangements, of Ashkenazi and
other
> Jewish traditions. To me it seems less polemical than a term like "radical
> Jewish culture," not the least because today's radical is often tomorrow's
> traditional.
>
> Alan Bern
>
>
>

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+