Re: Klezmer and sephardic music

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

> Josh, do you know anything about the "Matus Gypsy Ensemble" that
> Moskowitz played with when he came to America, according to the liner
> notes on his Romany 10" LP?

No, I don't, but Martin Schwartz might. There are no listings in
Spottswood of anything under Matus, and the name doesn't appear under
any Hungarian catalogue listings (nor Slovakian ones for that matter,
where the name Matusek might be the common form). Grigori Matusewitch
played concertina (I'm working on his biography right now, as it will
appear in the article I'm finishing today on the klezmer accordion,
appearing in the following publications this year:

1) The Free Reed Journal (US)
2) Das Akkordeon (Christoph Wagner's second volume of the world history
of the Akkordeon, Germany)
3) Accordion worlddie (Britain)

Good place for a plug, no?
But Matusewitch did not record with a Gypsy ensemble. If you find
anything, let me know. 

By the way, the tune Az Meshiakh Vet Kumen, mentioned in the last post
about the Sephardic/AShkenazi connection was written by Moskowitz also,
as can be seen by his biography below...

Yiddish Encyclopedia Biography
Joseph Moskowitz was already a well-known musician and composer in
Yiddish Circles before he immigrated to America in 1907. Born in 1879 in
Galati, Moldavia, on the border to Bessarabia, he learned to play the
tsimbl and to read music from his father, Moyshe Tsimbler, who had
played on the Russo-Turkish front. he managed to save some money and
became a money-lender. At the age of eleven, Moskowitz learned to play
fiddle as well. At 14 (1893), he started to tour with the Yiddish
singing goup, ?Di Bretl-zinger?- who had up until that point performed a
capella - which he accompanied on tsimbl. He wrote music to the songs,
?Der Reisender? and ?Az Meshiakh Vet Kumen?, which were among the most
popular tunes of the day, and he composed other folk songs and duets for
both connoisseurs and women. He continued his function in Lemberg (Lvov)
for Shloyme Aged at his inn and until 1906 with Asher Fayershtayn (Zelig
gabel) and Moyshe der Blinder through the provinces of Galicia, Romania,
Hungary and even for a short period in Comstantinople. He emigrated 1907
to America, where he played tsimbl in hotel orchestras and in 1914 he
opened a famous restaurant in New York, where he continued to perform on
the tsimbl. 

Maybe that helps a bit Paul, though you probably have all this stuff in
a shoebox on your desk... Josh

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