Re: new Budowitz album, Wedding without a Bride, now out

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

-- Budowitz Home Page: http://www.merlinms.dircon.co.uk/budowitz/



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>From: Ari Davidow <ari (at) ivritype(dot)com>
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: new Budowitz album, Wedding without a Bride, now out
>Date: Wed, May 31, 2000, 1:53 AM
>

> Hi Ari,
>
> thanks for the quick response. I guess the cat's jumped out of the bag now.
> I'm preparing new promo for the CD and will be redoing our home page, but
> you got there first. Still doing a lot to plan for future tours in Oct 200
> and March 2001 (going well) so it's hard to keep up. Just a short, nerdy,
> comment to set the record straight
>
> The Khevrisa CD uses1/3 of the planned Budowitz wedding repertoire without
> mention of this (sher 1, Zogekhts, sher 2, Shvartse Khasene, Mazel Tov,
> Terkisher, Old Bulgar) which Steve must have proposed for the project, as
> these were the tunes which we had planned,
> fixed and finished for Budowitz for the present CD already in the summer of
> 1997! Budowitz changed much of it since then, but the appearance of it on the
> Khevrisa CD is no coincidence. Sure, we don't have a monopoly on the rep.,
> but such decisions
> should not go without mention, as the specifics I did to form the new rep. of
the
> Budowitz project took a lot of thought and work, not to mention the fact
> that Steve even used my transcription for the Terkisher on the Khevrisa
> record. So if you see an overlap in our
> CDs it's NOT because we have gleaned ideas from Khevrisa, but vice versa
> (obviously, as Steve was in my group and I did not know anything of
> Khevrisa's repertoire till just now). Also we had recorded our CD last
> summer already. I
> do give Steve 5 points for thanking me in the acknoweldgements though. That
> was big of him, considering our falling out in 1997. Maybe that was his way
> of giving his sources, but its hard to come out (LATE) with our new CD and
> see some of the rep already out there in condensed form, as we were
> advertising it as a "first time" ever thing....
>
> Also, Zev's writes in his notes that "The cymbal playing of both Stuart
> Brotman and Joshua Horowitz is based in part of Bjñrling's reconstructed
> rhythmic figures" HUH?????!!!!!!!
> I have a lot of
> respect for Kurt and like him very much. But he had less than nothing to do
> with my tsimbl style. I started playing tsimbl in the late 80's. I knew
> nothing of the NAME Kurt Bjñrling, not to mention that he even played
> tsimbl. The first time I met him was at klez kamp the year I met you 1994,
> and as you'll remember, I played tsimbl (and piano and accordion) with Brave
> Old World that same year.  My first tsimbl was constructed by a country
> farmer an hour from
> my house and altered (again and again) to fit the Jewish modes. My second
> one was constructed by Alfred Pichlmaier in Fraunberg, Germany with heaps of
> time spent calculating string gauge, material, mensure, rosetta form,
> shellack mix and countless other questions of organology. My tuning was
> based upon some sources which overlapped with Kurt's (the written ones), but
> included many discussions with tsimbl players and makers from as far west as
> Ireland and as far east as Iran, and the result also came about due to my
> own creativity. I did NOT simply take a design and copy it. That's foreign
> to my thinking as I accept and include myself and my own creativity in my
> definition of history. The fact that Kurt's tsimbls have a similarity to
> mine in construct (but not sound!) is the result of our common sources and
> starting point. I'm surprised Zev doesn't know this. We are friends, yet
> never did I tell him I had any connection to Kurt. I had composed a
> children's opera in 1986 which used the tsimbl as well... Same with Alan
> Bern as regards accordion. I really like Alan and his playing, but our
> stylistic and musical temperaments and backgrounds differ radically as well.
>
> Anyway, I'm glad the CD is out there and you're right about the typography.
> It sucks. Before that Matt was mixing different columns on different pages
> and it was impossible to follow. I suggested the one colun format because
> Gilles said he wnated 32 pages and not 36, and I didn't want to dick around
> with matt trying to get that into a 2-column format. Our UK release was
> scheduled for April 1 and we were already overdue. I thought a lot about
> asking you to do it, as you would are obviously the right guy for it. Matt
> is a contact of Merlin's and offered a package deal for both graphics and
> layout. The actual price was quite high, but I went along with it. It was a
> fight to the bitter end with Matt and that's reason enough not to get
> involved with friends. Of course, on the other hand, I'm sure you would
> have done such a nice and careful job that no arguing would be necessary,
> so maybe I'll risk it next time!
>
> Hope you#re well Ari. Wish I could see you. I'll be at Klez Kanada. You
> too?? Be well, Josh

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