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

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

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

> Josh,
>
> I didn't mean to imply that Budowitz was doing Khevrisa's material!
> I'll go back and look at the wording. I did mean to imply common
> repertoire, and I was aware (and it's stated on my main web page)
> that Steven had been part of the original Budowitz. That he would
> continue to play some tunes that he played in the band seems natural,
> but I'll make sure the website is clear on which preceded the other.

I'm actually happy that new repertoire is getting out there, though. I just
think that we in this scene need to be more conscientious of our
indebtedness to each other. There's an unspoken covenent among the klezmer
collectors in the scene: "Thou shalt not reveal thine most precious
repertoire to thine colleagues without first making sure they will not
perform it until thou first record it." Of course that's silly, and one of
the reasons for the limited repertoire circulating around the scene. How
many unrecorded precious oytsres are actually being cast into the scene to
replenish it? But if resources are used and concepts reformed from others,
this needs to be mentioned.

The repertoire of the new Budowitz CD was based upon a very specific set of
critereae:

1) We wanted  as many pieces as possible to come directly from informants
2) We wanted pieces which had never been recorded in the klezmer revival
3) We wanted the pieces to have been commonly played in the regions of
Galitsia and Volhynia
4) We wanted the pieces to work together to form a logical khasene
5) We wanted to include the entire badkhones ritual for both the khosn and
kale

That's a pretty strict set of restrictions, and we chose from thousands of
pieces to be able to meet them. In the summer I will be writing about the 3
years we took to put this project together and posting this on the new
Budowitz home page, which will be moved to www.budowitz.com in a few weeks.
We also want to begin a monthly "letters to Budowitz" page, which I hope
will deal with everything from "Did Klezmorim use contraceptives?" to "What
did the tantsfirer do when he got a hole in his shoe while dancing the
sher?" questions. In that way, we want to combine promotion for our work
with information. Soon we'll be advertising Budocycles in our infomercials
which will help aging women get rid of cellulite around the thighs while
erotomanically pedalling to a Gliniany Korohod. And when you're ready to
install webcam capacities to the list, Ari, we can all watch them do it and
be charged unwitting amounts to our credit cards. Well, I can fantazise,
can't I?

>>> My first tsimbl was constructed by a country farmer an hour from
>>> my house and altered (again and again) to fit the Jewish modes.
>
> You mean, this guy? http://www.ivritype.com/eeuro96/austria/it.konrad.jpeg

Actually no. Konrad built my first Guzikov xylophone (Wood and Straw
Instrument, or Stroy Fidl if you want to use a term which never existed).
The builder of my first tsimbl was August Zach. I also had one from Hungary
- a Kis cymbalom (small cymbalom) made by Gabor Frey. Rob Goldberg owns that
one now.

> Anyway, in case anyone missed it, the big deal is that the album is
> out, and it's wonderful. And yes, I have criticisms of the typography.
> But you knew I would ;-).

Of course I knew you would. That's why we had the typography purposely
botched, so you'd have something to write about.

Well, be well. Josh

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