Re: romancing (romanticizing) the shtetl

[Seth Austen <seth...>]

on 1/8/01 2:46 PM, yakov (koby) at kchodosh (at) suffolk(dot)lib(dot)ny(dot)us 
wrote:


>> We all draw our own lines for, say, how progressive can we go in fusion with
>> other styles, without losing sight of the tradition? Or, how much
>> ornementation is the 'correct' amount? There is no 'right' answer.
> 
> We can get a hint from, of all places, your message: "If it sounds good, it is
> good." You said it.

I was paraphrasing Prof. Peter Shikele, who was quoting Ellington. If it's
good enough for Ellington, it's certainly OK by me.

 
> I am only seventeen, so maybe I'm overly simplistic with all this, BUT it
> seems obvious to me that endless worrying about "authenticity" can only lead
> to insanity. 

I'm only 44, I still have a lot to learn too. It is true, we could drive
ourselves crazy, and yet, in the quest of re-creating this music, which can
be considered to be a folk form, as opposed to written out note for note
with the composers' intentions clearly stated, a certain amount of this
mishegas or insanity of trying to figure out what was authentic can be
useful. In my opinion, the fusions that tend to work the best are those in
which the players are the most grounded in the tradition.

> At KlezKamp, in the Dveykus class, when someone asked Frank
> London about the "original" tunes, where they come from, their names etc.,
> sometimes he knew a little but usually he didn't. At one point he told us
> about a very traditional, very old-school Hassidic tune, then started to sing
> it. It was the French national anthem.* So, really, it's impossible to
> perfectly pin down localities and origins and etc. for music. Not to mention
> authenticity of anything else -- religion, law, etc. Who can say what the
> authors of the 14th Amendment *really* meant by it?
> 
> So, if it sounds cool to mix klezmer with drum-n'-bass (Oi-Va-Voy), or mix
> klezmer with latin jazz (Klezperanto), or string together different pieces of
> klezmer songs and play the whole thing in swing (Pete Sokolow and the Original
> Klezmer Jazz Band, not to mention all the dozens of old groups who did that),
> why not do it? Anyway, that's my answer :)
> 

sounds good to me.

>> What smacks of too much schtick to me, won't seem that way to someone else.
> 
> I think this sentence sums up your entire view on the subject. Annnnnnd.... I
> agree with it! Waddya know :)

cool

> Great, cool! I'm listening to your MP3 ("Fiskeleh") -- of course, I'm more of
> a brass man myself, but it really sounds great! :)

Thanks for your comments, keep me posted to when you put up your MP3s, I
look forward to hearing what you're up to musically. Brass is great,
especially the way you can smear a note, I'm always trying to steal trombone
licks and play 'em on guitar...
> 
>> BTW, you are quite correct that romancing has a different meaning than
>> romanticization. What can I say?, other than I liked the way it looked as a
>> headline... :-)
> 
> You weren't the only one... other people said "romancing" too... haha well
> we're musicians, not English teachers (or presidents-elect)

I shoulda oughta knowed better :-). I might be a musician, but my mother is
an English professor.
> 
> thanks for reading down this far! ;)

anytime!

Seth
 

------
Seth Austen
http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth (at) sethausten(dot)com

-- 
"To be nobody-but-myself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and
day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which
any human being can fight, and never stop fighting."
                                                -- e.e. cummings



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