Re: how many hands has Joseph Moskowitz?

[Peter Rushefsky <Rushefsky_P...>]

Roger-- I think the answer is "yes."  Both are happening on Buhuser Chusid.
There is a piano accompaniment (I don't have the disc in front of me, but I
thought it lists the piano player-- a Bela something).  But also, Moskowitz
uses his right hand to throw in bass notes, especially at the end of phrases
or to emphasize melodic turns.  Often a tremolo is played by the left hand
while the left hand slugs bass notes.  

On a similar note, on the latest Budowitz album (Wedding Without a Bride),
Josh Horowitz has put a beautiful solo tsimbl arrangement together which
demonstrates what he described to me as a "linear bass technique."  He plays
a high melody with both hands or just the left hand, and then uses the right
hand to create both bass and midrange figurations-- not just bass notes but
low range melodic passages-- resulting in an arrangement with three voices.
It's the slow piece before the theme and variations (again, I don't have the
disc handy).  I'm sure Josh himself could elaborate more, but it's a
wonderful technique for developing solo orchestrations.

Pete Rushefsky
 

>>> ro (at) panix(dot)com 02/14 10:34 AM >>>
I suspect this query will reveal me as naive and a poor listener,
but I've got a question for the master tsimblists and others.

Listening to "The Art of the Cymbalom, The Music of Joseph Moskowitz
1916-1953", I'm trying to figure out if he is playing solo or not
on many tracks.

The specific one I'm curious about right now is track 2 - Buhusher Chusid.
It sounds to me that there are either 2 cymbalom players or there
is a piano accompiament.  I hear JM playing (fast,complex,tight,
accurate) a melody with fills, and theres also a bassline being played.

Can someone with better listening skills than mine (or who just knows
more than I) tell me which of the following may be true - or some
other possibility I havn't even considered?

1. JM is not only playing the melody and ornaments with two hand
        but is also swinging the right hand back and forth to the
        bass to play bass for himself, somehow interveaving bass
        notes along with the melody notes that fit in the right
        without ever losing the feel of it?

2. JM is playing the whole melody predominantly with the left hand
        and is comping with the right?

3. JM is playing like an SOB (sonofabulgar) on that melody with
        ornaments and fills, but that bass line is coming from
        a piano player?

4. JM had 4 arms and 4 hands and thus was able to play 3 or 4 
        melodic / harmonic lines at once.

5. Les Paul is a liar and JM had invented overdubbing as of 1916.

regards

roger reid
-- 
r l reid        ro (at) panix(dot)com 


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