Ultimate Klezmer Fake Book!

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

In the mail today arrived a modest new paperback from the world's
most renowned purveyor of Jewish music books, Velvel Pasternak, of
Tara Music. 

Entitled, "The Ultimate Klezmer", it purports to be "the largest
commercial collection of klezmer music yet published." Originally
titled, "International Hebrew Wedding Music," and published by
Nat Kostakowsky in Brooklyn, NY, 1916, the current edition has been
edited and introduced by Dr. Klez, himself, our own Josh Horowitz.

As a person who has not attempted to read music since giving up 
French Horn (to broad acclaim, I sadly note) upon leaving high
school, I cannot vouch that this is the perfect klezmer collection, 
or that anything in it is hummable by those who can't read music.
Myself, for instance. But the printing is clear, the notes are
large and the book will fit comfortably on a music stand. Not only
are the notes indicated, but Horowitz has done the usual annotating
of the chords so that you can follow along on guitar or whatever.

It appears to be the case that our high school saxophone player could
continue his klezkamp studies over the entire year by perusing and 
practicing from this book, without reaching the end, even were he to
memorize a piece or two a week. Or three or four. There are almost
200 pages of music here.

Josh's notes are, as is to be expected, superb and witty, albeit somewhat
brief. The collection also includes a discography--where to hear various
versions of these songs on CD, either on older recordings, or "modern"
performances by Budowitz, Khevrisa, and others.

I can't think of what else to say except the obvious: Tara Publications'
website is at http://www.taramusic.com/ Or, more specifically, 

http://www.tara.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/kzvpa01b.htm?L+taracom+yzvh7808+985767508

(if you have problems with this, type "ultimate klezmer" into the search box on 
the Tara Music site.)

Enjoy,
ari


Ari Davidow
ari (at) ivritype(dot)com
list owner, jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
the klezmer shack: http://www.klezmershack.com/

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