Re: article on Jews, jazz, etc, in Jazztimes magazine

[Mattflight <Mattflight...>]

David, and the rest of the list,
    To add to your list of comments I would like to add the inconsistent 
spelling of words. I gave away my copy for some one else to read, but if a 
list member has a copy, can you list the way that they spell   Bulgar   . 
    It is hard to get a short article to read the way that we musicians on 
the list would like it to. Many of us would like to see as many of our 
friends and interests mentioned. I thought the article overall did a good job 
of talking about the couple of people that it did, and a bad job about 
talking about everyone else. 
    Much of the "Klezmer" music that gets mentioned in mainstream Jazz 
publications (Downbeat, Jazz Times, etc.) seems to never make other musicians 
in the field satisfied that the reviewer or writer doesn't have a full 
concept of what they are reviewing or writing about. They are either given 
the story by an editor or they are introduced to a musician who tells him/her 
about a few other people. And then the writer writes about what they know, 
but they don't try to fully expand their horizons. 
    I remember the review in Downbeat of the Frank London Brass album. It was 
one of those double reviews, I can't remember what the first album was. (For 
those of you not familiar with the reviews in Downbeat, they have a couple of 
long ones, and then many short ones. This is was one of the short ones, I 
think it total it was six almost AP paragraphs.) The reviewer spent most of 
the two paragraphs devoted to the album talking about the liner notes, 
including a mention of Hijaz Mustapha and his quote. I think the review was 
more intrigued about the liner notes and how it was able to construct the 
story about the origins of the band. (My Opinion: If you don't have a copy of 
the album, not only is the music wonderful, but it is some of the most fun 
and best liner notes that I have seen in a "Klezmer" album. It isn't a Dr. 
Klez/Josh Horowitz footnoted essay, but it does have some wonderful 
historical correct but possible irrelevant information in it. This is the 
type of album that even if you don't want to play it for friends you could 
very well want to show them the liner notes.)
    I will leave you with one last thought, If you have two Jews, you have 
three opinions. It is hard to get them all voiced in one magazine 
article/journal article/ or even book. With that I bid you all a;

La' Shana Tova



Matt Temkin - Mattflight (at) aol(dot)com
    Assistant Archivist; Klezmer Conservatory Foundation
    Jewish Music Percussionist

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