what, no klezmer?

[Seth Rogovoy <rogovoy...>]

I just got a brochure from a wonderful world music series in and around
Boston and Cambridge, Mass. "World Music Winter Spring 2002." The series
includes African artists (Baaba Maal, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Kania
Kouyate), Flamenco, Asian (Shaolin Warriors, Ghazal, Gyoto Monks, Anoushka
Shankar), Irish (Celtic Fiddle Festival, Mary Black, Altan, Solas, Mary
BLack), Central/Eastern European (Muzsikas with Marta Sebestyen) , Cape
Breton (Natalie MacMaster), Armenian (Richard Hagopian), American roots
(Darol Anger, Michael Doucet, Richard Shindell).

It even has one concert of Jewish music, featuring  Moroccan cantor/vocalist
Emil Zrihan (APril 25, Somerville Theatre), which is great news. I've heard
wonderful things about him, and it's about time Sephardic music got some
play.

What surprises me is that there isn't one single klezmer or Yiddish concert
on this bill.

Clearly the Klezmatics, Brave Old World, Andy Statman, KCB, Masada, Flying
Bulgars, or one of the top European groups -- Di Naye Kapelye, say, or
Cracow Klezmer Ensemble -- or one of the neo-traditional groups, Budowitz or
Khevrisa, or Mikveh, especially Mikveh!, would fit quite nicely into this
series., promoted by an organization called World Music
(www.worldmusic.org).

What does it say or suggest that Yiddish music didn't make the cut? Is it
merely that the groups I've mentioned aren't doing much or any touring this
winter and spring, or that they're all in-between projects?

--Seth Rogovoy


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