David Krakauer's Klezmer Madness! @ Symphony Space NYC 4/13/02

[Spudicmikhl <Spudicmikhl...>]

        In response to Elliott Simon's question regarding the two different 
klezmer events on Saturday evening, I did go to see David Krakauer's "Klezmer 
Madness!" at Symphony Space.  It was quite an experience, enhanced by the 
presence of German Goldenshteyn, Bessarabian clarinetist.  Not that German 
performed on this gig (!), in fact he was invited by David Krakauer to come 
to the concert.  Now recently with wheels, I picked German up in Brooklyn and 
after battling two hours of traffic jams on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway 
and parking problems on the Upper West Side, we made it just in time for the 
packed concert at Symphony Space on Broadway and 95th St.  Now you're 
wondering, how was the concert?
      There was no dancing in the aisles, as is customary at many a klezmer 
event, and a lot of this might have more to do with the cerebral/creative 
nature of the music, presented in concert fashion, but it also stands to 
reason that there is the burden of events in the Middle East hanging over the 
proceedings i.e. not a good time to be dancing.  
      That said, the musicians showed not only extraordinary sensitivity 
towards David Krakauer's concept of klezmer music but much concern and skill 
in carrying out his musical ideas.  With Krakauer doubling on both clarinet 
and bass clarinet (effectively used for at least one doina), allow me a word 
about the other musicians on this "megagig." 
      First there was Mark Stewart on guitar.  Stewart has worked with such 
luminaries as Paul Simon, Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and 
showed it with one heck of an opening solo, electrifying a Bulgar in a way 
that weighed some very heavy metal on this upper west side shtetl! 
      Will Holshouser on accordion pushed the limits of that instrument 
throughout and it is always a pleasure to hear the timbres from his 
instrument that go well beyond the stereotyped usages.  Last night, I 
especially enjoyed his often autonomous contributions to Krakauer's 
improvisations once the rhythms were set, such as in the second-half 
rendition of a wedding set that included "Miserlou," replete with some very 
dissonant chordal combinations.  Holshouser has performed at the Folksbiene 
Yiddish Theater and one can sense his special pleasure with Jewish style just 
as he has already assimilated a host of other musical styles as a much 
desired free-reed freelancer in the New York area. 
       The klezmer constellation of five was given firm rhythm and bass 
sustenance by Kevin Norton on percussion and Nicki Parrott on both electric 
and string bass.  Norton pushed the limits with constant and steady 
propulsion when called for and engaged in some very fine solo work in the 
less rhythm-driven items, affirming a pedigree that includes work with the 
Klezmatics, Kapelye, Andy Statman, to Fred Ho and the Mark Dresser Quartet.  
      Nicki Parrott, a New York import from Australia, came to town in 1994 
to study jazz improvisation with Rufus Reid.  She has performed with jazz 
greats at jazz festivals virtually all around the world.  After a rocky start 
with some trouble with the amplification, she came into her own, and more 
than amply advocated David Krakauer's style of klezmer, while showing much 
personality throughout. 
      Let me continue now by quoting a slight sample from Krakauer's program 
notes for this concert, a kind of manifesto entitled: "Reflections on Being a 
Klezmer Musician:"
             "...when I write a more extended compostion, I try to keep the 
feeling of a 
             klezmer melody or ornament - but at the same time abstract that 
into a       
             singe gesture.  Or, when I write a new tune, it has to be 
danceable, yet full
             of quirky and weird aspects - in short, Klezmer Madness!"     

      Krakauer's version of klezmer with all the quirky and weird did 
manifest itself throughout the program, such as in the set entitled "TV 
Klezmer" which I heard him perform almost ten years ago with Michael Alpert 
and David Licht.  It's a pastiche of tunes from popular television shows, 
"klezmerized" to such a degree that you did have to laugh at the perhaps not 
so meshugeneh thought--as David casually ad-libed it to the audience last 
night--that a generation of Americans have grown up with a common cultural 
heritage of television tunes from "The Flintstones" to  "The Twilight Zone." 
That music is instantly identifiable by the collective strata of Americans, 
by each and every kid in us who sat in front of a television set in the 1960s 
and 70s. By the way, the people sitting in the audience for this concert were 
for the most part in their 40s and 50s and did seem to catch the sly humor of 
Americans in Ashcroft's America all united together not only by patriotism, 
but by strains of 60s television themes emanating out of the omnipresent boob 
tube. 
      The TV klezmer set was perhaps the quirkiest item last night.  The 
other highlights included a work that Krakauer wrote reflecting upon his trip 
to the city of his grandparent's origins, Lemberg as it was known in the 
Austro-Hungarian Empire, L'viv as it is known in today's Ukraine.  This cut 
was recorded on Krakauer's recently released CD "A New Hot One" for the 
French jazz label Label Bleu and was awarded a prestigious French honor, the 
"Diapason d'Or" prize.  There was also a title that Krakauer composed during 
the high holy days after 9-11 and a member of the audience came on stage to 
intone the shofar at the emotional high-point.  The dirge-like harmonies 
sounded absolutely spooky, especially fortified by Holshouser's spare and 
carefully spaced chords on the accordion. 
      Throughout the evening Krakauer alternated virtuosic pyrotechnics with 
some very heartfelt, very rich and beautiful clarinet playing, always 
strident, always full of suprises, be they harmonic or rhythmic, each phrase 
always something more than just a gloss on klezmer.  For my taste, and I do 
mean this as a compliment, Krakauer was a "metaklezmer" last night and in 
front of a New York audience that knows its basic, traditional klezmer, he 
pulled it off. Not only did he yield transformational impulses from this 
hybrid band of non-klezmer oriented musicians, but at the same time, there 
was that wonderful combination of high-powered creativity on stage while at 
the same time people could be seen tapping their feet and swaying in their 
seats. 
       David Krakauer's with his vision of klezmer as "Klezmer Madness!" 
injected an intoxicating multi-cultural sensibility to all the bulgars, 
terkishers, freylekhs and even doinas that he nurtured on stage:  in other 
words Elliot, you missed one tour de force of a show in New York City last 
night!   
      A final footnote concerning David  Krakauer's most recent release, one 
containing much of the music heard at Symphony Space last night.  The CD, 
entitled "The Twelve Tribes" will not appear in the U.S. until this fall 
(harmonia mundi usa); it  is already available in France (Label Bleu) and can 
be ordered via Amazon.fr 

Michael Spudic
Forest Hills, New York