Re: Jewish/Irish music

[GAronoff <GAronoff...>]

A few years back I wrote an article for the Washington Jewish Week and 
Jewishfamily.com on Irish-Jewish musical collaboration.  It featured Andy 
Statman, De Dannan, The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band and Whirligig.  
I've included a copy of the article below.

The newest band that I'm aware of to work with Jewish and Irish material is 
the Carlebach Chevra jam band SoulFarm who played a half dozen or more 
excellent Celtic tunes in their show at last years' District of Colombia JCC 
Music Festival.

Gideon
IRISH-JEWISH CONNECTIONS - A ST. PATRICK'S DAY FEATURE
By:  Gideon Aronoff 
********************************************
Medieval Irish chronicles record that the Jews and the Irish share a common 
ancestor in Noah and even met during biblical times. The Leabhar Gabhala, 
written between the 10th and 12th centuries B.C.E., tells of Gaedel, ancient 
ancestor of the Irish, who was bitten by a snake when residing in Egypt.  
Seeking help, Gaedel went to Moses who not only cured the snakebite, but also 
offered to take him and his people to the promised land of Israel.  While 
Gaedel declined this offer, he led his people on a parallel exodus, 
ultimately conquering and settling Ireland, their promised land. 

Mark Scowcroft, an Associate Professor of English at the Catholic University 
of America, has written widely on the Leabhar Gabhala ("Invasion Book" in Old 
Irish).  Professor Scowcroft will be the featured speaker at a St. Patrick's 
Day program "Common Ground -- The Irish: A Lost Tribe of Israel?" to be held 
at the District of Columbia Jewish Community Center on Wednesday, March 17, 
at 7:30 p.m. According to Professor Scowcroft, the Leabhar Gabhala is crucial 
to Irish culture because the text's Christian authors needed to give their 
people a creation story free of pagan mythology.  "While it is invented 
history, it was important to link Irish history to that of the bible," 
Professor Scowcroft reflects.

Much more recently than the days of the Leabhar Gabhala, and more firmly 
grounded in historical truth, Jewish and Irish folk musicians have 
collaborated for many years. One of the most successful of these encounters 
has been the work of Klezmer Revival pioneer Andy Statman with traditional 
Irish fiddler Frankie Gavin and his band De Dannan.  Their common record 
label originally brought Mr. Statman, a Klezmer clarinet and mandolin 
virtuoso, and De Dannan together in the early 1980s for what Mr. Statman says 
was a very natural musical experience.  

The strong partnership that developed between Mr. Statman and Mr. Gavin led 
to numerous joint concert appearances of Irish and Klezmer music.  De Dannan 
recorded several Klezmer instrumentals learned from Mr. Statman including his 
signature tune 'The Flatbush Waltz,' their version of which Mr. Statman says 
is played when Irish Airlines planes land in Shannon, Ireland.  De Dannan's 
Irish style Klezmer pieces appear on their albums "Ballroom" and "1/2 Set In 
Harlem," both released by Green Linnet Records.

"De Dannan are master musicians," Mr. Statman asserts, but he still voices 
concern over fusion of the musical styles.  "Each music has its own 
particular essence, so it is easy for it to become a novelty that loses the 
depth of both traditions.  You really must know what you are doing."

While Mr. Statman is quick to point out that he is not an Irish musician, 
Jewish fiddle player Lisa Gutkin fully embraces this musical identity.  Ms. 
Gutkin, a prominent performer of her local New York-style of Irish music, 
says that she began playing Irish music in the early 1980s, and now it is 
nearly the only music she performs.  Ms. Gutkin leads the traditional Irish 
band An Cre and the Celtic-World Music group Whirligig, whose debut CD, "The 
Wheel," was released by Quarktet.

"Many of my fans are intrigued by my being Jewish," Ms. Gutkin observes.  
Though her identity has not hurt her career, Ms. Gutkin adds that "no one 
would ever refer to someone as being a Catholic or Protestant musician, but 
I'm always being introduced as 'the Jewish fiddle player.' "

Throughout her career, however, one of the most severe critics of her choice 
of Irish music has been Ms. Gutkin's grandfather who would ask why she didn't 
play her own Jewish music.  Recently, she has taken steps in this direction, 
serving as substitute fiddle player in the avant-garde Klezmer band the 
Klezmatics, where she says she learned that "not all Klezmer is schmaltzy and 
overstated."

As for fusion between Klezmer and Irish music, Ms. Gutkin's views echo those 
of Mr. Statman.  "The subtle differences are what make the musical styles so 
interesting, so it's important not to cloud over these differences.  Fusion 
can be thrilling, but you shouldn't say something is straight Klezmer and 
then add ornamentation from Irish music," Ms. Gutkin added.

With backgrounds in Irish and American folk music, and a passion for Klezmer, 
Sacramento California's Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band seems to have 
accepted this challenge, and has produced music that melds Jewish and Irish 
sounds into a diverse and pleasing mix.  On their debut recording, "The 
Flower of Berezin," released last December, the Freilachmakers appear 
respectful of tradition while allowing themselves the freedom to create a new 
modern American style of Klezmer.

Their CD features many familiar Klezmer tunes, like "The Odessa Bulgar," 
"Leibedik un Freilach" and "Der Heyser Bulgar," played with a folksy yet 
hard-edged sound driven by Lou Ann Weiss' string bass and Andy Rubin's 
clawhammer style banjo, a staple of traditional Appalachian music.  Over 
these propulsive rhythms, the banjo, Dave Kidd's fiddle, David Rosenfeld's 
guitar, and Elaine Fingerett's accordion trade hot licks from Jewish and 
non-Jewish musical sources.  "The Flower of Berezin" also features elegant 
performances of two classic Yiddish songs - Hirsh Glik's song of the Jewish 
partisans, "Shtil di Nacht," and Herman Yablokoff's tale of an orphan forced 
to sell cigarettes on the street, "Papirosn."

While much of the CD remains close to the Jewish tradition, the influence of 
Irish and the related Appalachian music, is a constant counterpoint to the 
Klezmer style.  "Fusion just happens," Mr. Rubin notes.  "Musicians bring 
their own experiences to the music and so, as a clawhammer banjo player, I 
bring the emotional undertones of Appalachia."  

One fascinating example of this fusion is the segue from "Papirosn" into the 
American dance tune "Ragtime Annie," an upbeat reply to the somber tone of 
Yablokoff's song.  But the most blatant attempts at melding styles on the CD 
are the two original tunes written by Mr. Rubin in memory of his 
grandparents, immigrants from Belarus.  In "The Flower of Berezin" and "The 
Minsker Corporal's Waltz" Mr. Rubin starts with traditional Irish tunes, "The 
Flowers of Antrim" and "Rosin the Beau," and then reworks the music using 
Klezmer stylings and ornamentation.  The result is clear fusion - not Irish 
anymore and not completely Klezmer - but ultimately moving and emotionally 
compelling expressions of an American Jewish artist.  

So, as in the days of Moses and Gaedel, meaningful contacts continue between 
Jewish and Irish culture.  Mr. Kidd, who says he is committed to the study of 
traditional Klezmer and is working to remove the Irish ornamentations in his 
fiddle playing, observes that the Freilachmakers' Klezmer fusion, like the 
Jewish music played by De Dannan, is extremely popular with Irish music fans 
and so opens up Klezmer music to a new audience.   He underscores the 
importance of this relationship by admitting that several of the classic 
Klezmer tunes in the Freilachmakers' repertoire were not learned directly 
from Jewish sources, but from recordings by De Dannan.

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