Greenman and Ruchefsky - I mean, Fedoriouk

[r l reid <ro...>]

It was small but intense.  Those few of us who were there couldn't 
believe how many folks were missing it.

I did hear from one stalwart from South Orange who turned back on seeing the 
one hour backup to get in the tunnel.  And it was the first really nice 
day in a long time.  But still...

Sunday afternoon at Tonic 107 in the Lower East Side was scheduled to have 
Steven Greenman - who most folks here know is a violin player of exquisite 
talent and sensitivity - and Pete Rushefsky, one of the greatest of 
the "second generation revivalist" tsimbl players.

Sadly, Pete's grandfather passed away and he was at the funeral.  But in a 
bit of luck, Alexander Fedoriouk was in town, with cymbalom (the Hungarian 
big sister of the tsimbl).

Now, Alex is not specifically a klezmer player.  In fact, for him it was 
Easter, being on the Orthodox (Christian) calendar.   What he is though is a 
great player whose whirling hands have a LOT to say.

So there we were, five of us in the audience.  Four of us were over the 
age of  ba[rt] mitzvah.  I had heard Alex's recordings before but never 
met him or heard him in person.

Steven set some sheets in from of Alex, explained the situation, explained 
that they'd had about 10 minutes time to work together before the show, 
and that there'd be more of a Moldavian and Gypsy aspect to the program 
as a result.

What followed was an hour of fine music, ranging from all over the 
villages of south eastern Europe.  What surprised me most was that 
much of what was being played were compositions of Steven's, which 
strike you as "a great old tune you've never heard before" - including a 
deliciously beautiful "heart yearning niggun" that he composed in 
Lubavitch style.  

After an intermission, in which 3 of the 5 left, they were ready to play 
again when our number was suddenly swelled by Zev Feldman, Josh Waletzky, 
and a couple other folks who could just as well been on the stage as off.

Besides me, the only other attendee who got both shows was a young woman 
who, if I overheard right, has done some modern dance on a few selections 
from the Khevirsa CD.  With Zev and a friend there now, naturally Steven 
and Alexander played out some freylachs and horas, and dance class was 
in session.

The shame of it all is that so many people who could have gotten so much, 
missed it.  I'm also a little embarrassed, since these guys are from out of 
town, that they schlepped all the way there for so few of us - come on, 
you'd think in NYC we could do better.

I pointed out to the management of Tonic that what the audience lacked in 
quantity it made up for in quality.  Also an intimacy - Steven was 
explaining the setup of his "playing on the second string" fiddle (the 
A string is moved much closer to the E string and tuned down to an E an 
octave below, and the two strings are played as one - if you hear it you 
instantly recognize that sound from certain tracks on Khevrisa) and 
because of the smallness of the group I could just walk right up and 
look at it.

For me as an amateur tsimbler, it was thrilling to see Fedoriouk at work.  
In Jewish tsimbl, there's not a huge value placed on speed and virtuosity.  
But those are two of the many aspects of Fedoriouk's talent.  Usually you 
can watch a tsimbl players hands.  In his case, there come points where it's 
like a movie -- you cannot distinguish anything but you see a blur that 
looks like his hands are occupying many spaces at once.  Of course it's not 
just speed - the choice of what to play when, while it might not satisfy the 
Klezmer Police, was delightful, dynamic, always pushing the tune onward.

I also marveled at how relaxed he was, physically.  Motion with phrases was 
confined to tiny motions of the hands and wrists - with a slight lift at the 
elbow between phrases.  Shoulder down, not up around his ears in a mass of 
tension like when I play.

It was a great afternoon for the few who were there.

roger reid

-- 
r l reid        ro (at) rreid(dot)net


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