Re: Klezmer article in this week's Forward

[Mattflight <Mattflight...>]

     But Jordan, we only know the roles of instruments because of either 
recordings, or peoples writings on the music. And if we are saying we a 
limiting ourselves to the late 1800's we also bring in laws about which 
instruments the Jews were allowed to use? So if your saying the most 
traditional style would be bands like Belf's Orchestra, but even they didn't 
always use traditional instruments. You not going to shlep a piano around 
from gig to gig, yet they use it on recordings. 
     What your saying is that traditional is about the functional that each 
instrument plays. So I could have a traditional band of electric guitar, 
sitar, and melodica if each player is recreating a functional role. So I 
don't think we can just look at roles of instruments, we also need to look at 
the timbre of the instruments. So would one put a loud instrument in a band 
of all soft instruments, or does one need other loud instruments?
     So of the four albums in Seth's article I am familiar with three of 
them. (I haven't heard Paul Brody's album.) Which of them is the most 
traditional? This is an easy question, it is Frank London's Brotherhood of 
Brass. But where does a brass band fit in the continuum of Eastern European 
Jewish Music? Brass band are loud, and wouldn't fit in with laws and 
regulations restricting Jews to soft instruments. David Krakauer and The 
Klezmatics both bring in more modern influences, but can both player in an 
older style if asked to. 
     And Roger brings this up when peoples opinions on other people and 
bands. When we think of bands and people we think of a specific sound. Even 
if that musician has multiple sounds and styles that they are able to play, 
one of them is the one that the public knows. This is an issue that affects 
all of the arts, not just music, and not just Jewish music. 
     I think what I am trying to say is that we need to add to the ways that 
we describe Klezmer music. Maybe like Gamelon music we need to add a caveat 
as to if it is in the loud style, or the soft style. If an audience has no 
idea what it is going to get when it comes to a concert billing itself as 
klezmer, how can we build audiences? How am I (as someone born after the 
Klezmer Revival began) going to be able to get my peer group to embrace the 
music the same way that older generations do?

Matt Temkin