Re: Klezmer article in this week's Forward

[avi finegold <afinegold...>]

> 
> (It's interesting that these questions never come up
> in the same way for jazz, perhaps because nearly the
> entire history of jazz coincides with the existence
> of recording technology. Of course there are other
> questions of 'authenticity' in jazz, but that's
> another story for another thread.)


i dont think thats true at all. the best example of
something similar in the jazz world was the ken burns
ducumentary, and the "wynton-world" that it seemed to
represent. marsalis mentions buddy bolden in the film
and (im paraphrasing here) he says something along the
lines of no known recording of buddy bolden exists,
but he sounded like this (proceeds into stream of scat
singing). now whether or not we  know how he sounded
or whether he really was a patriarch of the jazz
movement will probably never be resolved but his name
keeps floating around on lists of "authentic" early
jazz.
as well the argument for traditionalism is always kept
alive by those who feel that anything beyond the
heyday of bop is no longer jazz and we should strive
to recreate that sound regardless. remember that most
of what we have recorded in early jazz are three
minute bits of songs that ordinarily would have been
stretched out for much longer solos. so the argument
can be made that we dont really know how they played
in a real live setting. (except for these recording we
have of charlie parkers solos that this one guy
did-apparently to save recording wire he turned on his
machine right at the beginning of every solo and off
after the band resumes- but still). 

to me the fundamental question both in klez and in
jazz is, how important, other than for historical
significance, is this notion of authentic
as-it-was-played-many-years-ago tradition of where the
music was. but more where its going. neither group
ever intended its music to remain in stasis, rather
(to me at least) klezmer and jazz is and have been
fluid traditions incorporating now sounds to make the
musics more relevant and vibrant. so its all wonderful
to debate what was, but what will be seems to be the
bigger question for me.

avi



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