Re: Old/New World klezmer

[Seth Austen <klezmusic...>]

on 9/10/03 6:20 PM, George Robinson at grcomm (at) concentric(dot)net wrote:

> And now for something completely different, a question about Jewish music.

Chiming in late to this wonderful topic, I've been gigging.

Like a number of my fellow klezmorim, I came to this music from years of
playing Celtic, contradance, Appalachian string band music, Piedmont and
delta blues and other styles on acoustic string instruments; guitar,
mandolin and fiddle. I am still quite active in these other styles, and am
just as passionate about playing them as playing klezmer.

The first klezmer album I bought in the late 70s was Zev and Andy, and I was
hooked. I bought other recordings as I could find them. While I enjoyed the
work of the larger bands of that time, and could certainly appreciate the
musicianship, etc., I didn't relate to it the way I had to the sound of the
smaller ensembles. About 10 years later, while visiting NYC, I happened to
attend a concert of violinist Leon Schwartz, accompanied by bass and
violins. As soon as I heard him play, I knew that I'd found the "old world"
sound, and that was the klezmer style that I wanted to hear and play.

For most of my musical life, I have played in smaller ensembles, most often
in duos and rarely anything larger than a quintet. Partially because of
playing quieter instruments such as mandolin or fingerstyle guitar, but also
because my musical tastes just lean that way. This goes for all the other
styles of music I play; I relate more to solo acoustic blues than electric
bands, I'd rather hear Celtic music played by 2 or 3 acoustic instruments
than Riverdance style with synthesizers, electric guitars and drums. So it's
perfectly natural that my tastes in klezmer music lean that way as well.

One other reason I think I gravitated to "old world" klezmer, more often
than not I've played in ensembles including hammered dulcimer players, so
when I heard tsimbl, my ears were already attuned to having (and wanting)
that similar kind of texture in my band.

Seth

-- 
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email: seth (at) sethausten(dot)com

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+