 The Ethnic Clarinet
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-12-18 10:05
The only Klezmer clarinetist whose music I know quite well is Giora Feidman. I recognize his skill, but I'm not all that keen on the sound. Can anyone tell me where he stands among Klezmer players and give me some advice about other players I could listen to in order to broaden my knowledge?.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2000-12-19 04:45
I would say that his sound is definitely unlike a traditional klezmer sound, even though he can do all the "krekhs", etc. You can (at least I think I can) hear the classical musician in his klezmer playing, i.e., his precision. But that is not meant to be a knock on him, like saying that a classical musician playing jazz can't swing. I find his sound to be incredible, distinctive, uniquely his.
You should get "ClarinetTango" if you don't already have it; it's even more phenomenal than his klezmer stuff.
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-12-19 13:17
Steve,
I did listen to Clarinet Tango and didn't care for it at all. I lived for a long time in Buenos Aires and am married to an Argentine, and I also love tango. Clarinet tango was too classical for me -- like Placido Domingo singing tangos or Jose Carrera doing the Misa Criolla. I can't take this kind of music, although I recognize the artistry. I suppose my question boils down to this (which you have partially answered): Is Feidman an authentic Klezmer player, and if not, can your suggest a few clarinetists who are. I did try playing some Feidman arrangements of Klezmer from sheet music, but I haven't a clue about interpretation.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2000-12-20 02:38
Feidman is an authentic klezmer player...in his own way. Biographical notes in his CD's allude to his lifelong love of the music. But he brings to it his background of classical clarinet.
If klezmer to you is only the style of music played by Eastern European emigres in the 20's, then you need to listen to Brandwein and Tarras, and later performers like Sid Baeckerman, and of course, Mickey Katz. And you can listen to their proteges, like Margot Leverett of the Mazeltones, whom I understand studied with Baeckerman, and Andy Statman, who studied with Tarras, I think. But if you listen to Statman, will you not wonder if he has been influenced by his own bluegrass mandolin playing? And those 1920's musicians were always going to the other clubs to listen to the black jazz musicians, and vice-versa. Cross pollenation and adaptation have always been the rule. Anyway, most of the klezmorim "assimilated" into jazz by the 30's. So the question is, are you interested in preservationist American 1920's klezmer, or in the broader area of Eastern European music identified with Ashkenazic Jewish culture, or the even broader area of Eastern European folk music identified with many other Eastern European cultures? And let us not leave out the aborted (by the communists) school of Jewish classical music in Leningrad, now revived and expanded upon by the band Brave Old World (which features Kurt Bjorling playing custom-made basset soprano clarinet in C, as well as basset horn).
My own "gig" (purely amateur) is playing in several large open orchestras for American contradancing and "old-time" (whatever that is) squares and circles, for an eclectic crowd here in the Philadelphia area where I live (it's popular all over the US, though, with other eclectic crowds). In other words, I'm playing Irish fiddle tunes, French Canadian reels, southern blue grass, etc...on clarinet (and a bit of sax). Every note I play is untraditional. Have you ever heard of the Irish saxophone? Last week, I created it. And I'm by no means the first, the only, and certainly not the best:).
I realize this was a long answer to your original questions.
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2000-12-20 02:51
For klezmer both of the tradtional and untraditional kind, go to Tara Publications, at www.jewishmusic.com. Among the traditional kind are CD's by The Mazeltones, The Klezmatics, and my favorite group, Finjan. Finjan features two reed players, who often play soprano sax and clarinet together. But wait a minute, that's not klezmer, that's Dixieland...see what I mean?
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Author: mike
Date: 2000-12-20 05:06
Although it's important to listen to players on the scene today (Dave Krackauer, Matt Dariou etc) , I think it's more important to go back and study the originals first. Klezmer today has many more influences than it did a century ago. You wouldn't study Coltrane before Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young right? Go all the way back and check out Naftule Brandwein, Dave Tarras, Abe Scwartz etc... After these guys start to make sense, then check out the latest
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Author: beejay
Date: 2000-12-20 13:12
Steve, Mike ... Many thanks for your suggestions. I'm off to the mediatheque to see what I can find. What kind of mouthpiece and reed do you recommend to play Klezmer? I use a Charles Bay MP and Van Doren 3 for classical stuff, and an Otto Link and Van Doren 21/2 for jazz, since it allows me to "bend" the notes a bit.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2000-12-20 22:35
I had the opportunity to listen to some Russian 78s from around 1920 or so of Belfeh, a Russian Jew who played klezmer quite differently than today's klezmer musicians. A lot less pyrotechnic - but wonderful klezmer nonetheless. Abe Galper transcribed the tunes & published them (yes, I was at Abe's house when I listened to the tunes 8^)
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Author: Riccardo Clerici
Date: 2001-02-01 07:13
Dear Mark, I read all this messages about Giora Feidman and about Klezmer music.
I just want to tell you that he always play with our crystal mouthpieces on all his instruments ( Bb, Eb and bass clarinet.).
Many regards
Riky
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2001-04-19 18:55
I love the Feidman in Jerusalem CD. What a master clarinetist! He plays bass clarinet as well on this one and it is a beautiful piece of orchestration.
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Author: Mike Blinn
Date: 2004-07-24 03:04
I highly recommend GERSWIN & THE KLEZMER, recorded in 1990. This album is so good, I'm afraid of over-playing it. I defy anyone to listen to Giora's version of SWANEE and not be moved. He truly sings through the clarinet, and laughs as well.
Mike Blinn
P.S. I will get the Jerusalem album and perhaps Clarinet Tango.
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Author: Gardini
Date: 2004-08-11 00:19
I prefer Margot Leverett's tone to Feidman's, but his bass clarinet work is truly amazing. Kurt Bjorling played at our Folk Festival a few years ago, his performance was the most inspired live musical performance that I have ever witnessed. He ended up in tears hugging his band - claiming that he had just gone somewhere that he had never been before and that his "brothers had been right there with him." The crowd went nuts, I was standing on my seat as was everyone in front of me.
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Author: Gardini
Date: 2004-08-12 18:55
The Alaska Folk Festival in 1996. The Festival is 30 years old and runs every April. It is a great festival for musicians - at least 300 musicians come to our small town and there is music all over town around the clock for a week. Brave Old World was the special guest/artists for 1996. They played a standard road gig on their first night (Thurs.). Then after a few days of workshops and fun, (fishing , glacier air flights, etc. ) they played a dance with over 900 people. The band leader was visibly moved with the enthusiastic audience. He had never had that many people in a circular snaking line dance. On Sunday night they played their final concert and gave it all they had. I really have never seen anything like it.
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-08-12 20:18
Yes, Brave Old World is really fantastic. They played here at The Ark (Ann Arbor, Mich) in 1998 and were really great. All four people in Brave Old World are amazing, inspired musicians. Wish I could hear them more often. Had an interesting discussion with Kurt Bjorling there about C clarinets and their problems. Kurt also played a wonderful solo on Ocarina! (is that too many superlatives?)
I also heard Kurt and Annette Bjorling play at the Ashkenaz 2002 festival in Toronto and they were really wonderful. Ashkenaz 2004 is in a couple of weeks - don't know who is playing there - also I don't have the vacation time to go.
Regards
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Author: Jazzy04
Date: 2004-11-05 23:32
Hello everyone...!
I must admit... I dont know very much about Klezmer in terms of its origins or who plays it. I do however own Giora Feidman's 'The Magic of the Klezmer' and find it one of the most awesome things in the world, and listen to it constantly. A friend gave it to me for my birthday, so I have no idea where she got it from, and she doesnt remember it either, so Im a little lost. I dont know if any of you live in Australia, and more specificall Brisbane, but on the off chance that someone does, can you give me a hint on where I would find such recordings, and for that matter to simplifying, if there are any recordings on the net. You say that Giora Feidman is not completely a Klezmer player due to his classical roots, but for him to make me fall in love with the style, thats good enough for me!!!
Thanks a bundle
Jazz
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Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2004-11-07 19:54
Your best bet for recordings will be to buy on the web, from whoever you can find that will ship to Australia. It will probably be best if you can save up and order several (4 or more) CD's at a time.
There are lots of sites that sell them - you will have to ask who ships world-wide.
From a stylistic point of view, there is no Klezmer Kodex. Just about every player has adopted a personal style. If someone says they are more authentic than anybody else, don't believe them! On this side of the pond, the biggest names in the early part of the last century were Dave Tarras and Naftule Brandwein, whose styles and personal lives could not have hardly been any more different.
An article in the New York Times in the last month or so talked about the current resurgence of Klezmer music in Germany - Without Jews! This is true here as well. University music programs, long stuffy bastions of classical style and nothing else, have taken up the band wagon of "world music" in the last decade or so. And I find this is true of other ethnic music as well. A local Bulgarian band (kaval, gudulka, tambura) is composed of Americans without any Bulgarian heritage.
Regards
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Author: Rene
Date: 2004-12-13 07:43
I just want to add, that Feidman is doing lots of things. You should listen to several of his reconrdings. He can sound like a bathroom duck if needed, and then he can have the beautifullest of all sounds. He is amazing.
There is also a new recording of him doing the Mozart concerto. People here will have different oppinions on this. I kind of love some of it. Like others I do not like his Tangos very much. It is not my music.
Rene
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Author: Steve Epstein
Date: 2004-12-14 02:41
Rene wrote:
Like others I do not like his Tangos very
> much. It is not my music.
>
> Rene
You don't like his Tangos? It's impossible not to like them!![[huh]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie11.gif)
Seriously, what is it you don't like about them? His style, or just the music itself, or what?
Steve Epstein
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Author: Rene
Date: 2004-12-16 09:08
Steve, good question.
I kind of ask that myself. I know those Tangos done on the guitar, and the ones that come with the harmonica. I was lucky to hear a life performance of Feidmann in Ingolstadt, doing them. Well, he did his best, and probably the best you can do on the clarinet, but it's just not my music.
On the other hand, some of the Klezmer really touches my heart. Can't help it.
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