An odyssey of new klezmer recordings
by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., December 2000) - Last month we reviewed a host of new Jewish music recordings that took the broad view of the terrain, from the world-beat of "A Jewish Odyssey" to the Jewish jazz of Satlah to the gospel-Jewish fusion of David Chevan and Warren Byrd. This month we focus on klezmer, currently the most popular style of Jewish-based music.

For two decades, the Klezmer Conservatory Band (which will perform at Williams College on Jan. 14) has been in the forefront of the klezmer revival. Having established its reputation on the basis of its swinging, big-band numbers and Yiddish theater tunes, the group has in recent years metamorphosed into a more versatile ensemble, so that its repertoire now includes small combo numbers that allow the band to take full advantage of the musicians' individual talents as well as expanding its approach, as musicians break off into duos and trios for more of an Old World feel. Thus, on the group's latest album, "Dance Me to the End of Love," flutist Robin Miller takes a solo turn on an improvisational version of the standard, "Taxim," accompanied only by piano. Jeff Warschauer, the most innovative guitarist and mandolinist working in mainstream klezmer and Jewish music, takes the lead on the "Hora/Moskowitz Medley," in which his mandolin plays the lead role that formerly belonged to clarinet and cymbalom. Cornetist Mark Berney conjures up Benny Goodman trumpeter Ziggy Elman on a rendition of the latter's "Bublitchki," while violinist Deborah Strauss brings out the cantorial essence of "Dem Rebn's Nign." And the group's arrangement of the title track brings out the Yiddish art song lurking inside the Leonard Cohen staple.

Other new klezmer albums include "Mosaic Persuasion," a collaboration between New York's Metropolitan Klezmer and its all-female offshoot, Isle of Klezbos. The album ranges from dignified, small ensemble, Old World-style horas to jazzy, frenetic, big-band style tunes. The playing as always is top-notch, particularly Steve Elson's clarinet, Pam Fleming's trumpet and Eve Sicular's drums. The group subtly twists some tunes rhythmically and contextually, and Deborah Karpel's vocals boast a natural allure so hot it ought to be licensed, taxed and regulated. Of particular seasonal note, the album includes "East(ern) Village Hanuka," a Turkish-flavored reworking of the holiday classic, "Oh Hanukah!" Boston's Klezperanto, an offshoot of the Klezmer Conservatory Band led by clarinetist Ilene Stahl, juices klezmer with a variety of other influences.

Typical of its approach, the sextet powers the classic "Khsidim Tanz" with a Bo Diddley beat, turning it into "Diddley Shmiddley," and the dizzying, genre-busting tune alternately touches down in funk, Cajun, zydeco and bluegrass territory. Their funky version of "Skotchne" quotes Bob Marley, and "Rushin' Sher" is a giddy, shameless fusion of klezmer and Dixieland. Other Klezperanto numbers fuse Latin, Brazilian, Greek, Gypsy, New Orleans, and ska with klezmer, before the disk concludes with a klezmerized rendition of Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia" that will have you wondering how it could have ever been played any other way. Many of the tunes are open-ended and allow for solo improvisation, and the talented members of Klezperanto, including accordionist Evan Harlan, trombonist Mark Hamilton and drummer Grant Smith, are some of the few who can really pull off this sort of thing with conviction, authority and integrity.

In a related vein is "We Used to Dance" (Yamuna), the newest recording from flutist/composer Abby Rabinovitz, whose Boston-based ensemble includes a few members of Klezperanto and others from the KCB. While this album is not a klezmer album per se, it is a world-beat (particularly Indian and Brazilian) folk album that is very much tied together by klezmer, and of course, by Rabinovitz's lead flute, which in her able hands is a versatile instrument:
evoking alternately an Indian bamboo flute, a klezmer clarinet, western classical music and Dave Brubeck-style world-jazz. Sixty-six straight minutes of clarinet and accordion music of any kind, be it klezmer or otherwise, is a tough row to hoe, but accordionist Sanne Moricke and clarinetist Christian Dawid of the German duo Khupe pull it off on "Mit der Kale tantsn" (Yellowjacket), a live recording featuring the duo's dynamic arrangements of traditional klezmer dances and listening tunes by Dave Tarras, Naftule Brandwein and other immigrant-era musicians. In addition to the surprising range and array of sonorities and strategies they employ to keep the program varied, Khupe avoids the most obvious of the classic repertoire, and the musicians remain respectful of the tradition while expressing themselves through the music of the Hasidim and Jews of Eastern Europe. A particular standout is the doina-based introduction to "Yismekhu," which opens with a stark, pipe-like drone by Moricke, answered by Dawid's delicate, almost fearful clarinet.

The Cracow Klezmer Band, a non-Jewish quartet from Poland, writes original music in the style of klezmer as well as arranging classic tunes on "De Profundis" (Tzadik). Violin and accordion duke it out for primacy in the acoustic group's arrangements, which are appropriately modern, aptly minimalist and which also nod to Gypsy, tango and other genres that influenced klezmer. Over the course of the album the music gets progressively more experimental; this is some of the most exhilarating chamber klezmer this side of Brave Old World.

When trumpeter/composer Frank London isn't busy with the Klezmatics (which will perform at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown on Feb. 17) or Hasidic New Wave, he has various other projects to attend to. For London, the house band in the Garden of Eden is stacked with brass, lots of brass: trumpets, trombones, tubas, percussion, and maybe, just maybe, one clarinet for good measure. And it's always a party there, too.

Hence, Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars and the new album, "Di Shikere Kapelye (the Band of Drunks)" (Piranha). For this album, a tribute to the alleged shikkers (drunks) of yore, London assembled a superstar ensemble of brass players from the world's top klezmer bands, including members of the Klezmatics, Brave Old World, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Naftule's Dream and KlezMs. The songs are brassy, blowsy, boozy, marching-band versions of traditional tunes, whose wit, sophistication and instrumental byplay belies their allegedly booze-fueled origins.

London has also just released "Invocations" (Tzadik). Recorded live in the Community Synagogue in the heart of New York's Lower East Side, the album features London's gorgeous, impassioned trumpet versions of classic khazones, or cantorial melodies. In a sense, London's trumpet becomes the voice of the cantor. And like the great cantors of old - the Rosenblatts, Sirotas and Kamiols - London combines operatic virtuosity with deep, soulful passion: you can hear him singing through his instrument to, and about, G-d.

London's subtle accompanists include Anthony Coleman, Myra Melford, Ken Filiano and Gina Leishman, but this is London's record all the way, as welcome as much for the beauty invested in the material as it is for the opportunity it provides for listeners just to revel in the beauty of London's trumpet-playing, which hasn't received the mainstream acclaim it wholeheartedly deserves. Fans of trumpet: consider yourselves warned. And speaking as the grandson of a cantor who sang in the style evoked by London, I can't think of a more fitting tribute to that style, which is perilously close to being lost to time and memory.

The New Klezmer Trio was one of the pioneers of avant-klezmer in the early-'90s. "Short for Something" (Tzadik) marks a much-welcome return to the fold from the group, which has been on hiatus since 1995's "Melt Zonk Rewire." The music on the trio's new album is slightly more lyrical than its previous efforts, but the group has lost none of its inventive, experimental edge. If anything its abstract approach to form, rhythm and melody has crystallized. Ben Goldberg is one of the most expressive, inventive clarinetists in klezmer (and jazz, for that matter), and with bandmates Dan Seamans on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums they are an unflappable crew, playing with great wit ("Obsessive") and delicacy ("All Chords Stand for Other Chords").

As for Chanukah music proper, "Shine Little Candles: Chanukah Songs for Children" (Rounder Kids) is the latest in a series of holiday-themed albums by Rachel Buchman. Containing traditional songs in English, Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino, it is geared to families with young children. Its warm, folk-style all-family choral arrangements and lyric sheets make it an ideal teaching tool for the holiday blessings, hymns, lore and folk songs.

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