This CD, by Klezical Tradition’s Adrienne Greenbaum, opens with a stunning, muscular flute doina and never stops. Covering older klezmer repertoire (although “traditional” doesn’t necessarily mean, “as recorded on early '78s” or notated by Beregovski any more). There is much of that, but ensemble member Josh Horowitz, for example, spent many years wandering Eastern Europe recording and playing with local musicians. The album also includes a vibrant medley of tunes from former-Soviet klezmer turned New York klezmer, German Goldenshteyn, as well as his rocking, driving “Rusishe Sher”. And, then, Greenbaum’s own “Dobriden” is such a perfect period processional, despite it’s recent origin.
Nor is this a neo-classical snob’s album. The album closer, “Gelebt und Gelakht,” for instance, gives everyone a chance to stretch a bit, but the thrilling flute runs that carry the piece are simply sublime. (About what you’d expect from a tune recorded by Naftule Brandwein!). Along with Greenbaum, we get a chance to hear Josh Horowitz accompany on the tsimbl, and Cookie Segelstein on violin, and get a sense of how klezmer might have sounded, at its best, 100 or 200 years ago, before klezmer horns, before Americanized klezmer, before the clarinet became the main solo instrument. It’s classical klezmer, if you will.
It’s classical klezmer featuring a variety of vintage flutes for the perfect period sound. But this is also classical music grounded in dance tradition. Playing the older wooden flutes makes a difference. This music swings. It also has power. And yet, it is also very modern. It blows my mind to the possibilities of klezmer the way Andy Statman and Zev Feldman’s groundbreaking “Jewish Klezmer Music” of 20 years ago made me first excited about klezmer. (Would the fact that bassist Marty Confurious played on that recording, and on this one, suggest that this is not coincidence?)
What is certain is that this album makes clear how good a flute can make klezmer sound, and how perfectly it works with tsimbl and bass and fidl. Mostly, though, this is Greenbaum’s album. Her flute playing is inspired. It rocks. Even on the most intricate, quiet, classical passages, this is the sort of playing that makes clear how much of a difference amazing musicianship makes. This is amazing musicianship. This is the sort of album that defines a sound and a standard, the way that Alicia Svigal’s “Fidl” defined klezmer fiddle for many, years ago, and this is accomplished by going far back to klezmer’s pre-American roots. The CD also includes some nice notes about the history of the flute, and the klezmer flute. What an amazing, profoundly essential CD! What a beautiful, wonderful, gift. This CD is instantly part of my “essential klezmer” collection.
Great record–I’d recommend it. She doesn’t play any simple-system flutes on it; they’re all Boehm or modified Boehm-style instruments, and all are wood. Most are from the 19th c., but she also uses a recent wood Powell on a track or two.
I love klezmer music.
I am from Israel and my family descends from central-eastern Europe, which means I was kinda breast fed on klezmer music.
It is quite amazing how this music have survived. most of it was destroyed in the holocaust, but kept alive by jewish immigrants in north America.
I love the similarities between klezmer and ITM.
the basic Kleamer group consists of a fiddle, a clarinet and a tambourine, much like your basic ITM group (flute/whistle and bodhran instead of clarinet and tambourin).
However it is true to say that klezmer music can hardly be played with simple systems, due to oriental/gipsy motifs (chromatic and sometime 1/4 toned).
I liked the sound clips from the CD, the flute (fleyt) makes it sound amazingly Irish. I also like the Yiddish song titles.
I hope this ensamble will perform on the next klezmer festival here in Israel.
Now I’m excavating ol;d piles of papers, looking for repertoire from Twisted Shiksa, a Klezmer band I was in in school. The flautist played a silver flute, me on Bb and Turkish clarinet, a fiddle, an accordion, a percussionist, and a helicon tuba.
If the transcriptions are to be found, I can justify a keyed flute!
Hi everyone -
Many thanks for bringing up klezmer and my CD “FleytMuzik”
The person who said that I was playing wood Boehms - vintage and modern - was absolutely right and, at that point in my playing, I hadn’t yet begun to perform much on the simple system flutes. Now I can and it IS lots harder. Lots. I have to keep at it because that was the flute pretty much in use by the klezmer musicians of the late 19th/early 20th c. flutist. There are 4 known solo recordings of early klezmer flute playing, all recorded around 1910-1915 or so. Amazing technique. So, even with our modes in klezmer they were able to play extremely well. Yes, you can tell that there were a few choices made to sort of gloss over an F natural, for instance, and slip in an F# instead if the passage was fast enough. But still, the high note passages on these flutes (from the photos, we’re really talking about the full range of keys on the simple system, 10-13 keys) are amazingly fast and clean.
I also agree with the poster who said Irish Trad and Klezmer are so similar in feel and purpose. And I too wish I were invited to perform in Israel, for a festival. I have been just invited - but to play in a wedding…not quite the same…
Anyway, playing at least 1/2 of my next CD - whenever that is to be - will be on the simple system.
Promise
This is such exciting music, makes me want to try some. Are there any sources on the web to find dot music for Klezmer, in form of abc or midi or some other format, to help my learning?
What is you preferred simple system flute to play Klezmer? Is the extra hard work required due to the simple system keywork in general, or due to particular ergonomics of particular keys?
Klezmer music doesn’t grab me at all I’m afraid, I find it boring, repetitive, and sentimental. However Adrianne can certainly play the flute so I wish her well.
On one List that I subscribe to someone mentioned a site with dot or abc format for klezmer - but I didn’t save the page as I do it in Finale. (For those of you thinking “Mmmm, she should try Sibelius for transcribing” I have a slow learning curve for computer programs so I have to stick with Finale now that I can do a whole page in about 20 minutes. Maybe next life.
The difficulty for me in playing klezmer on the simple system flute sort of two-fold and only one reason should qualify, really: I’m not even 10% as facile on the fingerings as I am with Boehm, which I’ve played classically and the hardest of repertoire for too many years to say. So it’s greatly my own inabilities at this point. In D minor (or another mode, called mishaberach) , for instance, in order to play quickly going from F to D, I would need to either use the forked baroque fingering or the long F. Most of my flutes have the long F too far away for comfort so I “cheat” and use the baroque F for that combination going to D quickly. Sigh. But I can sort of get away with it because my German holes are smaller than the English flutes’. Also, the 3rd octave notes have taken me a long time to play quickly and I’m still finding better and better fingerings. Problem is, some fingerings only work on some flutes. But in general, our modes demand more difficult, less diatonic, passages than Irish trad, yet we have those examples of klezmer flutists that really could play all the combinations flawlessly. So I have to believe I’ll get there some day. I’ve mastered a few large pieces but not comfortable enough to simply take ANY piece and play it well.
Okay, I’ve babbled on enough!
If-I-weren’t-playing-klezmer-I’d be-playing-Irish-Adrianne
