Wednesday, 4/9/97
Klezmer groups borrow from past, play to future
Organizers hope that Yiddish style will catch on in Los
Angeles
By Kathleen Rhames
Daily Bruin Contributor
Playing to a toe-tapping beat that celebrates centuries of
culture, Klezmer musical groups the Klezmatics and Brave Old World
are reviving Yiddish music in a whirlwind of sold-out
performances.
But there is one city they have yet to win over.
Hosted by both the UCLA Center for Performing Arts and Community
Arts Resources (CARS), the Klezmatics and Brave Old World will
share the stage April 11-12 at the Veterans Wadsworth Theater.
Klezmer festivals are scarce in Los Angeles, but CARS executive
director Aaron Paley hopes that this weekend’s performances will
create new fans.
Paley explains that in San Francisco and Miami, Klezmer
festivals have been going on for 10 to 20 years. "But this is the
first of its kind in Los Angeles," he adds. "We want people to know
that Yiddish culture is not dead and that it’s really hot
stuff."
Klezmer, the celebration music of Eastern European Jews, is a
cultural tradition that developed over two centuries. The style of
the music is based on a combination of ethnic backgrounds that
range from Romanian and Bessarabian to Gypsy and Jewish
influences.
The music is characterized by a fast rhythmic beat underlying a
plaintive, melancholy minor chord. Traditionally, Klezmer was
performed as dance music at weddings, births and even
circumcisions. It symbolized happiness and celebration to a people
who faced constant oppression.
"There weren’t that many reasons to celebrate if you were a Jew
in 19th- century Poland," Paley says. "So if there really was a
reason, people used Klezmer to dance to and relax."
Klezmer symbolized a political anthem as well, inspiring the
fight for civil rights, freedom and dignity for the Eastern
European people.
Today, groups like the Klezmatics and Brave Old World are
combining traditional Klezmer style with contemporary twists that
mix past with present. The new material mixes historical Yiddish
music with jazz and American pop culture.
"The music transcends ethnic boundaries," Paley says. "It’s like
going to Eastern Europe to hear a Klezmer concert and walking out
onto 42nd Street. These groups aren’t just dusting off something
from the historical archives and saying, ‘Look how authentic this
is.’ They’re saying, ‘Look what we’ve done with this music and see
how it has relevance today.’"
One feature of this contemporary Klezmer is the Doina, a
jazz-style solo. Very much the way a jazz musician would take a
small tune and improvise something new from it, the Klezmer
musicians expand on a particular theme and play with it in
different ways.
Paley explains that Klezmer is not traditional Jewish music one
would hear at a Jewish wedding but something entirely different and
modern. Klezmer failed to flourish in American culture because the
people often mistook it as an outdated form of music, unable to
cross ethnic boundaries.
"People thought, ‘Oh that’s so old fashioned, it’s so boring,’"
Paley says. "What they thought of as Klezmer was really a form of
Israeli music. It took a new generation of musicians to go back to
the style of those who had performed in the 1920s and ’30s to get
back to the real sound."
Ironically, "going back" is an important part of the Klezmatics’
and Brave Old World’s strategy for writing contemporary music.
The group name Brave Old World is actually based on a book
called "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, which speculated what
the future might be like.
"It’s a play on Huxley’s book in that I think it’s saying we’re
looking back, but we have a new vision of the future," Paley says.
"That’s what these two groups are about. They’re not re-creating
something from 1920 but are bringing in new influences – that’s
what’s so interesting."
Paley hopes that Los Angeles audiences will find the mystique of
Klezmer as interesting as he does this weekend. He feels confident
that the power of the music will undoubtedly speak for itself.
"If you’ve never experienced this music before, it’s an
opportunity to hear the best people perform it," Paley says. "It’s
the kind of music that’s accessible to everyone and I hope that
people will come on this journey with us."
CONCERT: UCLA Center for Performing Arts and CARS present the
Klezmatics and Brave Old World performing Klezmer music at the
Veterans Wadsworth Theater April 11-12 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25,
$22 and $9. For more information, call 825-5202.