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Klezmerfest: The Klezmer Conservatory Band
Richard McBee
Posted Feb 08 2002
You had to be there! On Sunday night, December 23 at Avery Fisher Hall, the home of the ever-so-proper and classical New York Philharmonic, they were dancing in the aisles! A mad, joyous line a hundred Jews long danced up and down the aisles to a rousing Hopkele played by the Klezmer Conservatory Band, to finish off the first half of their program. The house was almost full, with 2800 New Yorkers from all walks of life; ladies in furs with gents in fine suits rubbing shoulders with plain folks in jeans and sports shirts. Old folks and young, kippas and bareheaded, Brooklynites alongside suburbanites and Upper Westsiders, too. All it took was for the lead singer, Judy Bressler, to declare that we could all turn the Philharmonic into a Simcha Palace if we would but lift a foot a bit, and dance to the Naches Bulgar. And the audience danced and danced, as the crowd in all three balconies clapped and encouraged the dancers below. It was a rousing show and after nine, wide ranging songs, was only half over. As my fellow New Yorkers danced past me as at some rollicking wedding without a chasan and kallah, I thought, "We all need a respite from these trying times we live in, don't we?"
The 70-year-old man sitting next to me told me how he had been a fan of the Band for the last 10 years, but wished they would play even more "traditional" songs. During the next half of the performance, he wasn't disappointed, as he nudged me in approval, song after song. The Klezmer Conservatory Band, founded 22 years ago, is the largest klezmer orchestra in America. The 11-member group has performed coast-to-coast, recorded nine albums and has gone international in the last decade ? especially with the first-ever, International Yiddish Festival in Krakow, Poland. In addition, they have been featured on the soundtracks of films and television productions. Of special note was a joint recording and tour of "In The Fiddler's House," with violinist Itzhak Perlman.
In addition to concert tours, they do weddings and simchahs, too. A lady behind me said they played at her wedding 17 years ago and she has been following their careers ever since. I got the feeling that many in the audience were old time fans of these klezmerites. Hankus Netsky, the founder, director, and master of ceremonies, has klezmer in his blood. Both a grandfather and uncle were in Philadelphia klezmer orchestras in the 1920s. Between gigs, he teaches jazz and contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory in Boston. The lead singer, Judy Bressler, does most of the introductions to the songs that become both explanations and translations. Her roots are in Yiddish theater, with a family that includes Menashe Skulnick and Lucy Gehrman. Each one of the rest of the band are excellent and spirited musicians, with special mention to the blazing clarinet of Ilene Stahl, the soulful violin of Deborah Strauss, and the lilting mandolin of Jeff Warschauer.< Advertisement
Freylekh Zayn, a well-known klezmer melody with Catskills-era lyrics by Max Wilner, is a foot tapping ditty of shtetl misadventures. Bressler, with expert (and funny) voice changes and vaudeville mastery got the audience clapping along in no time. A song or two later, the mood shifted with Kale Bazetsn (Khusidl), an emotional clarinet solo by Ilene Stahl. Her mastery with the clarinet is awesome as it sings and even cries in a lament of untold woes. But in the middle of the piece, hope appears and the indomitable Jewish spirit arises to a dance of celebration, (from one instrument alone to finally shlepping along the rest of the Band) and, the clarinet, still firmly in charge, whips the audience into a hand clapping vibrant finale. While some of the songs were the kind of old time klezmer combinations of Dixieland, swing and oom-pah-pah, there were many other different takes on the klezmer art form. A Glezele Yash started as a mandolin solo and vocal by Jeff Warschauer dedicated to the Russians in the audience (a fair number, as far I could see). It was a drinking song, addressing the time-worn woes in our hearts that told us, "When I take a little drink, everything sparkles and shines..." It began as a soft, gentle Russian folk song with the violin and bass coming in to build texture and power. Then the song faded to mandolin and finally voice alone, gentle and haunting. Now it built again, horns, trumpets and drums, finally to gallop across the Russian steppes, in a rousing classic peasant dance.
Returning to the roots of the music, there was a violin and mandolin duet. Klezmer originally meant a musician who played violin. Deborah Strauss on violin and Jeff Warschauer on mandolin started a lilting song with her playing the lead line that developed into a round, bringing the audience in again with rhythmic clapping as we caught the words here and there; "A chasan is crying before the chuppah, Oy, I'm hungry! And then later he laments, Oy vey, I'm tired!" Continuing to build on the classic klezmer themes, the wedding dance of Kandel's Hora (Greek Bulgar) started with exotic drums, followed by the accordion, the violin and the passionate clarinet. In one of the most moving, strong and sensitive pieces of the evening, the music swelled into a crowd raising fast dance led by the clarinet. Her playing was so impassioned and frantic that she seemed to levitate off the stage. It became apparent that quickly on, in the evening, the crowd became possessed of the music, drinking in its spirit and deeply consoling message. In addition to being a first class klezmer band, the group has founded the Klezmer Conservatory Foundation that is dedicated to providing financial support for the collection and preservation of klezmer and Yiddish manuscripts and recordings. This type of archival and historical work is essential to the success of the current global revival of klezmer and Yiddish music. And, as a form of "practical" tikun olam, the foundation provides subsidies to needy schools, hospitals, senior citizens' groups and homes to support live Yiddish and klezmer performances, otherwise not affordable. When I walked out of that evening's performance of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, I felt somehow sustained and uplifted. The music had spoken of the joy, courage and honesty of Jewish life. The terrible attacks on our country, people and our city have not faded so quickly. And the murderous strife in Eretz Yisrael can never be far from our thoughts. And yet music can help console and nourish the soul to health and strength. I thought back to a beautiful lullaby Judy Bressler sang earlier, with solo piano accompaniment.
Shlof shoyn mayn feygele, Makh tzu dayn eygele, Shlof in zisn ru. Ah... Shlof durkh di gantze nakht, Iber dir a malekh vakht, Makh dayne eygelekh tsu, Ah... Go to sleep, my little bird, Close your eyes Sleep in sweet repose. Ah... Sleep through the whole night. An angel watches over you Close your eyes. Ah... Richard McBee is a painter of Torah subject matter and writer on Jewish Art. He is active in the American Guild of Judaic Art (jewishart.org) and the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue. Please feel free to email him with comments at mcbee@escape.com. The Klezmer Conservatory Band Hankus Netsky, Director; Judy Bressler, vocals; Ilene Stahl, clarinet; Deborah Strauss, violin; Robin Miller, flute and piccolo; Mark Berney, cornet; Hankus Ketsky, alto sax, accordion, piano; Art Bailey, piano; Jeff Warschauer, mandolin, guitar, vocals; Janes Guttmann, bass; Grant Smith, drums. The Klezmer Conservatory Band ? Ensemble The Klezmer Conservatory Band ? Ilene Stahl, clarinet The Klezmer Conservatory Band ? Hankus Netsky, Director. Klezmer Fiddler by Marc Chagall (1920); The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
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